Early-Life Influences on Obesity: From Pre-Conception to Adolescence

Speakers

Organizers

John G. Kral, MD, PhD

SUNY Downstate Medical Center
Working Group Chair

With an MA in Psychology, Dr. Kral attended medical school at the University of Göteborg, Sweden, specializing in Surgery and Medicine, completing PhD studies and initiating the obesity surgery program there. In 1981 he started the Division of Surgical Metabolism, St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital, Columbia University and in 1983 co-founded the American Society for Bariatric Surgery. Dr. Kral initiated and co-organized the 1991 NIH Consensus Development Conference: “Gastrointestinal Surgery for Severe Obesity”. With studies of body composition, adipose tissue receptors and lipid and carbohydrate metabolism his current interests include ingestive behavior, determinants of metabolic obesity, effects of gestational stress on urban health, the importance of the intrauterine environment and epigenetics. He is chair of the Sackler Institute for Nutrition Science “Obesity, Diabetes and Nutrition-related diseases” working group at the New York Academy of Sciences. In 2012 The Obesity Society awarded Dr. Kral the AJ Stunkard Lifetime Achievement Award.

Michael Gibney, PhD

University College Dublin

Michael Gibney, MAgrSc, MA, PhD, is Professor of Food and Health at University College Dublin and was founding Director of the UCD Institute of Food and Health. He is a former President of the Nutrition Society. He served on the EU Scientific Committee for Food from 1985 to 1997, chairing the Nutrition Group and then chaired the BSE working group as a Member of the Scientific Steering Committee of the EU from 1997 to 2000. He is a member of the scientific advisory committee of The Sackler Institute for Nutrition Science at the New York Academy of Sciences and is a member of the Google Food Experience Innovation Laboratory at Mountain View. He has served on several WHO and FAO committees and has recently been appointed as Chair of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland. His research interests lie in personalised nutrition, in public health nutrition and in probabilistic risk analysis. He is presently the coordinator of a major EU funded (€9m) research project on personalised nutrition (www.food4me.org) and is also coordinator of a major nationally funded (€12m) project on “The National Nutrition Phenotype Database” (http://www.facebook.com/jingoproject). Professor Gibney has served on the Faculties of the University of Sydney, the University of Southampton and Trinity College Dublin. He has published over 250 peer-reviewed papers. He blogs on food and health (http://gibneyonfood.blogspot.ie) and has recently published a popular book on this topic.

Blandine Laferrère, MD

Columbia University

Blandine Laferrère, MD, is Associate Professor of Medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, Attending Physician in the Division of Endocrinology and Diabetes, and Member of the Columbia University New York Obesity Nutrition Research Center and the Diabetes Research Center. Her interest is the relation between weight changes and diabetes risk. The focus of her current research is to understand the mechanisms of improved beta cell function after surgical weight loss by gastric bypass surgery. Her laboratory has contributed to the understanding of the role of incretins as a mechanism of diabetes remission after bariatric surgery. Dr. Laferrère is a reviewer for many journals and grants agencies, including NIH. She has over 80 peer reviewed publications.

Andrew G. Swick, PhD

Metagenics, Inc.

Dr. Swick has broad experience in metabolism and nutrition research and expertise in relevant cell and animal models, clinical study design and translational research. He joined Metagenics, Inc. as Vice President of Nutritional Science in 2013 and is responsible for science and innovation across Obesity, Cardiometabolic, Digestive Health, CNS/Cognition and Foundational Health with a focus on diagnostics and novel solutions utilizing nutrients, functional foods and nutraceuticals. Prior to that he was at University of North Carolina Nutrition Research Institute and was an associate professor and Director of Obesity and Eating Disorders Research. While at UNC his two main areas of research were: 1) gut metabolism as it relates to obesity and metabolic diseases and the regulation of gut peptide release and 2) body weight and energy expenditure in humans with an emphasis on variability in energy metabolism in response to diet, exercise and nutraceuticals. Before joining the University of North Carolina, Dr. Swick was Senior Director of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases at Pfizer Global Research and Development his work was primarily in the area of metabolic diseases and obesity, focusing on the molecular mechanisms that regulate body weight and obesity-associated comorbidities with an eye on the translation of preclinical results to the clinic. Dr. Swick was responsible for the delivery of more than a dozen unique therapies to clinical development, spanning multiple mechanisms across obesity and diabetes. In addition to nearly 40 published manuscripts, and over 25 invited presentations he is an inventor on 10 granted patents. He is an elected member of several professional organizations and currently serves on the New York Academy of Sciences Overnutrition Steering Committee and the Nutrition Research Foundation Scientific Advisory Board. Dr. Swick earned a PhD in Nutritional Sciences from the University of Wisconsin, an MS in Nutrition from the University of Nebraska and a BS in Animal Science from the University of Florida. In addition, he received postdoctoral training at Johns Hopkins University Medical Center and the University of North Carolina Lineberger Cancer Research Center.

