Students and instructors in the Spring 2026 “Food Production and Management” class pose for a group picture on Recipe Day, where the students created meals for the EFNEP website and beyond. Photo: OPOC

On March 11, the teaching kitchen of the Department of Nutritional Sciences at Rutgers University–New Brunswick was filled with the aromas of simmering soups, roasted spices and baked desserts as students put their coursework into action during Recipe Day—a hands-on capstone experience with impact far beyond the classroom.

The event featured 24 student-developed recipes spanning entrées, snacks, soups and desserts, each designed with a clear purpose: to serve low- and under-resourced communities through the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP).

Salome Papaspyrou Rao, assistant teaching professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, overseeing the workstations in the Teaching Kitchen during the Spring 2026 Recipe Day.

“This is not just about creating recipes,” said Melissa Keresztes, teaching kitchen coordinator and lecturer. “It’s about developing a greater quantity and diversity of recipes using ingredients that are easy to find and that are affordable.”

Recipe Day is a signature component of the course, Food Production and Management, taught by Salome Papaspyrou Rao, assistant teaching professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences. The course is designed to align with real-world food systems and community needs while advancing Rutgers’ commitment to experiential learning.

Students in the course develop competencies across a wide range of areas, including food procurement, production and distribution systems; kitchen design and large-scale food preparation; menu planning for diverse populations; and food service management, leadership and operations. The curriculum also emphasizes sustainability and cultural competence—key elements reflected in the recipes students create.

The initiative is further supported by Joshua Miller, chair of the Department of Nutritional Sciences, whose investment in ingredients and program resources enables students to fully engage in the teaching kitchen environment while integrating advanced tools for recipe development.

Recipe Day represents the culmination of a unique collaboration between the Department of Nutritional Sciences and EFNEP under Rutgers Cooperative Extension (RCE)—a partnership intentionally designed to align with student success goals in Rutgers’ Academic Master Plan, said Marisol Ortiz, EFNEP state coordinator/assistant director, supervisor. The collaboration began with a simple but powerful realization: students and EFNEP staff were already doing similar work—developing and testing recipes—just separately.

L-R: Salome Papaspyrou Rao, Department of Nutritional Sciences; Marisol Ortiz, EFNEP; Melissa Keresztes, Teaching Kitchen; and Stacy Onofrietti, EFNEP. Photo: OPOC

“That prompted me to reflect on the proximity and overlap between EFNEP and the Department of Nutritional Sciences,” Ortiz said. “We saw an opportunity to bring those efforts together in a way that benefits both students and the communities we serve.”

By integrating EFNEP into the classroom, students gain hands-on, service-learning experience while contributing to a growing national library of culturally relevant, nutritious and cost-effective recipes.

EFNEP representatives Ortiz and Stacy Onofrietti, EFNEP program associate and supervisor, visit the class to introduce their programming and outline opportunities for student involvement in recipe development. According to Ortiz, they also provide specific criteria for recipe creation tailored to the communities they serve, including an emphasis on cultural diversity, affordability, and the use of readily available ingredients

“For their initial assignment, students are encouraged to explore original recipes, often drawing inspiration from personal or family traditions that are meaningful to them,” Ortiz said.

Students also learn that “in addition to the recipes being incorporated into EFNEP classes and showcased on our website, one recipe is selected for inclusion in an EFNEP recipe book developed in North Carolina,” she added.

Precision Meets Creativity in the Kitchen

Students are tasked with creating recipes that meet strict EFNEP guidelines, including limits on sodium and fat, a maximum of 10 ingredients and the use of accessible, low-cost foods commonly found in grocery stores or home food pantries.

Student Jacquelin Genty cooks an entrée of unstuffed cabbage with rice. Photo: OPOC

To meet these standards, students use nutrient analysis software to generate USDA-compliant nutrition labels and refine their recipes accordingly.

For student Mia Harris, that meant reworking a sweet potato spice granola recipe—adding ingredients like honey and pecans while ensuring it still met program requirements.

The process is both technical and creative, requiring students to balance flavor, nutrition and affordability. Many students drew inspiration from their own cultural backgrounds, resulting in a menu that reflects the diversity of the communities EFNEP serves.

Jacquelin Genty, who transferred to Rutgers in 2024, is creating two items. One snack, specifically a crispy, roasted chickpea, and an entrée of unstuffed cabbage with rice.

Jennifer Reyes reimagined a Dominican-inspired plantain lasagna, adapted from pastelón, a family favorite.

Raoul Bernal, SAS’27, preparing chicken tinola, a traditional Filipino soup.

Raoul Bernal, SAS’27, prepared chicken tinola, a traditional Filipino comfort soup. For him, the recipe as well as the experience are personal. “It’s a huge comfort food my mother used to make when we were sick,” he said, describing the familiar flavors of ginger, chicken and chayote.

The Simple Plate Initiative as a National Resource

Recipes developed during the course undergo rigorous testing, including step-by-step documentation, yield calculations and sensory evaluations. Once finalized, they are reviewed by EFNEP staff and selected for use in community programming and online publication.

Over time, these student-created recipes have extended their reach well beyond New Jersey—some even appearing in EFNEP materials used in other states.

