Nutrition in the Control of Inflammation

Bradley S. Ferguson is an Associate Professor of Nutrition at the University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada. His lab adopts integrative, translational research approaches that encompass bioinformatics, in vitro cell culture, and in vivo animal models to elucidate dietary food components that act as epigenetic modifiers, as well as the role of dietary epigenetic modifiers on pathological cardiac signaling, gene expression, and remodeling. He also seeks to understand how sarcomere protein acetylation links metabolic disease (obesity and diabetes) to pathological cardiac remodeling and skeletal muscle dysfunction. Dr. Ferguson has published his findings across a wide range of peer-reviewed journals, including Scientific Reports, Journal of Animal Science, American Journal of Physiology, Cell Reports, PNAS, and the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology. Steven Frese is an Assistant Professor of Nutrition at the University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada and holds an appointment as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Department of Food Science and Technology at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. His research applies principles of microbial ecology and evolutionary biology to develop rational interventions to improve human health via the gut microbiome. This includes applying advanced techniques including bioinformatics, DNA/RNA sequencing, and mass spectrometry to determine strain- and ecosystem-level interactions both in vitro and in human clinical trials. His work has primarily focused on the gut microbiome in early life, and the role of diet and the microbiome in shaping infant health and development. Dr. Frese’s work has been published in a variety of broad interest peer-reviewed journals including Cell, Science Translational Medicine, Cell Host & Microbe, and PLoS Genetics, as well as audience-specific journals including Pediatric Research, Glycobiology, and Bioinformatics.

Section I. Introduction 1. Introduction: Nutrition, the microbiome, and the epigenome in human health and disease Section II. Diet, lifestyle and the microbiome in development and inflammatory diseases 2. The microbiome across the lifecycle 3. The microbiome in infant gut health and development 4. The microbiome in early life as a risk factor for autoimmune diseases 5. The microbiome in gut inflammation and carcinogenesis 6. Obesity and the microbiome: A role for microbes in insulin resistance 7. Fiber and the gut microbiome and its impact on inflammation 8. Diet-specific impacts on the gut microbiome and their relation to health and inflammation 9. Hypertension, Obesity, and the microbiome in cardiovascular disease 10. Bariatric surgery, gut microbes, and metabolic health 11. Caloric restriction in the microbial regulation of inflammaging 12. Exercise, the gut microbiome and inflammatory disease Section III. Nutrition and the epigenome in metabolic and cardiovascular diseases 13. Obesity, histone acetylation and insulin resistance 14. Obesity, DNA methylation and metabolic disease 15. Diet, histone modifications and cardiovascular diseases 16. Diet, DNA methylation and cardiovascular diseases 17. Obesity and non-coding RNAs in epigenetic inheritance of metabolic disease 18. Caloric restriction in the epigenetic regulation of aging and longevity 19. Exercise in epigenetic programing throughout life Section IV. Diet, epigenetics, and the microbiome in inflammatory disease 20. Gut microbiome, epigenetics and neuro-inflammatory disease 21. Caloric restriction, gut microbes, epigenetics and inflammaging 22. Obesity, gut bacteria and the epigenetic control of metabolic disease 23. The microbiome-epigenome axis in infant gut health and development 24. The microbiome and epigenome intersect to regulate gut inflammation Section V. Conclusions: Health-disparities in diet, epigenetics and gut microbes 25. Race, gender and ethnicity in the control of our gut microbes 26. The role for social-environmental influences in epigenetic determination 27. Practical applications for diet and lifestyle to improve microbial and epigenetic health