Research Team
Dallas Lab
Lab Director
Dave guides the research team to unravel the biological secrets of human and bovine milk and applies these findings to improving infant and adult health. He is fascinated by how milk’s components, particularly proteins and peptides, are affected by digestion and how these components exert functions within the gut. He is highly motivated to find methods to process milk that enhance safety while best maintaining its incredible bioactivity.
Research Associates
Bum Jin Kim, PhD
Bum Jin has expertise in mass spectrometry and focuses on characterization of milk proteins, peptides and glycopeptides. Bum Jin has worked on an array of projects in the lab, including developing novel methods for extraction and analysis of milk peptides and glycopeptides, examining the survival of an array of bioactive proteins and peptides across digestion in the infant and adult gut and examining the effect of an array of processing methods on the human milk proteome.
Ningjian Liang, PhD
Ningjian has expertise in HPLC, mass spectrometry, FTIR, and Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Spectrometry, cell culture (flow cytometry, immunofluorescence imaging, cell cytotoxicity analysis), and molecular biology techniques (protein, DNA, and RNA extraction, western blotting, quantitative real-time PCR microarray, gel electrophoresis). In the lab, Ningjian’s research projects have included identifying gut health-enhancing peptides in milk and intestinal samples from infants and adults as well as determine the structure and function of bioactive proteins in milk influenced by different processing techniques.
Clay Swackhamer, PhD, PE
Clay's research focuses on the use of in vitro digestion systems to study the biophysical processes of digestion. His graduate work at UC Davis involved the design, construction, computational modeling, and experimental use of gastric and intestinal digestion systems incorporating simulated peristalsis. His postdoctoral work at Purdue was on the effect of modified arabinoxylans on the colonic microbiome, studied using in vitro fecal fermentation.
Postdoctoral Scholars
Rohit Kumar, PhD
Rohit has expertise in identification of antimicrobial peptides using functional assays and mass spectrometry with experiences in the area of assisted reproductive technologies (in-vitro maturation, in-vitro fertilization and in-vitro culture) and aptamer-based cell/biomolecule detection. In the lab, Rohit examines the bioactivities of human milk peptides released in the infant digestive tract.
Abdul Wazed, PhD
Abdul has expertise on thermal and non-thermal processing of milk. In the lab, Abdul examines how alternative processing methods affect milk proteins and the bioactivity of peptides released in the gut of infants following digestion assay, proteomics and peptidomics. He is passionate about specialty dairy ingredients and New Product Development (NPD).
Courtesy Faculty Collaborators
Michael Pitino, PhD
Mike has expertise in the effects of processing methods (high pressure processing) on human milk bioactive proteins. In the lab, Mike examines how high pressure processing affects the survival of proteins and release of peptides across infant digestion using mass spectrometry.
Lab Manager/Staff
Jen Branson, MS
Jen provides careful lab management, student mentoring and project and grant management.
Russell Kuhfeld, MS
Russell focuses on the identification of bitter peptides in aged cheddar cheese. His thesis applied a novel experimental approach using crossflow filtration for fractionation and purification of a water-soluble cheese extract in conjunction with tandem MS, sensory and microbial analysis.
Marie Ryan, MS
Marie applies mass spectrometry to examine the survival of glycomacropeptide in human blood circulation.
PhD students
Richard Lumata
Md Atikur Rahman, MS
Atikur examines the bioactivity of milk peptides released during digestion in infants.
Brianne Wai
Brianne examines the survival of human milk proteins across infant digestion.
Jillien Zukaitis, MS
Jillien studies how milk peptides released during infant digestion modulate the immune function of macrophages.
MS Students
Bishal Barman
Bishal examines how UV-C irradiation can be used to process bovine milk to reduce pathogens while preserving bioactive components.
Clara Honsinger
Clara researches bioactive proteins in bovine colostrum and studies their functionality through industrial processing and human digestion.
Caleb Mark
Caleb studies the effects of processing techniques on milk protein bioactivity and the effect of high pressure processing of donor milk on lipid digestion and absorption in preterm infants.
Haley Paxton
Haley examines the potential effects of bovine milk glycomacropeptide on the microbiome and immune system in people with irritable bowel syndrome.
Corinna Sahu
Sulabh Singh
Sulabh examines how milk proteins and peptides can inhibit the growth of pathogenic viruses and bacteria on human intestinal cells.
Rudy Sykora
Rudy examines how high pressure processing can be used to enhance bovine milk safety while preserving its bioactive proteins.