“This collaborative work beautifully illustrates how Cooperative Extension and academic instruction can work synergistically to meet community needs while enriching students’ experience,” said Brian Schilling, RCE director.

Now entering its third year, the program is officially named the Simple Plate Initiative and continues to expand under the leadership of EFNEP’s Onofrietti. “Students are encouraged to create unique, culturally diverse recipes using ingredients commonly found in local food pantries, helping to inclusively represent the populations we serve,” she said.

“This initiative connects academic learning with real-world impact,” Ortiz added. “Students are not just completing assignments—they are creating resources that directly benefit families across the country.”

Beyond technical skills, students leave the course with something more enduring: a sense of purpose and pride.

With their names attached to published recipes and a tangible contribution to community health, students build professional portfolios while seeing firsthand how their work can make a difference, stressed Keresztes, as she moved between stations of students gathered around the Ferrari red kitchen ranges and ovens of the Nutritional Sciences Teaching Kitchen.

And among the aromas and sounds in the bustling kitchen, it’s easy to see that Recipe Day is indeed more than a class exercise. It’s where education, culture and community come together.

 

2025 RCLR symposium attendees.

On November 7, the Rutgers Center for Lipid Research (RCLR) held its 10th annual symposium under the theme, “Lipid regulation of cell stress and death.” The symposium, which was held at the New Jersey Institute for Food, Nutrition, and Health (IFNH) on the Rutgers–New Brunswick campus, was attended by more than 90 participants.

The annual event drew researchers from all three Rutgers campuses, along with scientists from neighboring universities as well as local pharma and biotech companies. The symposium brought together an outstanding group of established and early-career investigators who shared their knowledge, results and insights into the regulation of cellular stress tolerance mechanisms and pathways of cell death by lipids.

Distinguished Professor George Carman presents Matthew L. Selby with the “George M. and Maureen D. Carman Prize in Lipids.” Shelby’s mentor Harini Sampath. associate professor, looks on.

The organizing committee for this year’s event was led by Harini Sampath, associate professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences.  The speaker sessions covered a range of lipid-related topics. The morning session, chaired by Harini Sampath, commenced with a talk by Scott Dixon from Stanford University who spoke about the palmitate-dependent non-apoptotic cell death followed by Yumi Imai from the University of Iowa who spoke on the traffic control of lipids to protect pancreatic islets from nutrient stress. That session ended with a lively flash talk session chaired by Christy Gliniak, assistant professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences.

The poster session followed a delightful lunch at Harvest IFNH.  The afternoon session, chaired by Igor Shmarakov, assistant professor in the Department of Animal Sciences, began with a talk by Valerian Kagan of the University of Pittsburgh and Columbia University who spoke of redox lipidomics of ferroptotic regulated death program. The session ended with a talk on the alteration of hepatic Pparα and lipid metabolism in cancer cachexia presented by Wenwei Hu from the Rutgers Cancer Center.

Best flash talk awards were presented to Matthew L. Selby and Siddhi Pawar, while the best poster awards went to Natalie Burchat, Camille Duchamp and Ishaan Patil. Selby was also awarded the George M. and Maureen D. Carman Prize in Lipids, an endowed prize awarded for outstanding research achievement in the area of lipid biochemistry.

RCLR promotes multidisciplinary research on the biochemical, biophysical, cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in lipid metabolism, and extends this information to the underpinnings of lipid-based diseases such as obesity, lipodystrophy, diabetes, and heart disease. RCLR fosters interaction among faculty, postdoctoral associates, and students across the university. For more information visit rclr.rutgers.edu.

 

L-R: Chintan Bhavsar, graduate student in the Nutritional Sciences Graduate Program; Tracy Anthony, professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences; Loredana Quadro, professor in the Department of Food Science; and Youn-Kyung Kim, associate research scientist in the Quadro lab.

Groundbreaking PNAS research reveals a new pathway regulating vitamin A mobilization from the liver—independent of vitamin A status.

Researchers at Rutgers University have discovered that amino acid scarcity—whether caused by diet or chemotherapy—impairs the liver’s ability to release vitamin A into the bloodstream, revealing a previously unrecognized mechanism for controlling vitamin A availability in the body.

The study, “Amino acid insufficiency impairs hepatic vitamin A mobilization in mice,” was led by Loredana Quadro, professor in the Department of Food Science, and Tracy G. Anthony, professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences in the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. Chintan Bhavsar, graduate student in the Nutritional Sciences Graduate Program, shares the first co-authorship with Youn-Kyung Kim, post-doc fellow in the Quadro lab. Bhavsar was awarded the 2025 Outstanding Masters Student Award from the Rutgers School of Graduate Studies. Study collaborators include colleagues from the Department of Nutritional Sciences, Department of Food Science, New Jersey Institute for Food Nutrition and Health, and the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey.

Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the research reveals that amino acid shortage is a novel regulator of vitamin A homeostasis. Using dietary and pharmacological models—including the chemotherapy drug asparaginase—the team found that when amino acids are scarce, the liver accumulates retinol-binding protein 4 (RBP4), the primary vitamin A carrier, while reducing its secretion into the bloodstream.

