Advances in dairy Research
Open Access

Juan J Loor

Biography

He is awarded PhD in Animal Science, Dairy from Virginia Tech, Blacksburg in the 2001.  He holds a Master Degree (MS) in Dairy Science from Virginia Tech, Blacksburg in the 1997, followed by a Bachelor’s Degree (BSc) in Animal Science from University of California, Davis in the 1995. Currently, he is working as an Associate Professor for Department of Animal Sciences and Division of Nutritional Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana. His international experience includes various programs, contributions and participation in different countries for diverse fields of study.  His research interests reflect in his wide range of publications in various national and international journals.   

Research Interest

Systems biology; molecular nutrition; genomics; metabolomics; bioinformatics; nutritional programming of adipose tissue; mammary gland development; lipid metabolism; conjugated linoleic acids (CLA); nutritional and physiological genomics; comparative genomics; regulation of milk fat and protein synthesis; nutritional regulation of muscle development.My research program focuses on the study of how nutrition, physiological state and their interaction affect tissue function and metabolic adaptations through alterations in the transcriptome, i.e. mRNA expression profiles. We rely heavily on cutting-edge technologies such as microarrays, DNA sequencing, quantitative RT-PCR, and bioinformatics to generate biologically-meaningful data. The integration of these data sets is at the core of our Systems Biology efforts in Nutritional Sciences. We use large animals as primary models but also perform more fundamental studies with animal tissue cell lines or explant cultures. Through the use of high-throughput techniques and bioinformatics we intend to identify genes that might be associated with susceptibility to immune and metabolic diseases (e.g. hepatic steatosis, mastitis) and also to developing obesity.

Relevant Topics