Graduate Student
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
I am interested in how nutrients and their bioactivity in the body relate to optimal health, disease prevention, gene expression, and human body metabolism.
Currently, I am working with Dr. John W. Erdman’s laboratory for my graduate training at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. My graduate research focuses on the effect of natural vitamin E (α-tocopherol) on brain health outcomes in vitro and in vivo. My goal is to optimize a vitamin E deficient mouse model to assess the impact of dietary vitamin E status on inflammatory and oxidative stress responses. I am currently examining the effects of vitamin E deficient status on inflammatory and oxidative stress markers in the murine heart and brain by inducing systematic and neuro-inflammatory stress with lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Additionally, we are evaluating mouse behavior in this model to determine the impact of natural αT depletion in vitamin E deficient mice. Overall, my research will contribute to identifying the effects of natural vitamin E status on oxidative stress using the effective mouse model which will have implications for cardiovascular and neurological health.