She has served as a reviewer for the USDA’s small business innovation research program, the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture program, and the VA musculoskeletal/orthopedic rehabilitation program. She is a Medical and Scientific Advisory Board member of American Bone Health and an ambassador for the National Osteoporosis Foundation.

Dr. Johnson’s research program aims to integrate multiple disciplines including nutrition, food, agriculture, and biomedical sciences to perform translational research studies focused on critically examining the efficacy and mechanisms by which functional foods, namely berries, improve cardiovascular disease risk factors and modulate vascular function in high-risk aging populations.

Current work focuses on determining the clinical efficacy of functional foods, namely berries such as blueberries, in promoting cardiovascular health and attenuating age-related vascular dysfunction, and underlying mechanisms responsible for clinical efficacy and physiological effects in general.

Her research is funded through internal and external sources such as the USDA, NIH, and US Highbush Blueberry Council, and she publishes in high-quality nutrition, food, and physiology journals.

Dr. Johnson is an Associate Editor for the journals Nutrition Research and Nutrition and Healthy Aging and is an Editorial Board Member for the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, Nutrients, and the Journal of Medicinal Food. She has received honors and awards such as the Emerging Leaders Network Award from the Institute of Food Technologists, the Abbott Nutrition Award in Women's Health from the Academy, the Junior Faculty Author Award from the Research Dietetic Practice Group of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, and the Clinical Emerging Leader Award from the Medical Nutrition Council of the American Society for Nutrition.

She is actively involved in the American Society for Nutrition, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, the Institute of Food Technologists, the American Physiological Society, and the American Heart Association.

Dr. Johnson received a BS in Nutrition and Food Science/Dietetics from the University of Vermont, and an MS and PhD in Nutrition and Food Science from Florida State University, where she also completed a postdoctoral fellowship. 

Associate Professor

Department of Kinesiology & Applied Physiology

University of Delaware

Post-doc, The John B. Pierce Lab & Yale School of Medicine, 2012

Ph.D., University of Delaware, 2009

M.S., University of Delaware, 2005

B.S., West Chester University (PA), 2002

Women’s Cardiovascular Research Lab

Our research focus is on cardiovascular health in women throughout the lifespan. We study mechanisms contributing to vascular dysfunction in women as they age, and the role estrogen may play in maintaining vascular health. We also study blood pressure regulation in women to understand why the prevalence of hypertension is greater in women after menopause.

Current Research

Impact of Estrogen on Vascular Function in Women

The purpose of this study is to learn more about blood vessel function in women. With advancing age, blood vessel function declines and cardiovascular disease risk increases. A reduction in estrogen with age may contribute to the decline in blood vessel function. We are interested in understanding how changes in estrogen can impact the mechanisms that regulate blood vessel function. We are recruiting young and postmenopausal women for this study. Women will undergo a short duration hormone intervention and have blood vessel function assessed at baseline and after 7 days of estrogen exposure. This research is being funded by the American Heart Association.

Mechanisms contributing to hypertension in postmenopausal women

The prevalence of hypertension increases in women after menopause. Data in pre-clinical animal models indicates that females may need alternate forms of therapy to lower blood pressure. One way blood pressure can be lowered is by reducing the amount of constriction of the blood vessels. Endothelin-1 is a potent vasoconstrictor that has been implicated in the development of hypertension. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of ET-1 in contributing to hypertension in postmenopausal women, and how this substance interacts with other common constricting agents involved in hypertension. This research is funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Skeletal muscle is plastic tissue that shows a remarkable capacity for adaptation in response to altered functional demands. As a stimulus, resistance exercise induces an expansion of the myofibrillar protein pool, leading to skeletal muscle hypertrophy. Conversely, the loss of skeletal muscle loading during bed rest or limb immobilization results in the opposite adaptation – atrophy. While we have learned a great deal about how hypertrophy and atrophy are regulated, some surprisingly basic questions remain unanswered: how does muscle fibres hypertrophy, do muscle fibres increase in number with loading, and why are responses to loading programs so variable? Many similar basic questions concerning muscle atrophy also remain. When moved to clinical practice, the number of key questions is exponentially greater, yet we have learned much from the ‘gym’ that we can apply in clinical populations. The largest population that could stand to benefit from resistance training are older persons. In combatting age-related sarcopenia, there can be no doubt that resistance training is critical behaviour. In this talk, I will show how in-gym observations have galvanized lab-based investigations, leading to promising therapeutics in many clinical scenarios. 

