Yeonhwa Park

My current research interests can be divided into two categories; first, food bioactives for prevention of obesity and aging and secondly, investigating environmental contaminants and development of obesity and type 2 diabetes.

A. Food Bioactives for Prevention of Obesity and Aging

This research interest started as I have worked on Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA). CLA was originally identified unexpectedly as an anti-cancer principal from ground beef in 1987. Since then, CLA has shown other biologically beneficial activities, including reducing body fat. In addition, I have expanded my research focus for many other food bioactives for obesity prevention. For this, I have used multiple experimental models, such as rodents, Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila, as well as many types of mammalian tissue culture models. Among them, C. elegans is also used for identifying potential food bioactives for aging study as this model has many benefits for research for aging, including a short life-span.

B. Environmental Contaminants and Development of Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes

In line with above mentioned research interest on obesity, it is important to note that current epidemic of obesity and related diseases cannot be explained completely by considering changes in societal, behavioral, or dietary habits of individuals. Recently, there is an emerging body of evidence indicating that exposure to persistent organic pollutants, including insecticides, were positively correlated with e­­xcessive weight gain and altered glucose homeostasis. However, the detailed molecular mechanism regarding how these environmental chemicals perturb metabolism and ultimately contribute to the development of obesity and other related diseases have yet to be elucidated fully. Thus my group is investigating the role of insecticides on development of obesity and type 2 diabetes.