Vitamin A, which can be obtained through foods or taken as a supplement, including meat and dairy products as well as vegetables and fruits, is an essential nutrient for humans and aids general health, including vision, growth and cell division.

“Our findings challenge the long-held belief that vitamin A distribution is regulated solely by vitamin A status,” said Quadro. “We show that amino acid availability—and the liver’s stress response to it—plays a decisive role in controlling how vitamin A is mobilized to the rest of the body.”

Using mouse models and primary hepatocytes, researchers showed that amino acid insufficiency—whether from a low-protein diet, a leucine-devoid diet, or asparaginase treatment—suppresses secretion of RBP4 and transthyretin (TTR), two key proteins needed for vitamin A transport, without depleting hepatic vitamin A stores. Intriguingly, blocking the autophagy-related gene Atg7 restored normal vitamin A export, pinpointing a critical pathway linking nutrient sensing, protein trafficking and vitamin A metabolism.

“This discovery not only reshapes our understanding of vitamin A biology but could also have important implications for patients with leukemia who are receiving asparaginase, or for those suffering from protein malnutrition, where vitamin A delivery to critical organs like the eye and pancreas may be compromised,” said Anthony.

 

2025 Governor’s STEM Scholars visited the Ludwig Global Village Learning Center on the Douglass campus. Photo credit: John O’Boyle

Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences (SEBS) recently welcomed students from the prestigious Governor’s STEM Scholars program for an immersive day of scientific exploration and sustainability-focused learning. The program was hosted at the Ludwig Global Village Living Learning Center and featured a full day of activities focused on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Karla Esquilín-Lebrón, teaching instructor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology and research advisor for the Governor’s STEM Scholars program, engages the students in STEM learning. Photo credit: John O’Boyle

The Governor’s STEM Scholars program is designed to engage the next generation of STEM leaders, high school and college students, in the state’s innovation economy. Since its launch in 2013, it has supported more than 1,000 students from all 21 New Jersey counties. The program provides these scholars with connections, mentors and relationships within the state’s research community to help set them on an academic and career path to become New Jersey’s future STEM professionals and secures our state’s talent pipeline.”

Karla Esquilín-Lebrón, teaching instructor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, is the research advisor for the program. She provides scientific and technical leadership to the program, while guiding scholars as they design and carry out their team research projects. She mentors students by offering subject-matter expertise and helps to ensure projects are both rigorous and impactful.

Esquilín-Lebrón and program director Alise Roderer, worked with the SEBS Office of Research, and the Associate Dean of Research Impact, Janice McDonnell, to provide the scholars with four dynamic tours led by Rutgers experts, each supporting the students in learning about Rutgers research.

AJ Both, extension specialist in the Department of Environmental Sciences, discussed agrivoltaics with the STEM scholars. Photo credit: John O’Boyle

A.J. Both, extension specialist in the Department of Environmental Sciences and a leading horticultural engineer, guided students through the Rutgers Agrivoltaics Program installation, showcasing the innovative research that integrates solar energy production with sustainable agriculture. Both’s work focuses on designing energy-efficient greenhouses and hydroponic systems that conserve natural resources while enhancing food production. Scholars traveled by bus to the farm and engaged in discussions about the future of farming and land stewardship.

The scholars also visited the Rutgers Center for Ocean Observing Leadership (RUCOOL) in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences. The tour was led by Michael Crowley, RUCOOL technical manager, who highlighted the lab’s underwater robots or gliders used to study ocean dynamics, storm impacts and climate change. The scholars learned how Rutgers researchers are helping protect marine ecosystems and coastal communities.

RUCOOL Technical Manager, Michael Crowley, shows the scholars the ocean gliders. Photo credit: John O’Boyle

The Waksman Museum, located in Martin Hall on the Cook campus, was also a stop on the tour. SEBS student Angel Robinson showcased the antibiotic research history at Rutgers and the impact of the NJ State Microbe Streptomyces griseus while sharing her current research as a G.H. Cook scholar in the laboratory of Distinguished Professor Max Häggblom in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology.

Sue Shapses, professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, led a tour of Foran Hall and the Institute for Food, Nutrition, and Health (IFNH). Her research focuses on nutrition, metabolism, and bone health. Shapses shared insights into how diet and science intersect to combat obesity and promote healthy aging. Reflecting on the visit, she remarked that “my students had a few “I can’t believe” and “I didn’t know” statements about the topic of nutrition and the research!  I hope we made a difference and to see them at Rutgers in the near future.” 

The visit offered the scholars a glimpse into Rutgers’ commitment to sustainability, innovation, and global impact—planting seeds for future scientists and changemakers.

 

L-R: Nicole Martinez, program coordinator in the Department of Nutritional Sciences; Dustin Nguyen, Salina Hoang and Naiya Bogert, SEBS Nutritional Sciences students; and Melissa Keresztes, lecturer and Foods Lab Coordinator.

Since its renovation and grand opening just over a year ago, the Teaching Kitchen, housed on the second-floor foods lab in Davison Hall on the Cook/Douglass campus, has truly hit its stride. Staying true to the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences (SEBS) mission of hands-on, collaborative learning to life, the space has become a vibrant hub for experiential learning, where students and community members alike engage in cooking, nutrition education and food science exploration.

