Nutrition and Dietetic Career Workshop: Another incredible student-led event

Meghan Windam hosts session at 2025 Texas A&M Employee Wellness Fair

Meghan Windam led a session during the virtual portion of the 2025 Texas A&M Employee Wellness Fair, an annual event hosted by the Living Well group in collaboration with Texas A&M Rec Sports. Her session, “Fuel Your Body, Shop Smart,” was an interactive and educational presentation that guided attendees through store aisles, revealing simple steps for better health, practical tips for saving money, effortless meal planning and separating fact from fiction in the world of nutrition. Her presentation provided audience members with a clear understanding of vitamins and minerals to confidently build a healthier relationship with food.

Dr. Rebecca Seguin-Fowler and Dr. Marco Palma recognized at College Connect

The Texas A&M University College of Agriculture & Life Sciences hosted College Connect, an academic year kick-off and celebration of the Dean’s outstanding achievement awards, in September.
 
Rebecca Seguin-Fowler, Ph.D., R.D.N., L.D., C.S.C.S., IHA associate director for Healthy Living, received the Faculty Mentoring award for outstanding achievement in service.

Marco Palma, Ph.D., IHA interim associate director for Responsive Agriculture, was awarded for outstanding achievement in research.
 
Congratulations Drs. Seguin-Fowler and Palma, we are incredibly proud of you and your service to the Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture and the Department of Nutrition!

Healthy Living team and Department of Nutrition Ph.D. students participate in inaugural Healthy Living Fair at Chestnut Square

On Oct. 4, the Healthy Living, HL, team members of Texas A&M AgriLife’s Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture, IHA, participated in the inaugural Healthy Living Fair at Chestnut Square in McKinney. The team includes two Department of Nutrition Ph.D. students – Hannah Lamar and Diana Kolb. The goal of the visit was to connect with community members, promote IHA, and recruit potential participants for the GAMMA, Glucose, Activity, and Mood - Mobile Assessment, study and The USDA Nutrition Hub at Texas A&M project. 

 

Sun Lab dissertation defense success: Hye Won Han 

Hye Won Han successfully defended her dissertation, “Intermittent Fasting Restores Metabolism and Immunity in Obesity and Aging through Nutrient-Sensing Ghrelin Signaling,” in mid-October for her Ph.D. in nutrition. She was mentored by Dr. Yuxiang Sun and provided guidance to countless junior graduate students and undergraduate student researchers – in addition to being highly productive herself, with two first-author articles published and another eight on which she is co-author. 

Chapkin Lab dissertation defense success: Destiny Mullens 

Destiny Mullens successfully defended her dissertation, “Utilizing Synthetic Data to Enhance Biological Assessment of Bulk RNA Sequencing Data,” in mid-September for her Ph.D. in biomedical sciences. She was mentored by Dr. Ivan Ivanov and Dr. Robert Chapkin. Mullens has published five papers to date, with several currently in review. 

Outstanding Grader

 

Brooke Donley is a first year student in the Masters of Clinical Nutrition Dietetic Internship program. She has transitioned in to the Texas A&M community well and did not allow the newness of this experience to hinder her performance as a grader and supporter of undergraduate students. She goes beyond the role of course grader, assisting Dr. Beathard in the development of new assignments and engaging course activities and encouraging and supporting undergraduates enrolled in the classes she is serving.

 

“Brooke is a supportive grader who has a voice of reason and is consistently available to help and encourage undergraduate students,” said Dr. Beathard.

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Department of Nutrition representatives 

 

We are excited to recognize two of our outstanding undergraduate students who have taken on leadership roles to represent the Department of Nutrition at the college level. Anna Tillinghast has been selected to represent Nutrition in the 2025–2026 College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Ambassador Program. Paisley Chandler has been selected to represent Nutrition on the 2025–2026 College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Student Council (COALS Council). We are fortunate to have representation from these two students—thank you, Anna and Paisley!

 

Dr. Heidi Vanden Brink received notice of award for an R01 on which she is co-investigator. The project, “Emergence of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) during adolescence,” seeks to identify early ovarian features that predict PCOS risk, as well as establish a nomogram for ovarian morphology during adolescence.

 

We look forward to all the exciting work taking place in the Vanden Brink lab that will be supported by this grant!

 

Learn more about the work being done in Dr. Vanden Brink’s lab.

In this perspective article, Dr. Sylvie Estrela and co-authors dive into how nutrition deprivation shapes gut microbial physiology, ecology, and evolution to drive interactions both between the microbes themselves, and between the microbes and their host. They also highlight gaps in current understanding of how nutrient deprivation can affect microbial communities, stress responses, and implications of these factors for chronic infections and therapeutic strategies. 

 

Access the full article here.

 

Chapkin lab researcher Selim Romero collaborated with the Cai group based out of the TAMU Department of Veterinary Integrative Biosciences to publish this article, which details the development of a statistical framework for meaningful gene expression analysis using single-cell RNA sequencing data. This new pipeline will be useful to scientists working across a broad spectrum of human disease, including (but not limited to) obesity, fibrosis, and cancer.

