The Ishaq Lab is delighted to announce that Tolu Esther Alaba will soon be defending her PhD dissertation on the antioxidants and anti-inflammatories in broccoli sprout diets and their relation to health. Her dissertation will be presented over Zoom on June 25, 2024, from 2 – 3 pm EDT, which is open to the public. Registration is free but required here.
Tolu has been researching the benefits of cruciferous vegetables on health, and especially the benefits by antioxidants or anti-inflammatories we get from these plants. Some of these compounds are available directly from the plants, and some of them are produced or made available through the biochemistry of certain bacteria that live in our gut. Depending on the type of vegetable, and the way that it is cooked/prepared, you can end up with different types and quantities of these beneficial compounds.
Tolu Esther Alaba is a PhD Candidate in the GSBSE program at UMaine. Her research has focused on antioxidants in fruits and vegetables which can be used to resolve inflammation, oxidative stress, injury, cardiometabolic and chronic diseases. She joined #TeamBroccoli in the fall of 2023, and in less than a year, completed a dissertation’s-worth of research, including performing metabolomics and related data analyses on gut metabolites and broccoli sprouts in mice and humans, and drafting several manuscripts, and publishing literature review (details below) — and all this was on top of moving to California with her family, giving birth to her second child, Bethel, and extricating herself from the punitive environment of her former lab. The Ishaq Lab is proud of her strength in standing up for herself as an employee and a researcher, as well as of the incredible work she’s added to our team.
Publications
- Tolu E. Alaba, Johanna M. Holman , Suzanne L. Ishaq, Yanyan Li. 2024. Current knowledge on the preparation and benefits of cruciferous vegetables as relates to in vitro, in vivo, and clinical models of Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Current Developments in Nutrition 8(5):102160.
- In preparation: Early life intervention with broccoli sprouts affects serum and gut metabolites.
- In preparation: Healthy eating habits and effects of consuming steamed broccoli sprouts daily for a month.
Presentations
Alaba*, T.E., Ishaq, S.L., Li, Y., Zhang, T. “Broccoli sprouts alleviate ulcerative colitis in mice by increasing dietary and microbial metabolites: differential effects in young and adult, male and female mice. 4th CMI International Microbiome Meeting (CIMM), La Jolla, CA, March 12th – 14th, 2024.
The Ishaq Lab 