The Department of Food Science and Nutrition will host Bikram Upadhyaya, a Ph.D. candidate in nutrition and health sciences at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, for a seminar titled “Characterization and Bioactivity of Small Peptides Following Ingestion of Dry Edible Beans” on Thursday, April 6, beginning at 12:45 p.m. The virtual seminar will take place on Zoom.

Abstract: Dry edible beans are an inexpensive source of quality protein and bioactive compounds including peptides, phenolic acids, flavonols, flavan-3-ols, anthocyanidins, and flavanones. The g-glutamyl peptides (g-GPs) found in dry edible beans exhibit biological activities (antioxidant, anti-inflammatory) with potential benefits against chronic metabolic disorders. In this study, we evaluated the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of three common varieties of dry edible beans: black, great northern, and pinto beans in vitro. In addition, we investigated the metabolic effects of g-glutamyl valine (g-EV) in diabetic obese (db/db) mice.

Bio: Bikram Upadhyaya is a Ph.D. candidate in nutrition and health sciences at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. He completed a B.Tech. in food fechnology from Tribhuvan University in Nepal, and joined the University of Wisconsin–Madison as an associate research specialist in 2011. He got his master’s degree in biomedical engineering from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. After a few years of industry experience, he started his Ph.D. at UNL with a focus on understanding the mechanism of action of natural food compounds and evaluating their therapeutic potential against chronic metabolic disorders, such as obesity, type-2 diabetes, and associated cardiovascular dysfunction. He is a secretary of the Dietary Bioactive Components Research Interest Section in the American Society for Nutrition and is also affiliated with the Institute of Food Technologists and the American Oil Chemists’ Society.