Projects

Total antioxidants and oxidants in foods, drinks and supplements
As the level of such components has not previously been known in detail, we have initiated an extensive chemical screening of several thousand products from many areas around the world. This novel food table enables us to study the role of dietary antioxidants in chronic diseases.

Bioactivities in mechanistic cell culture systems
Extracts are made from the products with highest levels of antioxidants and tested for bioactivity in mechanistic assays related to NF-kB and Keap1/Nrf2.

Bioactivities in mechanistic transgenic reporter mice
We have developed several novel luciferase-based reporter mice models specific for various transcription factors or response elements such NF-kB, Keap1/Nrf2/ARE and DR5. Foods and extracts made from the products with highest levels of antioxidants are tested for bioactivity by real-time in vivo imaging.

Dampening of oxidative stress and inflammation
Various populations with increased oxidative stress or chronic diseases are treated with antioxidant-rich foods and components proven to be effective in the preclinical experiments. Biomarkers of inflammation, antioxidant status and oxidative stress, as well as full genome transcriptomic analysis are the major biomarkers assessed.

Antioxidants and chronic diseases
In collaborative studies we are testing the hypothesis that antioxidant-rich foods may reduce risk of chronic diseases.