Michael Goran, Ph.D., a leading researcher in the field of childhood obesity, will present a talk titled “The Sugar ‘Maize’: Sugar, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Obesity and Metabolic Risk: From Genes to Policy” as part of the on-going speaker series in the Department of Nutritional Sciences.
Goran is a professor of preventative medicine, physiology, biophysics and pediatrics and is the director of both the Childhood Obesity Research Center and the Center for Transdisciplinary Research on Energetics and Cancer at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. His research explores how the body regulates where excess fat is deposited, how increased body fat affects health and how fat is regulated during growth and development across segments of the population. He is co-director of the university’s Diabetes and Obesity Research Institute and holds an endowed chair in childhood obesity and diabetes. He is particularly interested in ethnic disparities in obesity and obesity-related diseases.
In addition to having published nearly 200 peer-reviewed journal articles, Goran is also the developer and executive producer of an interactive computer game that promotes physical activity in children. He is editor-in-chief of the journal Pediatric Obesity, associate editor of the journal Obesity and co-editor of the “Handbook of Pediatric Obesity: Etiology, Pathophysiology and Prevention,” published in 2006.