Lab News

2025

• August 6, 2025- Congratulations to Salar and Weixin on the acceptance of their manuscript by the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry! 🎉
  Title: Insights into phenolamides in whole grain barley: Chemical profile and their levels in barley-based products
  This study comprehensively profiled phenolamides in whole grain barley using UHPLC-HRESI-MS and GNPS molecular networking, identifying 50 distinct compounds. Quantitative analysis across barley-based products revealed product-specific distribution patterns, highlighting beers as rich sources of hordatines and agmatine conjugates, while spermidine conjugates were more abundant in hulled grains and flours. These findings expand the known chemical diversity of barley phenolamides and provide a foundation for exploring their nutritional and functional relevance.

• July 30, 2025- Congratulations to Salar and Fatemeh on the acceptance of their manuscript by Food & Function! 🎉
  Title: Whole Grains Are Not Equal: The Role of Fiber Structure and Phytochemicals in Health
  This review highlights how grain-specific fibers and phytochemicals in six major whole grains differentially interact with host metabolism and the gut microbiome, positioning whole grains as strategic, functional components in the advancement of precision nutrition.

• June 28, 2025 - We received an "Outstanding" assessment grade for our laboratory based on the results of the annual safety inspection.🎉

• June 20, 2025 - Monthly meeting speaker: Shengmin Sang, Ph.D, and Salar Hafez Ghoran, Ph.D.
  Title: How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper

• June 4, 2025 – Congratulations to Pei-Sheng and Juanjuan on the acceptance of their manuscript by the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry! 🎉
  Title: Phytochemical-rich germinated oats as a novel functional food to attenuate gut inflammation
  This study demonstrates that germination significantly increases the concentrations of oat phytochemicals, thereby enhancing the protective effects of oats against gut inflammation. Their findings support the potential of germinated oats as a novel functional food or ingredient.

• June 3, 2025 – Congratulations to our graduate students, Pengpeng Zhou and Justice Sackey, for successfully passing their Qualifying Exam — the first major milestone on their journey toward completing their doctoral degrees. Well done! 🎉

• June 3, 2025 – Congratulations to Dr. Sang on receiving 2025 The Mary Swartz Rose Investigator Award from the American Society for Nutrition! 🎉

• May 30, 2025 - Monthly meeting speaker: Fatemeh Taktaz, Ph.D.
  Title: Targeting the Gut to Protect the Heart: Whole Grains' Impact on TMAO Metabolism

• May 28, 2025 – Congratulations to Yingdong on the acceptance of his manuscript by the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry! 🎉
  Title: Design and Evaluation of Novel Ginger 6-Shogaol-Inspired Phospholipase C Inhibitors to Enhance β-Agonist-Induced Relaxation in Human Airway Smooth Muscle
  This project was conducted in collaboration with investigators at Columbia University and has been accepted by Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, a premier ACS journal and a leading publication in the medicinal chemistry field. Yingdong synthesized all the ginger derivatives used in this study.

• May 28, 2025 – Congratulations to Shuwei on the acceptance of his manuscript by the Cancer Prevention Research! 🎉
  Title: A Phase I Dose Escalation Study of Polyphenon E in Liver Cirrhosis: Evaluation of Safety and Effect on Liver γ-OHPdG Levels
  This collaborative study involved colleagues from Georgetown University Medical Center, University of Minnesota Masonic Cancer Center, University of Puerto Rico Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University. It has been accepted by Cancer Prevention Research, one of the reputable journals in the cancer prevention field published by the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). Shuwei analyzed the tea polyphenol metabolites in samples from patients with liver cirrhosis.

• April 25, 2025 - Monthly meeting speaker: Junhe Yu, Ph.D.
  Title: Anthocyanin-rich colorful foods and their health signatures: Profiles, Metabolic Pathways, and Biomarker Potential for Dietary Exposure and Human Health

• April 4, 2025 - Monthly meeting speaker: Yingdong Zhu, Ph.D.
  Title: Cysteine- and GSH-catalyzed amination of flavonols: a novel pathway for ammonia management

• March 26, 2025 - Our master’s student, Sara De La Cruz, successfully passed her thesis defense. We’re excited to share that Sara will continue her training in the Sang Lab as a doctoral student starting Fall 2025. Congratulations, Sara! 🎉

• March 18, 2025 – Congratulations to Richmond, Shuwei, Yingdong and Femi on the acceptance of their manuscript by the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry! 🎉
  Title: Detoxification of Lipid Peroxidation Aldehyde 4-Hydroxynonenal by Hesperetin Dihydrochalcone, a Microbial Metabolite of Neohesperidin Dihydrochalcone, In Vitro and In Vivo
  This manuscript highlights the importance of considering the contribution of microbial metabolites when studying the health effects of dietary flavonoids. 

• March 1, 2025 – Congratulations to Weixin and Yingdong on the acceptance of their manuscript by the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry! 🎉
  Title: Optimization for Simultaneous Determination of a Panel of Advanced Glycation End Products as Biomarkers for Metabolic Diseases
  This work will be valuable for researchers interested in measuring AGEs in biological samples and exploring their role in chronic diseases, as well as the potential preventive and therapeutic effects of dietary compounds targeting the RCS/AGEs pathways.

• February 28, 2025 - Monthly meeting speaker: Pei-Sheng Lee, Ph.D.
  Title: Synergistic Effects on Gut Health Between Microbial Metabolites of Fiber and Wheat Bran Phytochemicals

• February 28, 2025 – Congratulations to Richmond on being selected as a 2025 CHBGS Dissertation Award Winner! 🎉

• January 31, 2025 - Monthly meeting speaker: Shuwei Zhang, Ph.D.
  Title: Past, present, and future of microbial Bilirubin metabolite research

• January 16, 2025 – Congratulations to Salar and Weixin on the acceptance of their manuscript by Food Chemistry! 🎉
  Title: Germination Under the Dark as an Efficient Method to Enrich Barley Hordatine Aglycones and to Prepare a Hordatine-Rich Fraction
  This work presents a straightforward method for enriching barley hordatins. The standardized hordatine-rich fraction can serve as a novel food ingredient for developing functional products and supporting further animal and human studies on the potential health benefits of barley. 

2024

2023