Vitamin Metabolism

Mission

To study the role of B vitamins in health and age-related diseases at epidemiological, biochemical and molecular levels.

Lab Objectives

1. Determine the impact of mandatory food folic acid fortification in the United States.

2. Determine the interrelationships between B vitamin status, methionine intake, genetic polymorphism and plasma homocysteine.

3. Determine the hereditary association of plasma homocysteine and vitamin status.

4. Determine the biochemical, pathological and functional impact of nutritional and genetic disruptions of one-carbon metabolism, in animal models of age-related vascular and neurological dysfunction, with emphasis on the roles of B vitamins, homocysteine and methionine in tissue-specific susceptibility to disease.

5. To develop and validate a method for simultaneous measurement of micronutrients and biomarkers in blood samples.

Staff

Jacob Selhub, Ph.D., Laboratory Director
Senior Scientist and Professor, Nutrition
Research focus: relationship between B vitamin nutriture, homocysteine, and vascular disease

Ligi Paul, Ph.D., Scientist III
Research focus: Vitamin B12 and folate metabolism, genetic and nutritional perturbations of these pathways and their effect on methylation reactions, gene expression and disease risk

Gaofeng Bi, B.S., Research Technician

Kimia Kordestani, B.S. Graduate Research Assistant

John Lomartire, B.A., Budget and Administrative Assistant

For contact information, please click on the scientist's webpage or visit the Tufts University online directory at http://whitepages.tufts.edu/.

Vitamin Metabolism

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