Monica Dus

We usually think of food as energy and raw materials, but food can also “talk” to our genes. This secret conversation between nutrients and genes influences how our brains and bodies function, down to the cellular and molecular levels (here is a short video about this). The goal of the Dus lab is to decipher the different types of food messages and decode how they affect the brain, behavior, and risk for disease.

Monica Dus, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor with Tenure in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at the University of Michigan and a 2023 Guggenheim Fellow in Biology. She is also affiliated with the Michigan Neuroscience Institute, the Obesity and Nutrition Research Center, the Diabetes Research Center, and the Prechter Bipolar Research Program. Her lab’s research focuses on nutrigenomics, or how dietary components interact with genes to shape neural plasticity and behavior. The Dus lab is funded by the NIDDK (K99/R00, DP2, and R01) and NSF CAREER, as well as private foundations such as The Klingestein-Simons, Rita Allen, Sloan, and the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation. Dr. Dus teaches Genetics and Neuroepigenetics to ~500 students every year and is passionate about communicating science and making it accessible to the public. She has organized museum workshops, published SugarBuzz, a children’s comic book about food, hosted her own podcast, and written for The Conversation. To learn more about these projects, visit her website.

Short articles about Food, Genes, & Brains

Nutrigenomics

Food & the Brain

Science Communication

Research publications