Dr. Steven Clarke Receives the Louisiana Public Facilities Authority Chair in Nutrition

Contact: Scott Mulhauser, Ryan McGinn
November 7, 2002 (202) 224-5364

Dr. Steven Clarke as the Louisiana Public Facilities Authority (LPFA) Chair in Nutrition earlier this month.
 
Dr. Clarke is a professor of Molecular Genetics in the Bio Imaging department at Pennington Biomedical Research Center. He joined the faculty of the Pennington Center this year after seven years as the M.M. Love Chair of Nutritional, Cellular, and Molecular Sciences at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas.
 
Dr. Clarke has 25 years of experience in nutrition-gene interactions affecting the development of adult-onset diabetes and its complications. He received in 1976 a doctorate in nutrition from Michigan State University and earned a post-doctorate in biochemistry two years later from Johns Hopkins University.
 
His research focuses on nutrient regulation of genes involved in obesity and diabetes with particular interest in the role that dietary fatty acids play in fuel metabolism. Research involves cellular and animal models and makes use of state-of-the-art molecular techniques including DNA arrays, knockout and transgenic animals, cis-element mapping, trans-factor identification, and RNA decay. In addition, active research collaborations are ongoing with the Baylor USDA Children's Nutrition Research Center in the study of lipids and gene expression in infants.
 
The LPFA Chair is made possible through the Louisiana Board of Regents, which matches funds provided by the Louisiana Educational Quality Support Fund. The Regents have awarded more than $136 million in matching grants since the program was established in 1986. This, in turn, has led to the creation of approximately 203 endowed chairs and 1179 endowed professorships.