DR. CHRISTOPHER BLESSO
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT
Dr. Blesso is an assistant professor with research experience in the areas of clinical and molecular nutrition. His research interests focus on preventing complex, nutritionally-modifiable chronic diseases, such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.
He completed B.S. and M.S. degrees at Boston University before obtaining his Ph.D. as a USDA fellow at the University of Connecticut, where he studied the effects of eggs on lipid metabolism. He then completed additional training at Wake Forest University School of Medicine where he was an American Heart Association post-doctoral fellow studying high-density lipoprotein (HDL) metabolism in transgenic mice. A major research goal of his laboratory is to elucidate how various components from plant and animal foods impact pathways related to inflammation, lipid and lipoprotein metabolism. Specifically, he is interested in the effects of dietary phospholipids from eggs and other foods on obesity-related disease, as well as the role of diet in preventing lipoprotein dysfunction and heart disease.
Currently, his experimental studies utilize tissue culture and mouse models of human disease to examine disease pathogenesis using molecular biology and biochemistry techniques. In addition to molecular nutrition studies, his laboratory is involved in conducting several human clinical trials examining effects of dietary factors, such as eggs, on lipoprotein metabolism and HDL functionality in healthy and insulin-resistant populations.