“Our renovated Teaching Kitchen has really energized our nutritional sciences program,” said Josh Miller, professor and chair of the Department of Nutritional Sciences. “We can now provide our students with engaging experiential learning opportunities in a state-of-the-art facility, and we can offer a variety of opportunities for community engagement, such as culinary health classes.”

Melissa Keresztes, lecturer and Foods Lab Coordinator with a young visitor to the Teaching Kitchen during SEBS’ Bring Your Child to Work Day in April.

“I’m excited at the opportunity to oversee this state-of-the-art Teaching Kitchen and solidifying its role as a ‘hotbed of experiential learning’ and a cornerstone of SEBS’s commitment to immersive, real-world education,” said Melissa Keresztes, lecturer and Foods Lab Coordinator.

The past year has been a period of intense growth for the Teaching Kitchen, which has hosted a diverse range of programs and events that showcase innovation, collaboration and impact.

The annual “Bring Your Child to Work Day” on the Cook campus in April featured a Power Up with Protein session that enabled the Teaching Kitchen to showcase its mission to blend community engagement with experiential learning. Led by three dedicated dietetics students, the event offered children a fun, hands-on cooking experience while giving undergraduate students valuable practice in nutrition education, program planning and leadership.

“This milestone moment highlighted how the Teaching Kitchen is transforming classroom knowledge into real-world impact for both students and the broader Rutgers community,” said Keresztes.

Dustin Nguyen SEBS’27 is a junior and a Nutritional Sciences major.

NextGen Bergen Community College experimental learning experience picking blueberries at the Rutgers Philip E. Marucci Center for Blueberry and Cranberry Research and Extension in Chatsworth, NJ.

“When I first started learning in the new teaching kitchen introduced last year, I was exposed to new and different ways food could be applicable to my everyday life, as well as my field of study. I was exposed to an environment where collaboration in nutrition was encouraged. I hope many more students can experience this kind of experiential learning!”

A sophomore and Nutritional Sciences major, Naiya Bogert SEBS’28, is one of those students.

“Working in the teaching kitchen has deepened my understanding of nutrition by allowing me to apply the skills I’ve learned in my coursework. It has also shown me how a hands-on, culinary approach can make teaching and sharing nutrition more engaging and impactful.” 

In June, a dynamic collaboration between the Nutritional Sciences Teaching Kitchen and the Plant Biology Department united students from Bergen Community College and SEBS through the USDA-funded New Jersey NextGen for Sustainable Farming initiative. This collaboration enabled a full-day, hands-on learning experience—from blueberry picking at the Rutgers Philip E. Marucci Center for Blueberry and Cranberry Research and Extension in Chatsworth, NJ, to cooking and nutrition science experiments in the Teaching Kitchen—students explored the intersection of agriculture, food science and health.

“The program strengthened interdepartmental collaboration and exemplified SEBS’s commitment to experiential learning, innovation and community partnership,” explained Keresztes.

Students of the SEBS Guided Gap Semester Program and Nutrition Club.

The GEAR UP Summer Program, a four-week culinary nutrition series held in July into August, introduced middle school students from New Brunswick to college life and hands-on learning in the Teaching Kitchen.

“Through interactive lessons on seasonal produce, hands-on cooking and food science activities, students gained confidence, curiosity and an appreciation for healthy eating and sustainability,” said Keresztes.

The program also provided valuable experiential learning and leadership opportunities for undergraduate dietetics students, highlighting the Teaching Kitchen’s growing impact in community engagement and education.

Rounding out an active year of activities, in October the Guided Gap Semester – Nutritional Sciences Program offered incoming SEBS students an engaging introduction to the field of Nutrition and Dietetics through hands-on learning and peer connection in the Teaching Kitchen. Participants explored career pathways, baked fresh scones alongside current students, and experienced the collaborative, supportive environment that defines the Department of Nutritional Sciences. This event welcomed future students to campus life and showcased the Teaching Kitchen as a dynamic space for mentorship, experiential learning and community building within SEBS.

 

Now, a Rutgers University-led study suggests that breast milk is more than just nourishment. Breast milk also is a biological clock, sending time-sensitive signals to help guide a baby’s development. With breast milk, timing might be an important consideration, especially when feeding expressed breast milk.

Researchers from Rutgers and the University of Puerto Rico have discovered that breast milk changes in composition depending on the time of day it’s produced. Their findings, published in Frontiers in Nutrition, show that crucial hormones such as melatonin and cortisol, which are substances known for regulating sleep and stress, fluctuate in breast milk over a 24-hour period.

“Breast milk is a dynamic food,” said Melissa Woortman, a recent doctoral degree graduate from the Department of Nutritional Sciences in the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences and the study’s lead author. “We found that the concentrations of bioactive components vary depending on the time of day, which means the timing of feeding expressed milk could be important.”