Undergraduate researchers
Ignacio "Iggy" Aldama-Shaw
Daniel Agee
Tyge Huey
Hannah Jadzak
Daisy Johnson
Hailey Kelly
Diane Koopmann
Sophie Krueger
Ashley McKelvey
Ashley studies how high pressure processing and UV-C processing affects bioactive milk proteins.
Amelie Miller
Kelsey Miller
Samuel Mosier
Josiah Pagel
Amelia Preiser
Andria Slaughter
Rachel Spencer
Rachel examines how bovine whey proteins can modulate the immune system in older adults.
Past lab members
Lab projects: Effects of whey protein supplementation on the immune system in older people.
Suwimon (Noom) Sutantawong, MS
MS student, later Faculty Research Assistant
2022-2025
Lab projects: Whey proteins and their release of peptides across the digestive tract of adults.
Lab projects: Differing starter cultures contribute to bitter peptide generation in cheeses across aging.
Lab projects: Effects of whey protein supplementation on the immune system in older people.
Lab Projects: Milk protein digestion and bioactive discovery
Current Position: R&D Scientist, Janssen Pharmaceu tical Companies
Lab Projects: Examining digestion of glycomacrop eptide from bovine milk whey protein in adults
Current Position: Researcher at Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, South Korea
Lab Projects: Analyzing the survival of antibodies in infant digestion
Current Position: Scientist II at Orbit Discovery
Lab Projects: Analyzing the survival of antibodies in infant digestion
Current Position: Applicatio n Specialist at Internation al Flavors & Fragrances
Lab Projects: Examining functional peptides released in milk protein digestion
Current Position: Scientist, Arla Foods Ingredients
Lab Projects: Release of bioactive peptides across the stomach, intestine and stool of infants
Current Position: Postdoctor al Fellow at Food & Drug Administra tion
Yunyao Qu, MS
Yuki applies food chemistry analytical techniques to examine food proteins and their relationship to gut health. Yuki’s research in the lab has included examining the digestion of bovine kappa- casein glycomacropeptide in healthy adults using mass spectrometry analysis and examining the bioactivity of glycomacropeptide in people with irritable bowel syndrome.
Lab Projects: Colonic adaptation to lactose consumption in lactase non- persistent individuals: the role of the gut microbiome and microbial metabolome in graded, incremental exposure to lactose and prebiotics
Current Position: Research & Developm ent Food Scientist at EMPWR Nutrition Group
Lab Projects: Effect of high pressure processing and UV-C on milk protein bioactivity
Lab Projects: Effect of bovine milk casein glycomacrop eptide on the adult human microbiome
Wyatt Olsen
Wyatt researches the effect of digestion on the dairy component glycomacropeptide and its influence on the immune cells macrophages as a model for gut inflammation.
Sudarshan Kumar, PhD
Sudarshan was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar examining how milk peptides produced during digestion in infants interact with the gut microbiome. He is also developed a SILAC based quantitative proteomic assay to understand the response of E. coli to antimicrobial peptides.
Lab Projects: Bioactive peptides in human colostrum
Current Position: Assistant Professor at University of Idaho
Lab Projects: Human milk proteomics
Current Position: PhD student, University of Idaho
Past undergraduate interns
Louisa Vu, Ainsley Beck, Constanza Cordova, Brenna Gannett, Tanner Mathews, Rachel Pung, Farrah Afifah, Maggie Sheng, Jessica Yang, Jagjit Athwal, Madison Giese, Samantha Harris, Hansani Kasthuriarachi, Anna Nielsen, Emily McAllister, Madeleine Rachel Quinn, Solomon Baez, Hanna Jantzi, Casey Collins, Carly Robertson, Honglip Park, Kelly Hollenbeck, Zoha Ahmad, Anahi Torres-Pimentel, Ashley Victor, Quinn McAlpine Handley, Anna-Liisa Sepp, Kimberly Lane, Howie (Yong How) Tan, Ulises Ocana Solis, Matt Paluska, Siana Liti, Grace (Jooyoung) Yeo, Ben Hauser, Anne Chaneeda Chhing, Madison Gorton, Mikayla Chen, Anna Marin Kennedy, Madison Cowles, Prajna Woonnimani, Michelle Le, Shravya Vellanki, Esha Ahmed, Natalie Shaffer, Nur Ain Mansor, Nur Aishah Sofia Mohamad Yanin, Kimi Svoboda