The Department of Food Science and Nutrition will host Anqi Zhao, a Ph.D. candidate in the Division of Nutritional Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, for a seminar titled “The Expanding Area of Health Benefits of Brassica Vegetables” on Thursday, March 9, beginning at 12:45 p.m. The virtual seminar will take place on Zoom.

Abstract: This talk will look at how dietary broccoli impacts the gut microbiota and the microbial metabolism of a unique group of compounds in brassica vegetables to benefit the host’s health, potentially through interacting with intestinal bitter taste receptors and the transient receptor potential ankyrin 1.

Bio: Anqi Zhao is a Ph.D. candidate in the Division of Nutritional Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prior to joining Michael Miller’s laboratory as a doctoral student, she completed her M.S. in food science and technology at the Illinois Institute of Technology under the guidance of Britt Burton-Freeman, Indika Edirisinghe, and Aman Sandhu. Her research focuses on the interactions between the gut microbiota and phytochemicals in vegetables and fruits and their association with obesity-related metabolic disorders

Join the Zoom meeting at https://iit-edu.zoom.us/j/3123989873.