The team collected 236 breast milk samples from 38 lactating mothers at four time points: 6 a.m., noon, 6 p.m., and midnight. They measured levels of melatonin, cortisol, oxytocin, and immune proteins, in addition to analyzing the breast milk microbiota. Melatonin peaked at midnight, helping signal sleep, while cortisol was highest in the early morning, supporting alertness and metabolism.

These hormonal rhythms were less pronounced in mothers with a higher body mass index, and the immune proteins were most abundant in milk for infants less than a month old. This suggests the bodies of lactating mothers adapt breast milk to meet the changing needs of growing babies, scientists said.

“Circadian rhythms in infants are still developing,” said Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello, the Henry Rutgers Professor of Microbiome and Health in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology in the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences and the senior author of the study. “Breast milk may help guide that development, especially in the early months.”

The researchers also found that the types of bacteria in breast milk shifted throughout the day, with skin-associated microbes more common at night and environmental bacteria more prevalent during the day. These microbial changes could influence how a baby’s digestive system develops and how their immune system is trained.

Given these findings, the researchers suggest a simple practice. “Labeling expressed milk as ‘morning,’ ‘afternoon,’ or ‘evening’ and feeding it correspondingly could help align expressing and feeding times and preserve the natural hormonal and microbial composition of the milk, as well as circadian signals,” Dominguez-Bello said.

In modern societies where mothers may not be able to breastfeed around the clock, Woortman added, “aligning feeding times with the time of milk expression is a simple, practical step that maximizes the benefits of breast milk when feeding expressed milk.”

Other Rutgers researchers who contributed to the study included: Haipeng Sun and Jincheng Wang, postdoctoral associates in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences; Krystin Englehardt, formerly a Neonatal-Perinatal Medical Fellow in the Department of Pediatrics at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School; and Lawrence Kleinman of the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research and the Department of Pediatrics at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

This article first appeared in Rutgers Today.

 

Orangutans living in the wild adapt to different foods, depending on availability, maintaining an overall healthy balance. Photo credit: Ilya Raskin.

Humans could learn a thing or two from orangutans when it comes to maintaining a balanced, protein-filled diet.

Great apes native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia, orangutans are marvels of adaptation to the vagaries of food supply in the wild, according to an international team of researchers led by a Rutgers University-New Brunswick scientist. The critically endangered primates outshine modern humans in avoiding obesity through their balanced choices of food and exercise, the scientists found. 

The researchers reported their findings, based on 15 years of firsthand observations of wild orangutans in the jungles of Borneo, in Science Advances.

“These findings show how wild Bornean orangutans adapt to changes in their environment by adjusting their nutrient intake, behavior and energy use,” said Erin Vogel, the Henry Rutgers Term Chair Professor in the Department of Anthropology in the School of Arts and Sciences, who led the study. “The work highlights the importance of understanding natural dietary patterns and their impact on health, both for orangutans and humans.”

Orangutans and humans have similar physiological and metabolic processes, dietary needs and behavioral adaptations, according to Erin Vogel, a Rutgers anthropologist who has studied the great apes for more than a decade in the rainforests of Borneo. Photo credit: Ilya Raskin.

Orangutans are one of the closest living relatives to humans, sharing a common ancestor, Vogel said. This evolutionary relationship means that orangutans and humans have similar physiological and metabolic processes, dietary needs and behavioral adaptations. Studying orangutans can provide insights into the evolutionary adaptations that might also be relevant to humans, she said.

Humans also exhibit metabolic flexibility, Vogel said, but modern diets high in processed foods can disrupt this balance, leading to metabolic disorders such as diabetes.

While orangutans reduce physical activity during low fruit periods to conserve energy, Vogel said, humans, especially those with sedentary lifestyles, may not adjust their energy expenditure to match their caloric intake, leading to weight gain and associated health issues.

“Understanding these adaptations can help us learn more about how humans can manage their diets and health,” Vogel said. “It also highlights the importance of conserving orangutan habitats to ensure their survival.”

The research was conducted at the Tuanan Orangutan Research Station in the Mawas Conservation Area in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, on the island of Borneo. The conservation area, a peat swamp forest, protects about 764,000 acres, an area roughly the size of Rhode Island. Peat forests are richly biodiverse, ancient ecosystems with landscapes dominated by waterlogged trees that grow on layers of dead leaves and plant material.

Understanding the dietary strategies of orangutans can inform better nutritional practices for humans, said Vogel, who also is director of the Center for Human Evolutionary Studies at Rutgers.

“In essence, the research on orangutans underscores the importance of dietary balance and metabolic flexibility, which are crucial for maintaining health in both orangutans and humans,” Vogel said. “It suggests that modern dietary habits, characterized by high consumption of processed foods rich in sugars and fats, can lead to metabolic imbalances and health issues.”

In earlier studies, Vogel and an international team of colleagues established the patterns by which orangutans fed. Orangutans prefer to eat fruit because it is rich in carbohydrates, but when fruit is scarce, they switch to eating more leaves, bark and other foods that can provide more protein but fewer sugary carbohydrates. In times of high fruit availability, orangutans still consume protein but get most of their energy from carbohydrates and fats in the fruit.

