Ronald Ross Watson - Polyphenols in Human Health and Disease

Ronald Ross Watson, PhD, attended the University of Idaho but graduated from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, with a degree in chemistry in 1966. He earned his PhD in biochemistry from Michigan State University in 1971. His postdoctoral schooling in nutrition and microbiology was completed at the Harvard School of Public Health, where he gained 2 years of postdoctoral research experience in immunology and nutrition.

From 1973 to 1974 Dr. Watson was Assistant Professor of Immunology and performed research at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson. He was Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the Indiana University Medical School from 1974 to 1978 and Associate Professor at Purdue University in the Department of Food and Nutrition from 1978 to 1982. In 1982, Dr. Watson joined the faculty at the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center in the Department of Family and Community Medicine of the School of Medicine. He is currently Professor of Health Promotion Sciences in the Mel and Enid Zuckerman Arizona College of Public Health.

Dr. Watson is a member of national and international nutrition, immunology, cancer, and alcoholism research societies. His patents are for antioxidant polyphenols in several dietary supplements, including passion fruit peel extract, with more pending. This results from more than 10 years of polyphenol research in animal models and human clinical trials. He had done research on mouse AIDS and immune function for 20 years. For 30 years he was funded by NIH and Foundations to study dietary supplements in health promotion. Dr. Watson has edited more than 90 books on nutrition, dietary supplements and over-the-counter agents, and drugs of abuse, as scientific reference books. He has published more than 500 research and review articles.

Victor R. Preedy BSc, PhD, DSc, FSB, FRCPath, FRSPH, FRSC is attached to both the Diabetes and Nutritional Sciences Division and the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics. He is Professor of Nutritional Biochemistry (Kings College London) and Professor of Clinical Biochemistry (Hon: Kings College Hospital, London). He is also Director of the Genomics Centre and a member of the School of Medicine.

Professor Preedy graduated in 1974 with an Honours Degree in Biology and Physiology with Pharmacology. He gained his University of London PhD in 1981. In 1992, he received his Membership of the Royal College of Pathologists and in 1993 he gained his second doctoral degree, for his contribution to protein metabolism in health and disease. Professor Preedy was elected as a Fellow to the Institute of Biology in 1995 and to the Royal College of Pathologists in 2000. Since then he has been elected as a Fellow to the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health (2004) and The Royal Institute of Public Health (2004). In 2009, Professor Preedy became a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health.

In his career Professor Preedy has carried out research at the National Heart Hospital (part of Imperial College London) and the MRC Centre at Northwick Park Hospital. He has collaborated with research groups in Finland, Japan, Australia, USA and Germany. Professor Preedy has a wide interest in diettissue interactions and especially micronutrients. He has lectured nationally and internationally. To his credit, Professor Preedy has published over 570 articles, which include 165 peer-reviewed manuscripts based on original research, 90 reviews and over 40 books and volumes.

Sherma Zibadi received her PhD in nutrition from the University of Arizona and is a graduate of the Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, where she earned her MD. She has recently completed her post-doctoral research fellowship awarded by the American Heart Association. Dr. Zibadi engages in the research field of cardiology and complementary medicine. Her main research interests include maladaptive cardiac remodeling and heart failure, study the underlying mechanisms and potential mediators of remodeling process, which helps to identify new targets for treatment of heart failure.

Dr. Zibadis research interest also extends into alternative medicine, exploring the preventive and therapeutic effects of natural dietary supplements on heart failure and its major risk factors in both basic animal and clinical studies, translating laboratory research findings into clinical practice. Dr. Zibadi is an author of multiple research papers published in peer-reviewed journals and books, as well as co-editor of several books.