The overarching goal of his work is to better understand the basic mechanisms of blood pressure and blood flow regulation, and to find novel ways to improve cardiovascular and metabolic health. He has a long-standing interest in the health benefits of environmental exposure including heat therapy as novel approaches for treatment of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. Particular areas of interest for Dr. Minson include topics related to women’s health and aging. He is also interested in the physiology of athletic performance, and has worked with many professional sports teams, Olympic athletes, collegiate and age-group competitive athletes in the U.S. and around the world.

Dr. Minson graduated with a B.S. degree in Psychology from the University of Arizona in 1989. In 1993, he received his master’s degree in Exercise Science from San Diego State University. He then went to The Pennsylvania State University where he graduated with a Ph.D. in Exercise Science. He subsequently trained as a post-doctoral fellow at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota in the Department of Anesthesiology. He has received research awards from the American Physiological Society and the American College of Sports Medicine, Mentor Awards from the Medical Research Foundation of Oregon and the University of Oregon and was a recipient of a University of Oregon Faculty Excellence Award.

Dr. Minson is Director of the Human Cardiovascular Control Lab and Co-Director of the Exercise and Environmental Physiology Labs. He is also a Founder of the Bowerman Sports Science Center and serves on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Applied Physiology, Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, and Temperatureº.

Website link: https://nusc.uconn.edu/maria-luz-fernandez/ 

What physiological limits define the boundaries of human performance or our shared human potential? A century of scientific research has explored and described the physiological underpinnings defining human “limits”. Yet, every ‘impossible’ achievement re-writes the narrative defining human physiological or physical boundaries. Using the 2-hour marathon barrier as an example, this seminar will examine the application of our collective scientific knowledge at the margins of human physical capabilities. We will explore the translation of scientific research and physiological insights to remove the barriers, as opposed to simply define the ‘limits’, that constrain true human potential.

https://ncrc.appstate.edu

David Nieman is a professor in the Department of Biology, College of Arts and Sciences, at Appalachian State University, and director of the Human Performance Lab at the North Carolina Research Campus (NCRC) in Kannapolis, NC. Dr. Nieman is a pioneer in the research area of exercise and nutrition immunology, and helped establish that 1) regular moderate exercise lowers upper respiratory tract infection rates while improving immunosurveillance, 2) heavy exertion increases infection rates while causing transient changes in immune function, and 3) that carbohydrate and flavonoid ingestion by athletes attenuates exercise-induced inflammation.  Dr. Nieman’s current work is centered on investigating unique nutritional products as countermeasures to exercise- and obesity-induced immune dysfunction, inflammation, illness, and oxidative stress using a multi-omics approach.  Dr. Nieman has received more than $10.8 million in research grants and published more than 370 peer-reviewed publications in journals and books. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the sports nutrition section of the journals Nutrients and Frontiers in Nutrition, and sits on 10 journal editorial boards including Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, and the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism. Dr. Nieman’s Google Scholar h-index is 101, and his publications have been cited more than 37,000 times. He is the author of nine books on health, exercise science, and nutrition, including Nutritional Assessment (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2019, now in its 7th edition).  Dr. Nieman served as vice-president of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), president of SEACSM, and two terms as president of the International Society of Exercise and Immunology.  Dr. Nieman received the “100 Scholars Faculty Research Award” from ASU in 1997, the Montoye Scholar Award from the Southeastern American College of Sports Medicine in 2006, the ASU College of Fine and Applied Arts researcher of the year award in 2006, ACSM’s Citation Award in 2013, and represented ASU four times as the Oliver Max Gardner nominee (ASU’s highest award). He was an acrobatic gymnast and coach for 10 years, and has run 58 marathons (PR 2:37) and ultramarathons.

List of My Published Work in MyBibliography:   

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/myncbi/david.nieman.1/bibliograpahy/47649293/public/?sort=date&direction=ascending

Publications and ResearchGate Profile:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/David_Nieman