 | This biographical article is written like a résumé .(August 2023) |
Kent L. Thornburg (born July 11, 1945) is an American scientist, researcher and professor. He lives in Portland, Oregon and works at Oregon Health & Science University [1] (OHSU), in the School of Medicine. [2] He is the director for both the OHSU Center for Developmental Health [3] and the Moore Institute for Nutrition & Wellness [4] [5]
Source [6]
Thornburg uses a broad range of scientific disciplines to investigate how maternal stressors before, during and after pregnancy affect the risk for the offspring acquiring chronic diseases later in life. This field of research is known as the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD). [6] He was a friend and collaborator of Professor David Barker, [7] FRS, [8] the English physician and epidemiologist who originated the Barker Hypothesis, [9] which proposed that the environmental, social, and nutritional conditions that an embryo, fetus and early infant is exposed to, determine their risk for acquiring chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, obesity and osteoporosis later in life.
Thornburg's research includes cardiac and pulmonary [10] (lung) physiology, placent ology, [11] and developmental programming [12] - as well as epigenetics [13] and epidemiology. He studies the ways in which the fetus adapts to a variety of stressors during pregnancy, including psychosocial and nutritional stress. He also studies the roles that maternal obesity, preeclampsia and gestational diabetes play in placental and fetal growth. He collaborates with scientists in several countries, in rural Oregon and in Alaska.
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1967: Bachelor of Arts in Biology (George Fox University) [14]
1970 and 1972: Master of Science in Zoology and Doctorate of Philosophy in Developmental Physiology and Embryology, (Oregon State University) [15]
1971-1973: NIH Post-doctoral fellow, Cardiovascular Sciences, Department of Physiology (now Department of Chemical Physiology and Biochemistry, [16] (Oregon Health and Science University) [17]
1974: Postdoctoral Studies: Electron Microscopy and Physics, (Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis) [18]
1989-1990: Sabbatical, Molecular Embryology (University of Manchester, UK) [19]
Thornburg is the M. Lowell Edwards [20] Endowed Chair for Cardiovascular Research and Professor of Medicine in the Knight Cardiovascular Institute [21] at OHSU. He holds joint professorships in the Departments of Chemical Physiology and Biochemistry, Biomedical Engineering, Anesthesiology & Perioperative Medicine and Obstetrics, and Gynecology.
A nutrient is a substance used by an organism to survive, grow, and reproduce. The requirement for dietary nutrient intake applies to animals, plants, fungi, and protists. Nutrients can be incorporated into cells for metabolic purposes or excreted by cells to create non-cellular structures, such as hair, scales, feathers, or exoskeletons. Some nutrients can be metabolically converted to smaller molecules in the process of releasing energy, such as for carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and fermentation products, leading to end-products of water and carbon dioxide. All organisms require water. Essential nutrients for animals are the energy sources, some of the amino acids that are combined to create proteins, a subset of fatty acids, vitamins and certain minerals. Plants require more diverse minerals absorbed through roots, plus carbon dioxide and oxygen absorbed through leaves. Fungi live on dead or living organic matter and meet nutrient needs from their host.
The China–Cornell–Oxford Project, short for the "China-Oxford-Cornell Study on Dietary, Lifestyle and Disease Mortality Characteristics in 65 Rural Chinese Counties," was a large observational study conducted throughout the 1980s in rural China, a partnership between Cornell University, the University of Oxford, and the government of China. The study compared the health consequences of diets rich in animal-based foods to diets rich in plant-based foods among people who were genetically similar. In May 1990, The New York Times termed the study "the Grand Prix of epidemiology".
David J. A. Jenkins is a British-born University Professor in the department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Toronto, Canada. He is an advocate and researcher of plant-based nutrition.
Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) is a public research university focusing primarily on health sciences with a main campus, including two hospitals, in Portland, Oregon. The institution was founded in 1887 as the University of Oregon Medical Department and later became the University of Oregon Medical School. In 1974, the campus became an independent, self-governed institution called the University of Oregon Health Sciences Center, combining state dentistry, medicine, nursing, and public health programs into a single center. It was renamed Oregon Health Sciences University in 1981 and took its current name in 2001, as part of a merger with the Oregon Graduate Institute (OGI), in Hillsboro. The university has several partnership programs including a joint PharmD Pharmacy program with Oregon State University in Corvallis.
Thrifty phenotype refers to the correlation between low birth weight of neonates and the increased risk of developing metabolic syndromes later in life, including type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Although early life undernutrition is thought to be the key driving factor to the hypothesis, other environmental factors have been explored for their role in susceptibility, such as physical inactivity. Genes may also play a role in susceptibility of these diseases, as they may make individuals predisposed to factors that lead to increased disease risk.