Karen Teff, PhD

National Institutes of Health

Dr. Karen Teff is the program director for bariatric surgery, gestational diabetes and hypoglycemia within the Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Previously, she was a member of the Monell Chemical Senses Center and held an adjunct position at the University of Pennsylvania where she was Director of the Clinical and Translational Research Center and Director of the translational research program within the Diabetes Research Center. Her primary area of expertise is on the neural control of glucose homeostasis in the pathophysiology of human obesity and diabetes.

Mandana Arabi, MD, PhD

Executive Director, The Sackler Institute for Nutrition Science

Dr. Arabi is a Medical Doctor with a PhD in Nutrition Sciences from Cornell University. She has worked for more than 15 years in public health nutrition, first as a nutrition technical adviser with the Ministry of Health and the World Bank in Iran, and later as a child nutrition adviser with UNICEF Headquarters in New York. She is an expert in international nutrition and has facilitated nutrition programming in more than 15 countries dealing with the double burden of over- and under-nutrition. She has been a co-author on various global guidance documents including the UNICEF Infant and Young Child Programming Guide and the WHO Indicators for Infant and Young Child Feeding. As the Founding Executive Director of The Sackler Institute for Nutrition Science at the New York Academy of Sciences, she is leading a global initiative to develop a research agenda for nutrition science, build partnerships across sectors to stimulate scientific research, and to advance implementation of the research outcomes towards better policy and program development.

Amy Beaudreault, PhD

Associate Director, The Sackler Institute for Nutrition Science

Dr. Beaudreault is the Associate Director of The Sackler Institute for Nutrition Science at the New York Academy of Sciences. In this position, she manages the day-to-day activities of the Sackler Institute, which includes facilitating Working Groups, conducting research, providing technical assistance, leading conference development, and expanding communication. Dr. Beaudreault has more than 10 years’ experience in strategic communication, quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, and program development, outreach, and evaluation. She has played an integral part in many teams and has seen research develop from proposal to publication. Dr. Beaudreault managed Ohio State University Extension agricultural and safety health programs, several U.S. Federal contracts (including contracts for the Department of Education and the Nuclear Regulatory Agency), and used her public relations background while working in the research communication department at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, OH. She holds a PhD in Agricultural Education and Extension, an MS in Agricultural Communication, and a graduate certificate in survey research from The Ohio State University. Her research can be found in such journals as the Journal of Agricultural Safety and Health, Journal of Extension, and Journal of Food Products Marketing.

Speakers

Shari Barkin, MD, MSHS

Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Dr. Shari Barkin is the William K. Warren Foundation Chair Professor of Pediatrics, Director of Pediatric Obesity Research in the Diabetes Center, and Chief of General Pediatrics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Dr. Barkin received her medical degree from the University of Cincinnati Medical College and completed a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars fellowship at UCLA. Her laboratory studies family-based community centered clinical interventions to measurably reduce pediatric obesity and in critical windows of childhood. The lab is focused on changing body mass index trajectories in childhood, applying the ecologic model that considers the child in the context of their family, and the family in the context of their community. A theme of the lab is the interaction between behavior, environment and genetics in health outcomes. This lab applies a wide variety of techniques to address these complex problems, including qualitative and quantitative methodologies. The lab considers objective biologic measurements (such as fat mass and BMI), genetic measurements (epigenetic patterns, genetic allelic risk scores), social measurements (social networks), and behavioral measurements (actigraphy and diet changes over time in both parents and children). She serves as the PI of the Growing Right Onto Wellness (GROW) Trial, a 7-year RCT to prevent childhood obesity funded by NHLBI and NICHD and part of the Childhood Obesity Prevention and Treatment Research (COPTR) Consortium. She serves on the Institute of Medicine’s Board of Children, Youth, and Families.

