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Michael Lefevre, Ph.D., Center for Advanced Nutrition
In the news: "Gut Check" study looks at intestinal microbes and health: http://tinyurl.com/65kcsh9
Michael Lefevre arrived as a USTAR professor at USU's Center for Advanced Nutrition in September of 2007, from the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana where he served as Chief of the Division of Functional Foods Research, as well as professor in the Division of Nutrition and Chronic Diseases. He was also an adjunct professor at the School of Human Ecology at Louisiana State University.
Lefevre is a fellow of the American Heart Association, belonging to the Council on Arteriosclerosis; the Council on Nutrition, Metabolism and Physical Activity; the Council on Epidemiology and Prevention; and is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Institute of Food Technology. He earned his doctorate in nutrition with a minor in physiological sciences from the University of California Davis. Lefevre brings significant experience in the role that nutrition plays in cardiovascular disease.
After receiving his Ph.D. in Nutrition from the University of California at Davis, Dr. Lefevre joined the research group of Dr. Paul Roheim in 1984 at Louisiana State University Medical Center. During that time, Dr. Lefevre pursued studies on the basic mechanism by which high density lipoproteins protect against heart disease by removing cholesterol from cells.
In 1990, Dr. Lefevre joined the faculty at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center. His research interests moved into the direction of dietary effects on risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Under his direction, the Pennington Biomedical Research Center was selected as one of four research centers to conduct a pioneering multicenter study on the effects of diet on lipoprotein and thrombogenic risk factors. Dairy Management, Inc., established a Dairy Institute at the Pennington Center under Dr. Lefevre's direction in 1994 to examine the interactions between diet and genetics. More recently, Dr. Lefevre received a grant from NIH to identify genetic and non-genetic factors which affect the magnitude of cardiovascular disease risk factor response to heart healthy diets in African American families. Additionally, Dr. Lefevre is Co-Director and a Project leader at the Center for the Study of Botanicals and Metabolic Syndrome where he studies the effects of anthocyanins on features of metabolic syndrome.
Dr. Lefevre's current research interests reach into several specific areas of investigation including: 1) defining the impact of dietary constituents, and in particular, dietary fatty acid content and composition, on risk factors for coronary artery disease (CAD), with a specific emphasis on lipid and lipoprotein risk factors; 2) studying the effects of alternate dietary approaches to reduce CAD risk; 3) identifying genetic, anthropometric, and other factors which contribute to the substantial variations in CAD risk factor response to dietary manipulation; and 4) examining the effects of phytochemical dietary components on health.
Dr. Lefevre currently serves as a member of the American Heart Association's Nutrition Committee. Additionally he is a member of Kraft's Worldwide Health and Advisory Council and a scientific advisor to ILSI North America's Food, Nutrition and Safety Program and Technical Committee on Fatty Acids.