Liu Named Chair-elect of the American Society for Nutrition Diet and Cancer Section

Associate Professor of Nutrition Zhenhua Liu has been elected to serve as chair-elect of the diet and cancer research interest section (RIS) of the American Society for Nutrition (ASN). He will serve in this role through the end of June before taking over the position of chair for a one-year term from July 2022 to June 2023.

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Members of the ASN Diet and Cancer RIS focus on the impact of nutritional status and dietary factors in cancer development; the role of diet in modulating cellular, biochemical and molecular events associated with carcinogenesis at numerous sites in animal and human models; and the relevance and application of research in the field of cancer chemoprevention.

“It is my great honor to serve for the ASN Diet and Cancer RIS, which is dedicated to bringing together the world’s top researchers, clinical nutritionists, and industry partners to advance our knowledge and application of nutrition for cancer prevention and thereby to reduce the burden of cancer in our society,” says Liu.

As the chair-elect of the Diet and Cancer section, Liu hopes to specifically facilitate and promote scientific exchange among ASN members who focus on research, teaching and outreach activities in the area of nutrition and cancer prevention.

Liu joined the UMass Amherst faculty in 2012 after spending several years in the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston. His Nutrition and Cancer Prevention Laboratory investigates how diet and lifestyle and their metabolically-related gene variants interact to mediate the development of chronic diseases. For a long period, his research has been focusing on 1) obesity-driven inflammation and 2) nutritional epigenetics in the regulation of Wnt pathway and the prevention of cancer. His lab utilizes cell culture, animal models and human biospecimens, biochemical and molecular techniques, as well as nutritional informatics and functional genomic approaches to understand the etiology of human chronic diseases. The ultimate goal of his work is to integrate his lab's biological findings with dietary and lifestyle strategies to diminish the burden of chronic diseases in society.

The American Society for Nutrition was formed in 2005 from a merger of the American Society for Nutritional Sciences (formerly the American Institute for Nutrition, established 1928); the American Society for Clinical Nutrition (established 1961); and the Society for International Nutrition (established 1996). Its mission is to advance the science, education and practice of nutrition.