Mina Desai, PhD

University of California Los Angeles Medical Center

Dr. Mina Desai is an Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and Director of Perinatal Research at Los Angeles Biomedical Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. She graduated from M.S. University, India (BSc, MSc) and completed her PhD and post-doctoral fellowship at University of Cambridge, UK. Her doctoral thesis and fellowship was on early origins of metabolic syndrome with emphasis on obesity and diabetes.  Dr. Desai serves as Director of Perinatal Research of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at LABioMed at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center from 2006. She has over 90 peer reviewed publications, 300 published abstracts and numerous book chapters. Dr. Desai is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (Cambridge University Press) and a member of NIH Review Committee Study Section on Integrative Physiology of Obesity and Diabetes. She is a recognized expert in developmental programming of metabolic syndrome. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, March of Dimes, American Heart Association and American Diabetes.

Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello, PhD

New York University School of Medicine

Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello joined the NYU School of Medicine in 2012 as an Associate Professor of Medicine. She received her undergraduate degree in 1983 from Simon Bolivar University, her Masters in 1987 (Animal Nutrition) and her PhD in 1990 (Microbiology) from University of Aberdeen, Scotland. She is a member of the American Academy of Microbiology, is an IDSA fellow and is in the editorial board of several journals. She has 80 scientific papers and her current main focus is on the co-evolution of the microbiota and host, and the unprecedented ways in which modern Western lifestyle affects the microbiota. Her lab uses metagenomics, ecology, and anthropology approaches to address broad questions of how microbes and hosts interact, how babies assemble their microbiota, how modern practices impact it and how can we restore it.

Lawrence B. Finer, PhD

Guttmacher Institute

Dr. Lawrence B. Finer is the Director of Domestic Research at the Guttmacher Institute. Dr. Finer supervises the Guttmacher Institute’s research portfolio of U.S.-focused projects on pregnancy and abortion, contraceptive use, family planning services, and adolescent reproductive health. His primary research focus is unintended pregnancy at the national and state level, and he has published work on premarital sex, the reasons women seek abortions, and the services provided by U.S. family planning clinics. He is the director of the NIH-funded Guttmacher Center for Population Research Innovation and Dissemination. He also serves as a Senior Lecturer in Population and Family Health at the Columbia School of Public Health.

Stephen A. Krawetz, PhD

Wayne State University School of Medicine

Dr. Stephen A. Krawetz is the Charlotte B. Failing Professor of Fetal Therapy and Diagnosis, serving as Associate Director of the C.S. Mott Center for Human Growth and Development in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, Michigan. He is the founding Editor-in-Chief of Systems Biology in Reproductive Medicine. Dr. Krawetz has served as the Director of the WSU-Michigan Life Sciences Corridor Bioinformatics Node and was the Founding Director of the Center of Excellence: Paternal Impact of Toxicological Exposure. He received his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Toronto in 1983 and then trained with Gordon Dixon at The University of Calgary as an AHFMR postdoctoral fellow. Dr. Krawetz is well-recognized in the fields of Reproductive Genetics and Bioinformatics. Using human spermatogenesis as a model system, his primary research focus is directed towards understanding the long range genetic mechanisms that dictate cell fate. He has published over 207 articles, reviews, books and chapters detailing the regulation of gene expression by chromatin structure and the analysis and organization of the human sperm genome and its application to personalized medicine. His laboratory continues to implement and develop state-of-the-art technologies to determine how RNAs feedback to the genome to modulate the system. The spermatozoal RNAs delivered at fertilization may provide an essential component to early paternal genome reprogramming acting as genetic and epigenetic effectors.

Nancy F. Krebs, MD

University of Colorado School of Medicine

Dr. Krebs is a Professor of Pediatrics, Head of the Section of Nutrition, and Vice Chair for Academic Affairs in the Department of Pediatrics. She obtained her MS in Nutrition Science at the University of Maryland and her MD from the University of Colorado. She is board certified in General Pediatrics, Pediatric Gastroenterology, and in Clinical Nutrition. She studies the impact of nutrition and feeding on both impaired and excessive growth of infants and young children, in both U.S. and international settings. Current research investigates the influence of maternal phenotype (lean vs obese) on bioactive components of human milk; effects of complementary food choices on infant growth and body composition; effects of pre- and post-natal dietary exposures on infants’ microbiome; and potential for pre-conceptional interventions to improve fetal growth in low resource international settings, and to reduce obesity risk in offspring in the US. Her clinical work includes consultations for growth faltering and nutritional deficiencies in infants and toddlers, and she oversees a multidisciplinary program for pediatric weight management.  Her research is funding by the NIH, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and other sources, and she has published in premier Nutrition and Medical journals. 

