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Yifan Jia is an M.S. student in Nutrition completing the combined Dietetic Internship program. Originally from Beijing, China, she earned dual degrees in Nutrition and Dietetics and Global Health, along with a certificate in Entrepreneurship, from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Her research interests center on women’s reproductive health and the complex relationships among nutrients, the gut microbiome, and metabolic diseases. She is currently a member of the Lujan Lab, where she investigates the impact of

Yukun Wu is a Master's student focusing on molecular nutrition working with Dr. Sander Kersten. His research interests are exploring the factors triggering lipolysis and lipid oxidation while maintaining redox balance. Yukun earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Clinical Nutrition at the University of California, Davis. He gained knowledge in medical nutrition therapy, and hope to integrate his research interests with obesity management in the future.

I’m a first-year master’s student in the Dietetic concentration, working in the Aydemir Lab to study how zinc and its transporters regulate intestinal function and metabolic processes. My research interests include gut–adipocyte crosstalk and the role of zinc and zinc transporters in glucose and lipid metabolism. I earned my B.S. in Clinical Nutrition from the University of California, Davis, where I developed a strong foundation in clinical dietetics and nutrition support.

Yue (Jo) Jia is completing the dietetic internship program. She earned both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Nutrition from Bastyr University, where her training combined evidence-based practice with a holistic approach to health. Yue’s professional and research interests focus on the intersection of disordered eating, cultural identity, and food insecurity, with an emphasis on fostering positive relationships with food through inclusive, community-centered care. Her hands-on experience spans clinical, food service, and community nutrition, and

Shah Mohammad Fahim is a Ph.D. student in Nutrition, working with Dr. Saurabh Mehta. He is a physician and earned his MBBS from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. He later earned his M.P.H. in Epidemiology with Summa-Cum-Laude distinction from the American International University, Bangladesh. Before joining the Mehta Research Group, he was working for the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b) conducting research on maternal and child nutrition. Fahim is passionate about understanding

Shariwa Oke is a doctoral candidate, working with Dr. Laura Bellows. She received her undergraduate degrees in Physiology and Nutrition at the University of Arizona and her MS in Biomedical Visualization from the University of Illinois at Chicago where she developed a mobile app-based intervention to mediate patient-provider interactions surrounding obesity diagnoses. She then worked at the University of Chicago creating scientific visualizations and developing a tobacco cessation curriculum for public health research.
Shariwa’s current

Savita Sastry is a Ph.D. candidate in the Division of Nutritional Sciences, mentored by Dr. Tolunay Aydemir. Her research integrates experimental and computational approaches to uncover how zinc deficiency reshapes spatial host–microbe–nutrient interactions in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Combining multi-omics analyses, region-specific murine models, and ex vivo organoid systems, she investigates how zinc availability influences microbial function, intestinal barrier integrity, and tissue regeneration. Savita also develops computational pipelines to translate murine genomics and metagenomics insights