Care Philosophy
CU Medicine is the largest and most comprehensive multi-specialty physician group practice in the Rocky Mountain region. CU Medicine has over 75 CU Medicine primary and specialty healthcare clinics across Colorado's Front Range and metro Denver. We also offer virtual visits, also known as telehealth or telemedicine.
Credentials
Doctor of Philosphy
Gender
Female
Languages
English
Hospital Affiliation
Children's Hospital Colorado
Provider Information
Professional Memberships
American Diabetes Association, Member American Society for Nutrition, Member, Past Chair: Maternal, Perinatal and Pediatric Nutrition Research Interest Section The Obesity Society, Member
Research and Grants
Grants
Postdoctoral Fellow (2009)
Cellular Mechanisms for Insulin Resistance in Human Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (2011)
The Effect of Maternal Obesity on Skeletal Muscle Cell Differentiation (2013)
Maternal Programming of Fetal Stem Cells (2013)
Mesenchymal Stem Cells and the Epigenetic Programming of Neonatal Adiposity (2014)
Mesenchymal Stem Cells and the Epigenetic Programming of Neonatal Adiposity (2014)
Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells and the Epigenetic Programming of Obesity (2015)
Umbilical cord-derived stem cell metabolism: Understanding mechanisms for childhood obesity risk (2018)
Epigenetic programming of infant mesenchymal stem cells: mechanisms for obesity and diabetes risk in humans (2018)
Impact of weight loss on the intrinsic circadian clock in human skeletal muscle (2021)
Stress and Human Stem/Progenitor Cells: Biobehavioral Mechanisms (2022)
Biological Embedding of Social Disadvantage in Human Stem Cells: Implications for Health Disparities (2022)
Research Interests for Patients
I have a robust foundation in obesity research, with 18 years dedicated to identifying and understanding metabolic phenotypes in primary human stem cells. My research program aims to understand how fetal exposures predispose infants to metabolic disease later in life. In pursuit of this goal, my lab pioneered the use of mesenchymal stem cells collected from umbilical cord tissue of newborn infants to investigate molecular and metabolic phenotypes predictive of future disease risk. Such tools have allowed us to identify children most at risk for excess adiposity in childhood with greater precision than other common measures collected at birth. As we move toward precision approaches for obesity prevention, infant stem cells will help to identify gestational exposures most impactful, and their modifiability through pregnancy interventions, thereby informing evidence-based prenatal clinical care.
Education and Training
Undergraduate Schools
BS, University of Massachusetts–Amherst (MA) (2001)
Graduate Schools
MS, Ohio University (2005)
PhD, East Carolina University (2009)
Information for referring providers
Call the specific clinic to coordinate your patient referrals via the office staff.