Maret Traber. PhD
Linus Pauling Science Center 451
2900 Southwest Campus Way
Corvallis, OR 97331
United States
Academic interests
Dr. Maret Traber is considered one of the world’s experts on vitamin E. Her research efforts are focused on the physiological properties of vitamin E, especially human vitamin E kinetics and the factors that modulate human vitamin E requirements, such as bioavailability, lipid peroxidation and metabolism. Given the benefit of vitamin E in clinical trials assessing fatty liver disease, her laboratory has begun to focus on identifying lipids susceptible to damage as a result of inadequate vitamin E using untargeted methodologies. Examples using lipidomics to identify targets of lipid peroxidation are studies examining brains isolated from vitamin E deficient zebrafish and using metabolomics to examine the molecular dysregulation that occurs in vitamin E deficient zebrafish embryos, leading to their early and severe morbidity and mortality. The current work in adult humans with metabolic syndrome suggests that dysregulation of vitamin E pharmacokinetics and metabolism are signs of impaired vitamin E status.
Biography
Dr. Maret Traber is a Principal Investigator and Director of the Oxidative and Nitrosative Stress Core in the Linus Pauling Institute, and Professor in the Nutrition program in the School of Public Health and Nutrition in the College of Health at Oregon State University. She holds the “LPI Professorship in Micronutrient Research.” She received both undergraduate and doctoral degrees in Nutrition Science from the University of California at Berkeley.
With nearly 250 scientific publications, Dr. Traber is considered one of the world’s leading experts on vitamin E. Her research efforts are focused on human vitamin E kinetics and the factors that modulate human vitamin E requirements, especially bioavailability and metabolism.
Dr. Traber is the President of the Oxygen Club of California; she currently serves on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and Free Radical Biology & Medicine. In 2000, Dr. Traber served on the National Academy of Science’s, Institute of Medicine Panel on Dietary Antioxidants and Related Compounds that established the dietary requirements for the antioxidant vitamins C and E, selenium and carotenoids.