Sarah Comstock
Degrees
PhD, University of California, Davis, 2008
BS, University of Chicago, 2000
More information: Lab Webpage
Research Interests
Influence of nutrition on immune development of the neonate; Influence of maternal obesity on child growth and intestinal health; role of lipids in child health and development; Maternal & child health; gastrointestinal microbiota; food allergy
I have been interested in the impact of nutrition on health and disease since I was a high school student. I am particularly interested in the mechanisms by which early nutrition affects immune system development in the gut as this may be the key to understanding food intolerances. The ultimate objective of my research program is to identify immune and/or microbial targets which can form the basis for nutritional intervention strategies to reduce the incidence of gastrointestinal disease and promote gastrointestinal health.
Research support is provided by Michigan State University, the National Institutes of Health, ECHO (Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes) Program (NIH UG3 OD023285).
Instructional Activities
Current
HNF 310 – Nutrition in Medicine for Pre-Health Professionals
HNF 892 – Nutrition Seminar, two sections
Guest lectures
HNF 101 – Personal Nutrition and Health; topic: "Food Allergies & Intolerances"
HNF 464/450 – Nutrition in the Prevention and Treatment of Disease; topic: "Nutrition and the Microbiome"
HNF 471 – Medical Nutrition Therapy I; topic: "Immunology"
HNF 823 – Research Methods in Human Nutrition; topic: "Assessing the Gut Microbiota"
Past
HNF 820 – Advanced Nutritional Biochemistry
HNF 825 – Nutritional Immunology
Outreach focus
Maternal & child nutrition for health
Recent publications
Please search PubMed <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed> or Web of Science <http://apps.webofknowledge.com/> for “Comstock SS" as "author” to find a complete listing of Dr. Comstock’s publications.
Related Work
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Sarah Comstock named 2021 MSU Undergraduate Research Faculty Mentor of the Year
Published on April 21, 2021
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Michigan State University researcher awarded grant to study effects of antibiotic use during pregnancy
Published on January 23, 2020