Julie A. Mennella, PhD

Monell Chemical Senses Center

Dr. Julie A. Mennella obtained a PhD from the Department of Behavioral Sciences at The University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. She subsequently did postdoctoral work on the transfer of volatiles from maternal diet to human milk at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, PA. She joined the faculty there in 1990 where she is now a Member. Her major research interests include sensitive periods in flavor learning and growth during breastfeeding and formula feeding; the role of genetics and culture on taste sensitivity and preferences; and the effects of alcohol and tobacco use during lactation on various aspects of women’s health, lactational performance and mother-child interaction. Dr. Mennella is the recipient of grants from the National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development at the National Institutes of Health, and she is the author or co-author of research papers which have appeared in publications such as The New England Journal of Medicine, Pediatrics, Journal of Clinical Therapeutics and Pharmacology, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Nico S. Rizzo, PhD

Loma Linda University

Dr. Rizzo is an Assistant Professor at the Nutrition Department at the School of Public Health in Loma Linda and an Associate Researcher at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm. He received a PhD in Medicine from Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. His doctoral research focused on the associations between physical activity, cardio respiratory fitness and metabolic risk factors in children and adolescents. Dr. Rizzo is currently the course leader for Public Health Biology and Nutrition, Nutritional Epidemiology and Research Methods in Epidemiology at Loma Linda University. He has lectured at the Department of Bioscience and Nutrition and the Department of Medical Nutrition at Karolinska Institutet and has been a guest lecturer at the CASCADE Network of Excellency. Dr. Rizzo is the Special Interest Group Leader for Molecular Nutrition for the American Public Health Association (APHA) and responsible for the programming of the scientific sessions for the Epidemiology Section of the APHA. He has authored peer reviewed articles on physical activity, cardiorespiratory fitness and nutrition and their association with metabolic syndrome and obesity in children and adults. He is a co-investigator of the AHS 2 study at Loma Linda University and of the Skelleftea Epigenetics Project in Sweden that is investigating trans-generational effects of environmental factors on health outcomes and is funded by the Swedish Research Council. Presently he is integrating traditional and newer methodologies in Epigenetic research allowing him to explore new interactive ways of examining associations between physical activity, nutrition and chronic disease risk factors.

Susanne Stormer

Novo Nordisk

Susanne is the Vice President of Corporate Sustainability at Novo Nordisk A/S. She joined the Novo Group in 2000 to ingrain the TBL concept in the business as the lens for decision-making. She sets the strategic direction for the company’s positioning as a sustainability leader and a pioneer in demonstrating the long-term business value of incorporating economic, social and environmental perspectives into its market proposition. She and her team are charged with the overall management of corporate sustainability-driven programmes, the integrated Annual Report, engagements with ESG investors and stakeholders in the professional sustainability community, and for communicating the value of the company’s Triple Bottom Line (TBL) business principle. Among her achievements are the successful integration of the company’s financial and sustainability reporting. Susanne holds an MA in English Language and Literature and a BA in East Asian Area Studies from Aarhus University, Denmark. She is adjunct professor at the Copenhagen Business School, member of the board of CSR Europe, member of the working group for the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC), the Advisory Council for Cornerstone Capital, and the Advisory Council for the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board. Susanne Stormer is a Danish national, born November 1959.

Linda M. Szymanski, MD, PhD

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Dr. Szymanski is an assistant professor in the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and is board certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology and Maternal-Fetal Medicine. Medicine is a second career for Dr. Szymanski, who also holds a PhD in Exercise Science from the University of South Carolina. As an exercise physiologist, she directed both university- and community-based preventive and rehabilitative exercise programs.  Earlier in her career, while serving as a postdoctoral researcher at George Washington University, she studied the effects of hormone therapy and exercise in postmenopausal women. After earning a medical degree at Georgetown University, she completed a residency in gynecology and obstetrics at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, where she served as administrative chief resident.  After practicing general obstetrics and gynecology for two years, she completed a fellowship at Johns Hopkins in Maternal-Fetal Medicine and subsequently accepted a faculty position at Johns Hopkins where she is Director of the Multiple Gestation Clinic. She has found a way to combine her two careers and has successfully implemented a research and clinical program in exercise and pregnancy. She is particularly interested in developing evidence-based guidelines for exercise during pregnancy to enable providers to appropriately counsel their patients during this important time. She has received funding from the National Institutes of Health’s Clinical Loan Repayment Program (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development). In addition, she loves to teach and has been awarded numerous teaching awards, including the national Council on Resident Education in Obstetrics and Gynecology (CREOG) Award for Excellence in Resident Teaching.

