Penugonda in Human Nutrition Chosen for Cancer Prevention Research Practicum

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Kavitha Penugonda is a human nutrition post-doctoral fellow in Bumpers College's School of Human Environmental Sciences. She is researching how celery-family vegetables help reduce DNA damage by cancer.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Kavitha Penugonda, a post-doctoral fellow in the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences at the U of A, has been selected to participate in the John Milner Nutrition and Cancer Prevention Research Practicum in March in Rockville, Maryland.

The week-long learning session is sponsored by the Nutritional Science Research Group at the National Cancer Institute, and the National Institutes of Health and its Department of Nutrition at the Clinical Center.

Penugonda works with associate professor Sabrina Trudo in the School of Human Environmental Science's human nutrition program.

"In a small group format, Dr. Penugonda will receive training and education in the latest research breakthroughs, approaches, trends and current scientific evidence in nutrition and cancer prevention," said Trudo, a registered dietitian and holder of the 21st Century Endowed Chair in Human Environmental Sciences. "She will be given tours of state-of-the art facilities and resources at NIH, and hear speakers from the top nutrition and cancer prevention research programs. It's a competitive process to be selected, and it's a great opportunity for our program to be represented at this practicum."

The training provides specialized instruction in the role of diet and bioactive food components as modifiers of cancer incidence and tumor behavior. The research-based program includes sessions on microbiome, bioactive food components, bioenergetics, nutrigenomics, cancer survivorship, and pre-clinical and clinical studies.

The focus of the practicum correlates with part of Penugonda's work at the U of A. She and Trudo are researching the mechanism celery-family vegetables use to decrease DNA damage from cancer-causing agents in rat studies.

Penugonda and Trudo, using a rat model of colon cancer, previously observed feeding celery family vegetables to rats resulted in less DNA damage to the colon. Follow-up studies include using human colon cells and extracts from the vegetables to investigate how the vegetables may have reduced DNA damage in the rats.

Penugonda is also assisting in the development of projects to study the link between obesity and an increased cancer risk, and the potential for bioactive compounds to decrease the risk.

About the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences: Bumpers College provides life-changing opportunities to position and prepare graduates who will be leaders in the businesses associated with foods, family, the environment, agriculture, sustainability and human quality of life; and who will be first-choice candidates of employers looking for leaders, innovators, policy makers and entrepreneurs. The college is named for Dale Bumpers, former Arkansas governor and longtime U.S. senator who made the state prominent in national and international agriculture.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs. The university contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research, and creative activity while also providing service to academic and professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among only 2 percent of universities in America that have the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Arkansas among its top American public research universities. Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas comprises 10 colleges and schools and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio that promotes personal attention and close mentoring.