Dr Yemisi Latunde-Dada

Dr Yemisi Latunde-Dada is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Nutritional Sciences. Her research interests focus on iron nutrition, metabolism and molecular biology. Specifically, as a member of the Metal Metabolism Research Group, she was involved in the characterisation of iron metabolism genes and proteins in the mammalian system. The group has contributed immensely to the global understanding of iron transport and metabolism. Three key genes Dcytb, coding for a ferric reductase, Ireg1, for a basolateral iron transporter, and HCP1 for a haem carrier protein were isolated and their protein products characterized and functionally analysed. Her interest in iron metabolism research includes studies on the anaemia of chronic kidney disease and evaluation of iron and cancer interactions. Her research has also been on the bioavailability of iron nano-compounds and amino acid iron chelates in cell culture and animal studies. She is a member of a collaborative group currently studying the bioavailability of iron and zinc from wheat in human subjects. She has recently commenced studies on ferroptosis, a form of programmed cell death akin to apoptosis, that is induced by iron and lipid peroxidation. She is an Editor for the Nutrient Journal and a Review Editor for Frontiers in Pharmacology. She is a Registered Nutritionist, and a member of the Nutrition Society, the American Society for Nutrition, the Biochemical Society, the European Iron Club and the International BIOIRON Society.