Area(s) of Emphasis:

Lifespan Diseases

Research Interests:

Extracellular Vesicles, Infants, Milk, Nutrition, Preterm Infants

Current Research Summary:

My lab has pioneered a new line of discovery by demonstrating that exosomes and their RNA cargos do not exclusively originate in endogenous synthesis but may also be absorbed from milk. One of my focus areas, as it relates to pediatrics, is studies of the role of milk exosomes and microRNA cargos in resistance to bacterial sepsis and neurocognitive development in term and preterm infants as well as animal models of preterm birth and early postnatal development.

https://cehs.unl.edu/nhs/zempleni-lab/

Publications

Highlighted Publications:

2020
Mutai E, Ramer-Tait AE, Zempleni J. MicroRNAs in bovine milk exosomes are bioavailable in humans but do not elicit a robust pro-inflammatory cytokine response. BMC exRNA 2:2, 2020; DOI: 10.1186/s41544-019-0041-x

2019
Zhou F, Paz HA, Shu J, Sadri M, Cui J, Fernando SC, Zempleni J. Dietary bovine milk exosomes elicit changes in bacterial communities in C57BL/6 mice. Am J. Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol 317:G618-G624, 2019; DOI: 10.1152/ajpgi.00160.2019

Leiferman A, Shu J, Upadhyaya B, Cui J, Zempleni J. Storage of extracellular vesicles in human milk, and microRNA profiles in human milk exosomes and infant formulas. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr 69:235-238, 2019; DOI: 10.1097/MPG.0000000000002363

Zempleni J, Sukreet S, Zhou F, Wu D, Mutai E. Milk-derived exosomes and metabolic regulation. Ann Rev Anim Biosci 7:245-262, 2019; DOI: 10.1146/annurev-animal-020518-115300