CNRC Investigator Labs

Dr Bacha’s laboratory at the Children’s Nutrition research Center (CNRC) investigates the risk factors and mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of the metabolic complications related to childhood obesity and insulin resistance with a focus on youth-onset type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease risk and subclinical atherosclerosis. 

The Translational Pediatric Nutrition laboratory led by Dr. Douglas Burrin works on basic and translational projects designed to establish how nutritional support, enteral versus parenteral, effects gut and liver function and susceptibility to disease in early neonatal infant development.

The Chacko Lab is interested in multidisciplinary approaches to determine how genetic and environmental manipulation can be used to enhance the nutritional quality of plant based foods and determine how the chemical components of foods influence our health.

The Chen Lab focuses on understanding how adipose tissue (white, brown, and beige) develops and functions under normal and pathological conditions, such as obesity, a risk factor for type II diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and cancers.

Dr. Dave's research interests: Obesity and chronic disease prevention, Food assistance programs, Behavioral nutrition, Food is Medicine, Non-medical drivers of health including food and nutrition security, Community-engaged research.

The Dzakovich Lab uses multidisciplinary approaches to determine how genetic and environmental manipulation can be used to enhance the nutritional quality of plant based foods and determine how the chemical components of foods influence our health.

The Fiorotto Lab does translational research that seeks to advance our understanding of the interactions between nutrient metabolism -primarily protein and amino acids- and striated muscle growth and development, and how these are influenced by age, environment, and disease processes. 

The Makoto Fukuda lab is focused on the understanding of how diet can have an impact on disease and health.

The Gao Lab is interested in understanding the interactions of nutrition, metabolism, and metabolic disease, particularly amino acid metabolism in cancer and obesity.

The Hughes Lab examines parental socialization of children’s eating behaviors including general and appetite regulation and their influence on the development of various child eating behaviors.

The Mohammad Lab's research interests include the effects of dietary fatty acids, development of obesity, metabolic disorders, stable isotopic tracers, gas chromatography mass spectrometry.

The Moran Lab research program seeks to understand how dietary carotenoids impact human health. Carotenoids are a class of colorful orange, red, and yellow compounds found in fruits and vegetables.

The Moreno Lab focuses on the influence of the school year and summer environment on children’s sleep and biological rhythms and the influence of these factors on the seasonal variation of children's growth and development of obesity.

The Musaad Lab's research focuses on the environmental, social and molecular determinants of chronic disorders including obesity, diabetes and other risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

The Nakata lab is interested in the nutrient partitioning in plants and its manipulation for nutritional improvements of plant foods.

The O’Connor Lab research focuses on parenting, parent-child relationships, pediatric obesity prevention, use of technology to measure behaviors.

Led by Geoffrey Preidis, M.D., the Center for Pediatric Abdominal Pain Research conducts research studies that are focused on abdominal pain in children that doesn't have a clear cause. 

The Shen Lab is interested in the epigenetic mechanisms in health and disease with a focus on transcriptional regulation by DNA methylation across development and during tumorigenesis. 

Dr. Stephanie Sisley’s lab conducts research to individualize the diagnosis and treatment of obesity and diabetes.

The Soltero Lab conducts research in the area of pediatric obesity and diabetes, physical activity, social determinants and community-based health promotion.

Dr. Thompson’s research interests: healthy nutrition, physical activity, behavior change, pediatric obesity prevention, development and evaluation of digital media interventions, qualitative research.

Dr. Wang's research interests: hypothalamic regulation of metabolic adaptations in females.

Research in the Waterland Lab aims to understand how nutrition and other environmental influences during prenatal and early postnatal development affect individual susceptibility to various diseases later in life.

The Wood Lab is interested in how gene-environment interplay changes an individual's response to the environment, with a focus on behavior.

The Wooton-Kee Lab research interests include the study of Wilson's disease, nuclear receptors, liver regeneration, and Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

The Xu Lab is interested in novel neural circuits, neurotransmitters and intra-neuronal signals that are critical for coordinated control of body weight, feeding behavior, and glucose balance.

The Zhu Lab is interested in the study of diabetes, NAFLD and NASH, gap junction, hyaluronan and adipose tissue.