Nutritional Epigenetics

Professor Shariful Islam, MBBS, MPH, PhD, FESC, ISHF, is a distinguished academic and researcher with a strong focus on nutritional sciences and public health. As a Professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, College of Health and Human Sciences, his work centers on the critical role of diet and nutrition in the prevention and management of chronic diseases, particularly cardiometabolic disorders. His multidisciplinary training in medicine, public health, and advanced research enables him to integrate clinical insights with population-level nutrition science.

Prof. Islam’s research is firmly grounded in nutritional epidemiology, with particular emphasis on dietary patterns, nutrient quality, food systems, and lifestyle-based nutritional interventions. He has led and contributed to large-scale population studies examining the impact of diet, salt and fat intake, micronutrient deficiencies, and nutrition transitions on cardiovascular and metabolic health. His scholarly output includes numerous publications in high-impact, peer-reviewed journals, advancing evidence-based nutrition strategies for non-communicable disease prevention.

Equally committed to education, Prof. Islam plays a vital role in teaching nutrition and public health curricula and mentoring graduate students and early-career researchers. He promotes interdisciplinary, data-driven approaches to nutrition research and policy. His recognition as a Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology (FESC) and the International Society of Hypertension (ISHF) underscores his leadership in advancing nutrition-focused strategies for global health improvement.

Dr. Jamil Talukder is an accomplished nutrition and physiology researcher with over two decades of academic, translational, and industry experience spanning human, animal, and veterinary nutrition. His research has made substantial contributions to understanding nutrient transport, digestion, and bioavailability, particularly the regulation of amino acid, glucose, iron, and peptide transporters in the gastrointestinal tract under health and inflammatory conditions. Trained in physiology, Dr. Talukder has published extensively in leading journals, elucidating molecular mechanisms linking diet, inflammation, and intestinal function. His work on bioactive compounds, nutraceuticals, and functional foods has advanced evidence-based nutritional interventions for metabolic and digestive health. In addition to academic research, he has led R&D initiatives translating nutritional science into patented technologies and commercial products. Dr. Talukder has also contributed significantly to nutrition education, mentoring graduate students, and authoring scholarly book chapters, thereby strengthening the interface between fundamental nutrition science, clinical relevance, and applied innovation.

Dr. Saman Fatima is a pharmaceutics-nutrition hybrid scientist whose career sits at the exact intersection this book occupies: delivering food-borne, microRNA-carrying bioactives across the blood–brain and placental barriers while documenting the epigenetic footprints that persist for generations. After earning her Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics from Jamia Hamdard (New Delhi), she pioneered the first antioxidant- and omega-3-loaded nano-emulsions that simultaneously (i) protect endogenous microRNAs from gastric degradation, (ii) ferry them to target tissues, and (iii) remodel DNA-methylation patterns in ischemic brain and fetal liver models—work now cited > 600 times and protected under her granted patent “Protein-assembled nano-vehicle for neuro-nutraceutical delivery” (IPR India 380249). Her interdisciplinary findings appear in Biomaterials, Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, Epigenomics, and four Elsevier/Springer book chapters on “Nutri-epigenomic nano-delivery,” establishing her as one of the few investigators equally comfortable with RNA-seq analytics, GMP nano-scaling, and regulatory ethics. A recipient of the RESOMER® Award (2018), Young Scientist Award from the Society of Biological Chemists (India), and elected member of the Society for NeuroChemistry India, Dr. Fatima currently leads a translational program on “microRNA-enriched foods for transgenerational resilience” at Jamia Hamdard. She has organized symposia on “Nutri-epigenomics & DOHaD” for the International Society for Micro-nutrients and serves on the editorial boards of Nutrition Research and Frontiers in Pharmacology—Nutraceuticals.

Dr. S Rehan Ahmad is a multidisciplinary scientist whose research bridges microbiology, medicinal chemistry, neurobiology, and precision medicine. Earning his Ph.D. in Microbiology, his pioneering work explores the pharmacogenomics and microbiome-based modulation of neurodegenerative diseases, with a focus on plant-derived therapeutics and molecular docking-driven drug discovery. His research integrates molecular microbiology, analytical chemistry (HPLC–MS), bioinformatics, and nanobiotechnology to advance novel therapeutic strategies. He holds over 30 patents and has published more than 60 peer-reviewed articles in high-impact journals, including Nature, Elsevier, Wiley, Springer, Frontiers and MDPI. He has edited two books published by Elsevier: The Gut Microbiome in Precision Medicine: From Research to Clinical Practice which focuses on the gut microbiome’s role in health, and Precision Medicine in Neurodegenerative Diseases: From Research to Clinical Practice, covering personalized medicine for neurodegenerative disorders.