Gaby Medina-Meza, PhD

Professional Background

Dr. Ilce "Gaby" Medina-Meza joined the University of Kansas Medical Center as an Associate Professor in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Clinical Pharmacology and a member of the KU Diabetes Institute. She is the Head of the Food and Health Laboratory (FHeL), where they apply mass spectrometry and omics-based approaches to investigate how food manufacturing impacts the micronutrients of foodstuff and how these chemical alterations influence nutrient bioavailability and human health outcomes.

Her current research focuses on mapping lipids, especially steroids and oxysterols, in the Western Diet's commonly consumed ultra-processed foods (UPFs). Her lab aims to understand the associated dietary exposures and their potential effects on the gut health-cancer nexus across diverse populations. Her work is supported by the USDA-NIFA, the NIH National Institute on Aging (NIA), and various state and commodity board funding sources.

In recognition of her contributions, Dr. Medina-Meza received the Emerging Leaders Network award from the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), where she also served as Chair of the Food Engineering Division. Her research has resulted in over 40 peer-reviewed publications spanning food chemistry, precision nutrition, and dietary health.

• PhD, Food Science, Instituto Tecnológico de Veracruz / Universita di Bologna
• MSC, Chemical Engineering, Instituto Tecnológico de Orizaba, Orizaba, Veracruz
• BSc, Chemical Engineering, Instituto Tecnológico de Orizaba, Orizaba, Veracruz
• Post Doctoral Fellowship, Food Science, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington

• Groupe Polyphénols, Member, 2018 - Present
• Society of Food Engineering, Member, 2018 - Present
• American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Member, 2017 - Present

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Research

Overview

Lipid oxidation is increasingly recognized as a key driver in the development of chronic diseases. Among its products, oxysterols—bioactive oxidized cholesterol derivatives—play pivotal roles in cardiometabolic disorders, gut dysfunction, and neurodegenerative disorders. These molecules are generated endogenously through enzymatic pathways such as the Cytochrome P450 family and by reactive oxygen species (ROS), while exogenous exposure occurs through diet, particularly in high-fat and ultraprocessed-rich dietary patterns common in Western countries.

My research takes a comprehensive and translational approach to understanding these oxidized lipids—examining their occurrence in foodstuffs and role as biomarkers of disease risk in humans. By bridging food science and biomedical science, I aim to elucidate how dietary exposures intersect with biological pathways that drive inflammation and disease progression.

The Food, Health, and Lipidomics (FHeL) Lab is uniquely positioned to address this challenge through three integrated efforts:
1. Mechanistic Investigations – Elucidating the biochemical pathways underlying the formation and inactivation of oxidized lipids, with a focus on their generation via reactive oxygen species (ROS) and environmental stressors. This work explores how these processes contribute to cardiovascular dysfunction, gut inflammation, and neurodegeneration, providing critical mechanistic insight into the links between lipid oxidation and human disease.
2. Nutritional Mapping – Profiling lipid oxidation derivatives occurrence across the Western basket, with emphasis on different diets to quantify population-level exposures and providing critical insight into the molecular links between lipid oxidation and human disease.
3. Biomarker Discovery – Identifying oxysterol signatures of oxidative stress in cells, tissues, and clinical biospecimens, enabling the linkage of dietary exposures to health outcomes and supporting the development of predictive biomarkers for health monitoring and disease prevention.

This ambitious program leverages state-of-the-art mass spectrometry, kinetic modeling, and advanced statistical approaches to deliver high-resolution insights into lipid oxidation. Ultimately, our goal is to advance mechanistic understanding and identify actionable biomarkers that will inform strategies to prevent cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, and neurodegenerative diseases, improving human health.

• Vitamin D and Gut Microbiota and Dementia Risk in Older Adults with Chronic HIV Infection and Demographically Matched Community Controls, NIH

• Medina-Meza, I., G, Balasubramaniam, V., M, Kaven, M, da Silva, A Gomes, Guduru, Sai., Sashidhar. 2024. Lipidomics unveils changes in oxidised lipids in human breast milk by high-pressure processing. International Journal of Food Science and Technology, 59 (10), 7139-7151. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijfs.17430
• Medina-Meza, I., G, Vaidya, Y, Barnaba, C. 2024. FooDOxS: a database of oxidized sterols content in foods.. Food & function, 15 (12), 6324-6334
• Maldonado-Pereira, L, Barnaba, C, Medina-Meza, I., G. 2023. Oxidative Status of Ultra-Processed Foods in the Western Diet.. Nutrients, 15 (23)
• Abela, George., S., Katkoori, Venkat., R., Pathak, Dorothy., R., Bumpers, Harvey., L., Leja, Monika, Abideen, Zain., ul, Boumegouas, Manel, Perry, Daniel, Al-Janadi, Anas, Richard, James., E., Barnaba, Carlo, Meza, Ilce., G. Medina. 2023. Cholesterol crystals induce mechanical trauma, inflammation, and neo-vascularization in solid cancers as in atherosclerosis. American Heart Journal Plus: Cardiology Research and Practice, 35, 100317. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666602223000691
• Maldonado-Pereira, L, Barnaba, C, Medina-Meza, I., G. 2023. Dietary exposure assessment of infant formula and baby foods' oxidized lipids in the US population.. Food and chemical toxicology : an international journal published for the British Industrial Biological Research Association, 172, 113552
• Maldonado-Pereira, L, Barnaba, C, de Los Campos, G, Medina-Meza, I., G. 2022. Evaluation of the nutritional quality of ultra-processed foods (ready to eat + fast food): Fatty acids, sugar, and sodium.. Journal of food science, 87 (8), 3659-3676