“We wanted to find out how their bodies handle these changes,” Vogel said. “We tested how the availability of fruit affects their diet and how their bodies adapt to avoid energy imbalance. We looked at how they switch between different types of fuel – like fats and proteins – when preferred food availability changes.”

To conduct the study, Vogel, research colleagues, students and a staff that mostly included field technicians indigenous to the island of Borneo collected data for more than a decade on what the orangutans ate daily and analyzed their urine to see how their bodies responded to any nutritional changes. This required staying in close proximity to the ape in the equatorial, humid jungle from dawn until night.

The scientists made a number of key findings:

• Orangutans avoid obesity as part of a response to the significant fluctuations – in both magnitude and duration – in fruit availability in their natural habitat. Unlike humans in Western culture, who have constant access to high-calorie foods, orangutans experience periods of both abundance and scarcity. The periods of scarcity and resulting low caloric intake, similar to humans’ intermittent fasting, may help maintain their health by reducing oxidative stress.
• During periods of fruit scarcity, orangutans exhibit metabolic flexibility, switching to using stored body fat and muscle protein for energy. This allows them to survive when food is scarce.
• During periods of fruit scarcity, orangutans exhibit behavioral adaptability, relying on reduced physical activity as well as stored energy and muscles to conserve energy. They rest more, go to sleep earlier, travel less and spend less time with other orangutans. This flexibility enables them to use body fat and protein for fuel when needed. They rebuild fat reserves and muscle when fruit availability is high.
• The orangutan diet also prioritizes a consistent level of protein, which contrasts with a modern Western diet, which often can be rich in low-cost, energy-dense, protein-poor foods. Those choices contribute to obesity and metabolic diseases in humans.

Orangutans prefer to eat fruit because it is rich in carbohydrates, but when fruit is scarce, they switch to eating more leaves, bark and other foods that can provide more protein but fewer sugary carbohydrates, Rutgers research shows. Photo credit: Justin Philbois.

This research builds on a report published earlier this year in The American Journal of Biological Anthropology, led by doctoral student Will Aguado, as the first author. This study found that orangutans at Tuanan get most of their protein from the leaves and seeds of just one out of nearly 200 species in the diet – a vine called Bowringia callicarpa. The protein in this plant fuels orangutans through seasons of fruit scarcity and likely allows orangutans at Tuanan to persist and for their population to grow.”

Other scientists on the study from Rutgers included Malcolm Watford, a professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences; and former Rutgers doctoral student Rebecca Brittain, Tatang Mitra-Setia and Sri Suci Utami from Universitas Nasional in Indonesia, graduate students William Aguado, Astri Zulfa and Alysse Moldawer, all with the Department of Anthropology in the School of Arts and Sciences. Former graduate student Timothy Bransford, who also contributed to the study, is now at Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, Fla.

Researchers from the following institutions also contributed to the study: The Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior and the University of Konstanz in Germany; Yale University; Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland; the University of Cincinnati; the University of Colorado; Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Fla.; Universitas Nasional in Jakarta, Indonesia; National Research and Innovation Agency in Cibinong-Bogor, Indonesia; University of Zurich in Switzerland; Hunter College of the City University of New York; and the University of Sydney in Australia.

This article first appeared in Rutgers Today.

 

Joshua Miller, professor and chair, Department of Nutritional Sciences.

The American Society for Nutrition (ASN) and ASN Foundation announced the induction of the 21 members into the 2025 Class of Distinguished Fellows of ASN, the highest accolade bestowed by the society and honoring individuals for their significant contributions and outstanding lifetime achievements in the field of nutrition.

Joshua Miller, professor and department chair, and Sue Shapses, professor, in the Department of Nutritional Sciences are among the newest inductees in the 2025 Class, joining more than 500 other ASN Distinguished Fellows who have been recognized since the program began in 1952.  

Miller’s research focuses on the relationships among vitamins (folate, B12, B6, D), the amino acid homocysteine, and various conditions and disorders, including cognitive decline, Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, cancer, and more recently blood pressure.

Sue Shapses, professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences.

Shapses’ clinical and translational research emphasizes the endocrine regulation of obesity and osteoporosis with particular focus on circadian rhythm, inflammation, gastrointestinal absorption and permeability, and dietary interventions altering metabolism during weight reduction.

The society also announced the first awardees of its Excellence in Nutrition Fellows of ASN program, recognizing 55 distinguished members for their ongoing contributions to the field and sustained engagement in the nutrition community. 

Harini Sampath, associate professor, Department of Nutritional Sciences.

Harini Sampath, associate professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, joins fellow Rutgers scientist Michael Rothkopf of Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, among the inaugural cohort to be named Excellence in Nutrition Fellows.

Sampath’s research focuses on the cellular alterations that occur during the development of metabolic diseases, including fatty liver, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes, and identifying pathways that can be targeted for nutritional and pharmaceutical therapies to preserve health and improve health outcomes. 

This new recognition program by ASN honors outstanding nutrition professionals who are 10 or more years past their terminal degree and have been an ASN Scientist, Clinician, or Professional member for five or more years. Fellows have demonstrated significant impact in their career paths, as well as service to the society.

The ASN Foundation will celebrate the achievements of the newest class of Fellows at NUTRITION 2025 to be held from May 31–June 3, 2025, in Orlando, FL.