Mark Lawrence Wahlqvist, MD

Zhejiang University

Mark L. Wahlqvist AO, B Med Sc, MD, BS (Adelaide), MD (Uppsala), FRACP, FAIFST, FACN, FAFPHM, FTSE has held chairs in Human Nutrition, Medicine, Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine and been Chair of Internal Medicine at the Monash Medical Centre, in Melbourne. He was President of the International Union of Nutritional Sciences; Chair of Nutrition Australia; Foundation Chair of the Weight Management Code Administration Council of Australia; Board member of the ANZ Food Authority; Foundation Chair of the Food Safety Council of Victoria; Director of the FAO Centre of Excellence in Food Safety linked to the Monash Asia Institute and also of its Asia Pacific Health & Nutrition Centre; and chair of the Australian Academy of Science National Nutrition Committee. He is Foundation Editor-in-Chief of APJCN. He is now Emeritus Professor at Monash University, Visiting Professor at Taiwan’s NHRI, Honorary Professor at Deakin University, and Director of the Fuli Institute at Zhejiang University, China. The Charlotta Medal of the Emigrant’s Research Institute in Sweden was awarded in1994. He has awards from several scientific societies. For his contributions to Indonesian women’s health, he was made an honorary Bataknese. He is an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO).

Jane Wardle, PhD

University College London

Jane Wardle is Professor of Clinical Psychology at University College London and Director of Cancer Research UK’s Health Behaviour Research Centre. Her obesity research spans epidemiological, aetiological, and clinical studies and includes the Gemini twin birth cohort, set up to focus specifically on genetic and environmental influences on weight.  She has an interest in the best way to use genetic information in weight control advice. In 2012 she was elected to Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences for contributions to disease prevention, and in 2013 to Fellowship of the British Academy for contributions to health psychology.

Robert A. Waterland, PhD

Baylor College of Medicine

Dr. Robert Waterland is an Associate Professor at Baylor College of Medicine, and is based in the USDA/ARS Children’s Nutrition Research Center in Houston, Texas. He holds faculty appointments in the Department of Pediatrics / Nutrition and the Department of Molecular & Human Genetics. Dr. Waterland received his BS in Physics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and worked for several years at the University of Pennsylvania, first with Britton Chance (biochemistry/biophysics), then with Albert Stunkard (clinical obesity research). After earning his PhD in Human Nutrition from Cornell University (with Cutberto Garza), he conducted postdoctoral research in developmental genetics with Randy Jirtle at Duke University. Dr. Waterland’s research focuses on understanding how nutrition during critical periods of prenatal and early postnatal development affects gene expression, metabolism, and chronic disease susceptibility in adulthood. His laboratory studies both mouse models and humans to elucidate the mechanisms by which early nutrition and other environmental influences affect the establishment and maintenance of epigenetic mechanisms, with a focus on DNA methylation. He is a member of the American Society for Nutrition and the American Society of Human Genetics, and serves on the council of the International Society for Developmental Origins of Health and Disease and the board of directors of the Epigenetics Society.

Christiane Wrann, DVM, PhD

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Christiane D. Wrann is a Senior Research Fellow in Cell Biology with Dr. Bruce Spiegelman at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Wrann studied veterinary medicine at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, the University of Cambridge, and Cornell University. She received her PhD with Summa cum laude in Immunology from the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover in 2008. From 2009-20011, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship sponsored by the German Research Foundation in the laboratory of Dr. Evan Rosen at BIDMC and Harvard Medical School. Her research focuses on the beneficial effects of exercise on metabolism and brain health, transcriptional regulation in metabolism, and secreted factors in exercise as potential drug targets. Recently, Dr. Wrann has been awarded a K99/R00 Pathway to independence Award from the NINDS.