susan_smith@unc.edu
704-250-5065
Susan Smith, PhD
Professor of Nutrition
Dr. Smith’s laboratory studies the molecular mechanisms by which dietary components affect prenatal development. Current work largely focuses upon alcohol and how it causes Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). We are interested in how alcohol damages the embryo and fetus, and in the environmental and genetic factors that attenuate or heighten alcohol’s toxicity.
First described in 1968, FASD remains a leading known cause of neurodevelopmental impairment in the U.S. Our work examines the molecular mechanism by which alcohol causes the specific neurobehavioral and craniofacial dysmorphologies that typify FASD. Our research has identified much of the intracellular signaling pathway initiated by alcohol to trigger the apoptotic elimination of craniofacial precursors, a population known as the neural crest. This work currently focuses on alcohol’s ability to cause nucleolar stress, a sensor of cellular energy status and an activator of p53/MDM2-mediated cell cycle arrest and cell death.
More recently, our work has expanded to interrogate how alcohol disrupts nutrient metabolism and requirements of the maternal-fetal dyad. Using bioinformatic approaches, we performed simultaneous whole transcriptome analysis and untargeted metabolomics on the alcohol-exposed mouse mother and her fetuses. This has revealed that alcohol causes a microbial metabolite biosignature in mom and fetus that may have both neuroprotective and neuroinflammatory effects. It has also revealed how alcohol changes maternal metabolism and impairs her ability to supply essential nutrients that support her growing fetus. We are further characterizing the maternal microbiome under alcohol and how this may further affect maternal-fetal metabolism. We have also studied the long-term health impact of FASD and find that alcohol causes metabolic syndrome in the aged offspring; moreover, this glucose intolerance and obesity both correlate with worsened cognitive function as it ages.
Finally, we use precision nutrition approaches to identify nutrient-related gene polymorphisms that affect cognitive performance in those who are diagnosed with FASD. This work has uncovered a critical influence of the essential nutrient choline and its transporter SLC44A1 and highlights a mechanism by which supplemental choline may improve outcomes in alcohol-exposed pregnancies. This work is expanding to identify additional nutrient-related effect alleles using a GWAS approach. Finally, in work now concluded, we showed that alcohol creates a functional iron deficiency in both mother and fetus, and this causes both fetal anemia and brain iron deficiency; dietary iron intervention reverses these deficits and improves cerebellum-dependent learning.
The Ironies of Iron During Pregnancy
August 28, 2017 – Iron is listed by the American Pregnancy Association as one of the nutrients essential for healthy fetal development. Why? Because a lack of iron, a mineral naturally found in foods like meat, seafood and vegetables, directly impacts the development of the fetal brain. Iron also prevents anemia, low birth weight and premature delivery. Unfortunately, 22 percent of US women in their childbearing years are iron deficient, says Susan Smith, PhD, deputy director of science at the UNC Nutrition Research Institute on the NC Research Campus.
Celebrating Neuroscience during Brain Awareness Week
April 1, 2017 • When people hear the word “nutrition,” they often think of eating healthy fruits and vegetables, counting calories, and constant exercise. At the Nutrition Research Institute (NRI) and across the North Carolina Research Campus (NCRC) in Kannapolis, NC, these are frequent topics of scientific inquiry. But to scientists, “nutrition” is a word with […]
What We're Learning about Mom's Nutrition and Alcohol
January 1, 2017 • Dr. Phil May’s research group at the NRI studies the prevalence of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) in humans. The recent addition to the NRI faculty of Dr. Susan Smith now provides an avenue toward understanding how maternal nutrition might affect the relationship between alcohol and FASD through the use of animal models. Two recent papers from these research groups illustrates this synergy […]
Do Eggs Cause Heart Disease?
October 25, 2016 • Several recent studies linked increased levels of a metabolic product of dietary choline with higher risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) (Wang et al., 2011; Tang et al., 2013) through a mechanism that involved gut microbiota-produced trimethylamine oxide (TMAO). These studies have sparked considerable scientific (and non-scientific) discussion, with health advice from some groups suggesting avoidance of meat and eggs (significant sources of choline) and from others suggesting that the findings have been vastly overinterpreted.
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