Food and health are significant areas of study at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Research areas in the Food Science and Technology Department include dietary bioactive agents and functional foods, food allergens, food preservation and transformation, food safety, biocomputing and data science, and the diet, microbiome and host interactions in human health. Nebraska Extension features 30 personnel with expertise in food, nutrition and health topics.
The Nebraska Food for Health Center is a high-profile research center that brings together researchers from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the University of Nebraska Medical Center and the University of Nebraska at Omaha to tie gastrointestinal and biomedical research to agriculture, plant and animal breeding and genetics.
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In 2017, Andrew Benson launched the Nebraska Food for Health Center, a $40.3 million collaboration among academic researchers, food and drug manufacturers and philanthropists to improve human health by linking agriculture and food production to wellness and disease prevention through microbiome research. Benson pioneered study of the gut microbiome as a complex trait, demonstrating how individual host genetic factors control microbial species that make up the microbiome. Spearheading research for the Discovery Program of the Nebraska Food for Health Center, Benson works closely with an interdisciplinary team of crop plant geneticists who use genetic analysis to define molecular components of grains that affect the human gut microbiome. He has received more than $25 million in competitive grant funding and in 2019 was elected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. He serves on the Scientific Advisory Board for Neogen’s genomics operations and serves as a consultant and expert witness for applications of bacterial genomics and population genetics in litigation for foodborne outbreaks and product labeling. Updated 12/19/23
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Amanda Ramer-Tait is director of the Nebraska Gnotobiotic Mouse Program. She has built an internationally recognized research program that focuses on how the microbes living in the human digestive tract (known as the gut microbiota) influence human health and disease. Her work also aims to develop novel dietary interventions that alter the gut microbiota to treat chronic diseases, including obesity, metabolic syndrome and inflammatory bowel diseases. Ramer-Tait has authored over 60 peer-reviewed publications and received research funding from the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the US Department of Agriculture. She also co-directs the Complex Biosystems PhD program at UNL and teaches courses on immunology, microbiology and functional foods. Updated 12/19/23.
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Xinghui Sun uses live cell imaging, multi-omics techniques and mouse phenotyping to investigate how metabolic stress affects healthy humans, particularly regarding the role of non-protein coding RNAs in the aging of cells and metabolic diseases such as obesity and atherosclerosis. His long-term goal is to improve understanding of the connection between obesity and cardiovascular disease risk, leading to the development of more effective therapies. He has published more than 30 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals. He also teaches a biochemistry course. Updated 12/19/23
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Edward Deehan conducts dietary intervention studies in humans as the main route of scientific inquiry to inform the development and commercialization of fiber-based foods and therapeutics that aim to promote health through their actions in the gastrointestinal tract. Updated 12/19/23