 

Rutgers scientists Dena Seidel (third from left), Ramu Govindasamy (second from right) and James Simon (at right) are pictured with Governor Stevenson Joseph (center) and Pohnpei officials for the release of the Pohnpei State Food Security Policy in February 2025.

The expansive Pacific Island nation of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) is taking bold steps to develop sustainable local food production with support from an interdisciplinary food system science team from the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences.

Pohnpei State is home to FSM’s most biodiverse ecosystems that includes many endemic species and unique terrestrial, coastal and ocean environments. With fertile land and abundant fresh water, Pohnpei state is considered well suited for the sustainable development of local agriculture and aquaculture to enhance food security, economic growth, and reduced dependence on imported foods. Pohnpei’s Governor Stevenson A. Joseph recently announced the official endorsement and release of the Pohnpei State Food Security Policy, a groundbreaking initiative that will guide the state toward a more resilient and self-sustaining food system. This policy, developed in collaboration with Rutgers scientists and researchers over the last five years, is the first of its kind in the Federated States of Micronesia.

In 2023, Rutgers graduate student Lara Brindisi (center) is pictured in Pohnpei with Emihner Johnson (left) of the Island Food Community and a colleague.

Rutgers scientists began working with Pohnpei State on this food security policy back in 2020. Dena Seidel, an honorary Ambassador-at-Large for Pohnpei State, had been tasked by then Governor Reed Oliver to assist with the development of a food security policy as central to the state’s effort to tackle food insecurity. A SEBS visiting scholar at the time, Seidel reached out to Jim Simon, Distinguished Professor of Plant Biology, to discuss this opportunity. Simon, who has spent decades supporting sustainable development projects in Africa and Central America with Ramu Govindasamy, professor in the Department of Agricultural and Food Resource Economics, was excited at the chance to apply agriculture science toward food security policy. Soon a Rutgers food system science team was formed that also included Oscar Schofield, professor and chair of the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, and Mike Balick, ethnobotanist from the New York Botanical Gardens, among others.

For the past five years, the Rutgers science team has been working in close partnership with Pohnpei State’s Directors of Resources and Development, Hubert Yamada and Mark Kostka and their teams. Building upon prior surveys and previous reports, the Pohnpei State Food Security policy evolved into incorporating new data from the Rutgers’ led Green Climate Fund Baseline Assessment of Climate Change Impact on FSM Farming Families. Using a participatory approach and a community-based food system development framework, the Pohnpei State Food Security Policy is now recognized as representing the voices of the Pohnpei people and their food system development goals and aspirations.

In February 2025, Governor Joseph reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to implementing the Food Production Master Plan 2025 and achieving the ambitious goal of increasing local food production by 50 percent within the next five years.

Oscar Schofield (at right) is pictured in 2022 viewing an aquaculture pilot project in Pohnpei, Micronesia.

“Pohnpei State has enormous potential to strengthen our economy, improve our overall health and nutrition, and build upon our culture through the production of local food. This Food Security Policy serves as a living document to guide us as we take urgent, targeted steps to strengthen our local food system. There is much we can do together to incentivize and stimulate local food production for the benefit of our people,” said Governor Joseph.

“It’s very meaningful to be part of a science team invited to co-create food security policy in the Federated State of Micronesia. Food system development is inherently interdisciplinary, and I am grateful that at Rutgers we have such a wide variety of scientists who are interested and passionate about applying their skills toward the greater good,” said Simon.

Additional scientists, researchers and graduate students that contributed to this policy include Lara Brindisi and Erik Gomes (Plant Biology), Daniel Hoffman, (Nutritional Sciences), Ethan Schoolman (Sociology) Mark Robson, Distinguished Professor of Public Health, and Michael De Luca (Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve) as well as Rutgers students Micah Seidel, Nisha Khanna, Tori Rosen and Erin Quinn. Micronesian food system development partners that contributed to the policy include Engly Ioanis and Manoj Nair (Ph.D) from the College of Micronesia Land-Grant, and Saimon Mix and Emihner Johnson of the Island Food Community.

Pohnpei State Director of R&D Mark Kostka is pictured in 2022 sharing about an aquaculture pilot project with the Rutgers team.

The official endorsement of the Pohnpei State’s Food Security Policy was recently announced on the Governor’s website to support the state’s goals for local food system development with emphasis on strengthening local food production to provide economic opportunities and increased health and well-being for all Pohnpeians.

The Rutgers food system science team working in support of the FSM continues to grow and is now working on their 5th project in support of the nation’s food security goals with collaborative support from Rutgers scientists AJ Both and James Shope (Environmental Sciences), Dave Bushek and Roland Hagan (Marine and Coastal Sciences) and Yariv Ben Naim (Plant Biology).

 

Noran Jean Nealon (SEBS’13) with her cat, Jellybean.

Fourteen years after her first teaching experience as an undergraduate student at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences (SEBS), Nora Jean Nealon (SEBS’13) finds herself just as passionate about and fulfilled by teaching in her current role as an assistant professor in Microbiology at the Shreiber School of Veterinary Medicine at Rowan University.