 

Access the full article here.

This paper, first-authored by Dr. Hongying Wang in Dr. Sun's lab, is the first investigation of the effect of neuronal GHSR suppression in aging-associated metabolic and cognitive decline. The findings strongly suggest neuronal GHSR plays a significant role in age-related metabolic health and memory function. This study provides proof-of-concept evidence that neuronal GHSR suppression protects against age-associated metabolic and memory impairments by regulating thermogenesis and insulin sensitivity in brown adipose tissue and modulating inflammation and neurotropic regulators in the brain. These findings suggest that neuronal GHSR may serve as a promising therapeutic target for promoting healthy aging by combating age-related metabolic and cognitive dysfunctions.

 

Read the full article here.

 

Oral & Poster Presentations

 

Borchers L, MacMillan Uribe AL, Wang X. Community cafes: Volunteering with a purpose so that others may enjoy. Presented at Annual Institute: Association of Community Health Nurse Educators, Columbia, South Carolina.

 

Sun, Y. A Gut Feeling of Aging: Ghrelin Signaling in Immune Reprogramming and Disease Resilience. Invited talk, Diet and Optimum Health Conference 2025, Linus Pauling Institute, Oregon State University.

 

Sun, Y. Nutrient-sensing GHSR in macrophage programming and inflammaging. Invited speaker representing awardees of NIA (5 total representing NIA), Trans-NIH Chronic Inflammation Working Group (CIWG) on Inflammaging: Mechanisms, Markers, and Intervention Strategies, organized by NIA, NCI and NIMH. Rockville, Maryland.

 

Publications

 

Liao Y, Brannon GE, Rethorst CD, Mau M, Bevers TB, Schembre SM, Basen-Enquist KM. Using continuous glucose monitoring as a biological feedback strategy to motivate physical activity in cancer survivors: A mixed-methods pilot study. Cancer Control, 3;32:10732748251359406, 2025.

 

MacMillan Uribe AL, George A, McNeely A, Xin L, Largacha Cevallos E, Rethorst CD, Seguin Fowler RA, Szeszulski J. Strong Teens for Healthy Schools: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial to Evaluate the Effectiveness of a Nutrition, Physical Activity, And Civic Engagement Program on Metabolic Syndrome and Positive Youth Development Among Middle School Students. Frontiers in Public Health.2025; 13; 1654678. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1654678

 

Akter, S.; Longhini, G.M.;Haque, M.S.; Farnell, Y.Z.; Sun, Y. Black Cumin (Nigella sativa) as a Healthy Feed Additive for Broiler Production: A Focused Review. Poultry 2025, 4, 49. https://doi.org/10.3390/poultry4040049

 

Estrela, S., Long, J.Z. & Huang, K.C. How nutrient starvation impacts the gut microbiome. Nat Microbiol (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-025-02139-9

 

Gatlin, S. Gupta, S. Romero, R.S. Chapkinand J.J. Cai.  Exploring cell-to-cell variability and functional insights through differential gene variable analysis. NPJ Systems Biology and Applications 11:29, 2025.  PMID:40113778, PMCID: PMC11926233

 

Romero, S. Gupta, V. Gatlin, R.S. Chapkinand J.J. Cai.  Quantum annealing for enhanced feature selection in single-cell RNA sequencing data analysis. Quantum Machine Intelligence (In Press). PMID: 40832053,PMCID: PMC12364049

 

Esmaeilinezhad Z, Ghosh NR, Walsh CM, Steen JP, Burgman AM, Mertz D, Johnston BC. Probiotics for the prevention of Clostridioides difficile-associated diarrhea in adults and children. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2025 Sep 11;9(9):CD006095. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD006095.pub5.

 

Wang, H., Wu, CS., Landrock, D. et al. GHSR suppression in neurons protects against aging-associated metabolic and cognitive impairments. GeroScience (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-025-01922-0

Giving to the Department of Nutrition

The quality of education for nutrition students at Texas A&M University is shaped by the invaluable contributions of a high-quality educational team. This includes not only faculty and staff but also donors, advisory committee members, guest speakers, industry leaders, internship supervisors, employers, community partners and many others. Together, they enrich the student experience and support the department's mission to advance the field of nutrition.

You can support the Department of Nutrition by making an endowed gift, which provides lasting support, or by contributing a non-endowed gift for immediate use toward a specific purpose. Your generosity plays a critical role in fostering student success and innovation in the field of nutrition.

About the Department of Nutrition

The Department of Nutrition at Texas A&M University is committed to providing students with an exceptional education that equips them with the knowledge, skills and expertise to excel as leaders in nutrition, health and food systems. Our students receive a comprehensive, science-driven education that prepares them for careers in health care, clinical nutrition, research, public health and more.

We offer a range of programs, including undergraduate and graduate degrees, minors and certificates, to help students expand and tailor their educational journey. With guidance from our experienced faculty and staff, who bring cutting-edge research and real-world expertise to the classroom, students are supported every step of the way as they prepare to address the complex challenges in the field of nutrition.

aglifesciences.tamu.edu | nutrition.tamu.edu 

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