The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHUSOM) is the medical school of Johns Hopkins University, a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1893, the School of Medicine shares a campus with Johns Hopkins Hospital and Johns Hopkins Children's Center, established in 1889.
The Pennington Biomedical Research Center is a health science-focused research center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It is part of the Louisiana State University System and conducts clinical, basic, and population science research. It is the largest academically-based nutrition research center in the world, with the greatest number of obesity researchers on faculty. The center's over 500 employees occupy several buildings on the 222-acre (0.90 km2) campus. The center was designed by the Baton Rouge architect John Desmond.
Brian J. Druker is a physician-scientist at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), in Portland, Oregon. He is the director of OHSU's Knight Cancer Institute, JELD-WEN Chair of Leukemia Research, Associate Dean for Oncology in the OHSU School of Medicine, and professor of medicine.
Nathan Bryan is a distinguished industrial researcher and an adjunct assistant professor at the Baylor College of Medicine. With a background in biochemistry, he studied nitric oxide restoration in humans, making contributions to the field. Bryan is the co-founder of HumanN, a firm that develops products designed to elevate nitric oxide levels in the human body.
The National Institute for Implementation Research in Non Communicable Diseases, Jodhpur came into existence on 07th December 2019. The institute is located in Jodhpur and it replaces the erstwhile Desert Medicine Research Centre. The institute conducts basic laboratory based research in its microbiology, biochemistry and vector biology as well as Implementation research for improving health services and health systems.
Sharon A. Anderson is an American physician, educator, and researcher practicing in Portland, Oregon. She has contributed extensively to the study of the progression of chronic kidney disease. Her research has focused on diabetic nephropathy, polycystic kidney disease and the pathophysiology of the aging kidney. She was the first woman to serve as President of the American Society of Nephrology (ASN). She was the Chief of the Department of Medicine at the Veteran's Affairs Medical Center in Portland and is currently the Chair of the Department of Medicine at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU). She has been appointed to the National Institutes of Health Council of Councils. Her publications as author or co-author number greater than 150.
The OHSUCenter for Women's Health is a center for clinical services and health education and information for women at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) in Portland, Oregon. It is a designated "National Center of Excellence" for Women's Health, a status granted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. As part of an academic medical center, the Center for Women's Health aims to improve awareness of women's health in the education and research arms of OHSU, and incorporates that education and research into the clinical setting.
Donald Lynn Loriaux is a Professor and Chief of Endocrinology and Diabetes at Oregon Health Sciences University. He is the inventor of the Lx Stethoscope, which increased variable frequency sound transfer, and has won various awards.
Cheryl Ann Marie Anderson is an American epidemiologist. Anderson is a professor at and founding Dean of the University of California San Diego Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science. Anderson's research focus is on nutrition and chronic disease prevention in under-served human populations.
Dr. A. Catharine Ross is the Dorothy Foehr Huck Chair and a Professor of Nutrition and Physiology at Penn State University. She studies areas of nutritional science related to the vitamin A molecule.
Melissa Wong is an American biologist known for her work describing cell fusion, the cancer stem cell niche, and early detection strategies. She currently holds appointments at Oregon Health & Science University in the Department of Cell, Developmental and Cancer Biology and co-leads the Knight Cancer Institute's Cancer Biology program.
James Affram Adjaye is a Ghanaian British Stem cell scientist. He is the Director of the Institute for Stem Cell Research and Regenerative Medicine at the Heinrich Heine University's faculty of medicine. He also led the Molecular Embryology and Aging Group of the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics situated in Berlin, Germany.
Lisa M. Coussens is an American cancer scientist who is Professor and Chair of the Department of Cell, Developmental and Cancer Biology and Deputy Director for Basic and Translational Research in the Knight Cancer Institute at the Oregon Health & Science University. She served as 2022-2023 President of the American Association for Cancer Research.
Marcia L. Stefanick is a Professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Director of the Stanford Women's Health and Sex Differences in Medicine Center. Stefanick’s research investigates the role of lifestyle, particularly exercise, diet, weight control, and menopausal hormone therapy, on chronic disease prevention. Her major focus is heart disease, breast cancer, osteoporosis, and dementia.
Elinor L. Sullivan is an American physiologist, specializing in behavioural neuroscience. Her research focuses primarily on the early influence of environmental and maternal factors on early child development, specifically emphasizing the mental disorders associated with these factors.