Her journey to what she considers an enriching career as a teacher began at SEBS. “As someone keenly interested in a biomedical career, I was looking for a school that would allow me to participate in research, early and often. Additionally, as a student particularly excited about life sciences, SEBS and its diversity of majors and undergraduate STEM resources felt like the perfect fit for exploring these options further.”

Another important factor influencing her enrolling at SEBS was being able to participate in the undergraduate General Honors Program. “When I was a student, this was a small program, taking about 20-25 students per year, and we took several courses together. This created a small community within the larger SEBS community, which was nice coming into a large college and a very different environment than where I grew up in Monmouth County, close to the Jersey Shore.”

Nora Jean Nealon, center, with SEBS classmates Kerri Close and Kateria Mankiewicz. Photo: courtesy of Nora Jean Nealon.

The SEBS honors program ignited a passion in Nora Jean for teaching and mentoring.

“In my junior and senior years, I student-taught in honors seminars for first-year students, which made me realize how amazing and rewarding being an instructor and support system for new students could be, especially given what a huge transition it is jumping from high school to a large university.”

A first-generation college student, Nora Jean graduated as a triple major in Animal Science, Biological Sciences, and Nutrition, and a double minor in Endocrine physiology and Health and Companion Animal Science, graduating summa cum laude with a 4.0 grade point average.

In addition to that rigorous academic load, Nora Jean worked nearly full-time for a large part of her undergraduate years. One of her jobs was at a local veterinary hospital as an assistant to gain experience for veterinary school.

“I started volunteering at hospitals and clinics as a teenager and I worked my way up to be a veterinary assistant. This confirmed for me that I wanted to work with companion animals (dogs and cats). Other classes at Rutgers, that let me work with livestock (sheep, goats, cows, pigs) and research opportunities that let me work with mice and rats also furthered my interests in veterinary medicine.”

Nora Jean still found time to participate in extracurricular activities at Rutgers. “I was involved in the creation of the Companion Animal Club in 2011, which I founded with several of my classmates, Pauline Chen (MD), Yung Yung Chan (DVM), Rebecca Aguilar (DVM), Sandra Ministro (BS, Animal Sciences, Kateria Mankiewicz (MS, specialist in the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection), Jenny Kim (DVM’25), Brandi Hartman (BS, Animal Sciences), Courtney Zinna (DVM), Christopher Lam (DVM) and Santiago Bustamante (DVM).”

Since she graduated from SEBS in 2013, the Companion Animal Club at Rutgers has grown to include student handlers who raise service dogs on campus for local organizations and is one of the largest clubs at the university. “I’m really proud to see a small idea that I had as a teenager take off and make a big impact on the university and larger community, and to the many club officers, who came after me, that took this initial vision and expanded it into the impressive club it is today.”

After graduation, Nora Jean took a gap year to save up for veterinary school applications and travel costs for interviews. “I continued to work as a veterinary assistant, and I also took on a teaching role at Rutgers in the SEBS General Honors Program, where I was a co-instructor in honors seminars. I combined this appointment with my tutoring role at the Rutgers Learning Center, where I continued to teach chemistry and biochemistry to groups of students.”

She then embarked a competitive, seven-year DVM/Ph.D. program at Colorado State University, followed by a postdoctoral fellow and licensed small animal veterinarian at The Ohio State University.

Nora Jean Nealon worked on a farm to gain hands-on experience to become a vet. Photo; courtesy of Nora Jean Nealon.

Like many of her New Jersey peers interested in becoming veterinarians, Nora Jean had to go out-of-state for vet school as there was no such option in-state at the time. The Shreiber School of Veterinary Medicine at Rowan University, the first in-state veterinary school, is a “game-changer for qualified and deserving pre-veterinary and pre-graduate school students all over New Jersey, which may not have had the financial means to undertake an out of state veterinary degree or may not have been able to complete their degree out of state for many other reasons,” said Nora Jean. “Getting to teach and shape the future of veterinary and graduate students is a privilege.”

She always saw herself in academia and recalls her mother saying that, as a kid, she used to say she wanted to be “a microbiology professor and also a veterinarian.” She finds it both funny and impressive that she ended up doing exactly that. “Little did I know, I’d someday combine these interests into a faculty position focused on research and teaching in these two areas.”

Her Rutgers experience was the bridge to the career and the professional life she’s always had in mind. “SEBS provided me with a rigorous and robust training in many areas of life science, which were critical for my success in both graduate school and veterinary school, and now as a scientist and small animal veterinarian. I still use so much of what I learned as an undergraduate student today in my career.”

She fervently believes that the personal growth that comes from going to college has also helped her professionally. “My SEBS journey taught me important lessons in time management, effective communication, collaboration, setting healthy boundaries, and prioritizing wellness and mental health.”

She credits her ability to participate in undergraduate research as instrumental in her development as a scientist, allowing her to be accepted into a great Ph.D. training program and leading to a postdoctoral position and now, ultimately, a role as a faculty member at Rowan University. “The endless opportunities at SEBS for students to explore careers in teaching, through tutoring, working as teaching assistants, and getting to help faculty design courses, has helped to shape me into the educator I am today.”