Held in DPRI 1.102

The Department of Nutritional Sciences is pleased to welcome Dr. James C. Fleet, Distinguished Professor, Purdue University, Department of Nutrition Science. Dr. Fleet is currently a Professor in the Department of Nutrition Science at Purdue University.  He was previously on the faculty at Tufts University and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.  Dr. Fleet's research focuses on the molecular and physiological functions of vitamin D in the control of calcium (Ca) metabolism and the prevention of cancer. Dr. Fleet has developed and used genetically modified mice to study the essential role of the vitamin D receptor in Ca metabolism, to show that regulation of intestinal Ca absorption is the most important role of the vitamin during growth, to reveal that the apical membrane Ca transporter TRPV6 is a bona fide mediator of Ca entry across the apical membrane during Ca absorption, and to show that optimal Ca absorption efficiency is critical for attaining peak bone mass. More recently, Dr. Fleet has used forward genetics to study how dietary Ca intake interacts with genetics to influence Ca metabolism and bone mass during growth.  Using this approach his group has identified new genetic loci controlling bone, vitamin D, and Ca metabolism and he has shown that dietary Ca strongly influences the penetrance of many of these loci. These findings are a “proof of principle” for the concept of “precision nutrition”. Dr. Fleet’s research has been supported continuously since 1997 by grants from the NIH, the USDA, and the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR).  He has served as a contributing editor to Nutrition Reviews, on the editorial boards of The Journal of Nutrition, and Endocrinology (current), and as a standing member on the INMP and CDP study sections at NIH.  He has organized FASEB Summer Conferences, a summer workshop on “Big Data analysis for Biomedical Researchers”, and the 2019 International Vitamin D Workshop meeting in New York City.  He has served on the Program Committee for the Vitamin D Workshop (currently the CEO), the American Society for Nutrition (ASN), the AICR, and the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.   He has received a number of honors for his work including:  the Mead Johnson Award from the ASN (2001), as "University Faculty Scholar"(2004) and a “Distinguished Professor” (2012) by Purdue University, and being named a Fellow of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (2019).

His talk is titled “Yin and Yang: genetics and diet interact to influence bone health.” Friday, February 14, starting at 1 p.m. in DPRI 1.102.