Ellen W. Demerath, PhD
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Education
Summary
My research is at the interface of nutrition, human biology, and child development, and seeks to understand how maternal and early-life nutritional factors alter health trajectories across the life course. My current studies focus on maternal nutrition and gestational diabetes in shaping lactation and human milk composition; and identifying nutritional indicators of preterm infant growth that predict neurodevelopmental outcomes.
I am a senior investigator with nationally and internationally recognized expertise in the developmental origins of health and disease. I have published over 200 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on nutrition, obesity, breastfeeding, and child growth and development. My research has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health since 2005. I have served on federal expert panels on nutrition during pregnancy, breastfeeding and human milk, and infant adiposity sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and the National Academy of Sciences.