Robert A. Lodder, Ph.D.
Professor
Analytical Spectroscopy Research Group
A123 Advanced Science and Technology
Commercialization Center
University of Kentucky
Lexington, KY 40506-0286
Tel: (859) 257-9232
e-mail: lodder@uky.edu
http://asrg.contactincontext.org/
Academic Appointments:
Publication Listings PubMed
• Department of Chemistry, College of Arts and Sciences
• Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering
• Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy
Other Appointments:
• Editor in chief, Contact in Context
Education:
• B.S. cum laude, Natural Science, Xavier University
• Ph.D., Analytical Chemistry, Indiana University
Awards:
• Orville N. Green Award (SETICon)
• Buchi NIR Award
• International IBM Supercomputing Competition, First Prize
• Research & Development 100 Award
• Tomas Hirschfeld Award in Near-IR Analysis (PittCon)
• ASAE Manuscript Award
• National Young Investigator Award, National Science Foundation
Specific Interest in Nutrition:
Transfer modeling to predict energy expenditure of living subjects through obligatory and facultative thermogenesis, and imaging using integrated sensing and processing to verify modeling results.
Research:
The human genome has not been shaped by drugs; it has been shaped by nutrition. In nutrition, genomics is not only about the human genome, it is also about the many bacterial genomes that reside in the human gut. Between 500 and 1000 types of bacteria appear in the human GI tract, and these gut microbes outnumber all of the cells in the body, perhaps by as much as a factor of 10.
Bacteriodes thetaiotamicron can alter the sugars that the intestine makes, so genomics and proteomics affect nutricarbohydromics. Segments of the bacterial genome may have been inserted into mammals eons ago, and then further developed and stabilized by evolution. The genomic revisions by bacteria might permit the "ordinary" bacterial inhabitants of the gut to flourish, while suppressing pathogenic bacteria.
Bacteriodes thetaiotamicron also encodes angiogenin 4, a protein that appears to nourish tumors by creating new blood vessels. Much of our biology may be dependent on metabolic traits encoded in the collective genomes of our microbial partners. Nutrient-sensing molecules encoded by bacteria can sense the contents of the intestines and quickly set up the proper molecular machinery to digest available nutrients. Because of this ability, the gut population of a vegetarian is likely to be very different from the population of one who consumes meat. Intestinal microbes might also affect a person's body mass. Over time, seemingly small differences in ability to extract nutrients from food in the intestines might predispose individuals to obesity. Research in our laboratory using our Matlab genomics programs accesses both bacterial and human genome information, and scans the sequences for possible interactions.
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