Category Archives : Lab Updates


Interns, 2014

This past year, we collaborated with Johnson C. Smith University (JCSU) on a project where we hosted two interns to assist with work on the BERRY study.  Indhu Gopal, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Health & Human Performance Department selected Erick  Velazquillo and A’Tyan Kennedy, upper-level students at JCSU. When we asked Erick about […]


You Can Put Your Socks Back on Now

Between February and May of this year alone I traveled over 175,000 air miles. I have been from the Philippines to Sweden, from China to Germany. Where do I begin to tell you about the things I have learned, the people I have met, and the children I hope I have helped?


Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

The Cheatham Lab has a cool new tool for understanding nutrition and cognitive development. It’s called a near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) system. NIRS offers another way to examine brain activity while people complete various tasks. Despite the fact that they look somewhat similar, NIRS is different from the electroencephalography (EEG) system we have and that many […]


The MAZE Study

By Kelly Shephard We are busy here at the Cheatham Lab with three different studies. We’ve got toddlers, and older folk, and now even 7- to 12-year-olds! We always like it when we have lots of people coming to the lab, though. That’s why our new study with 7- to 12-year-olds is so much fun. […]


Thank you and farewell to our toddlers…

…at least for now. We have been diligently working on a follow-up study to the human milk study that was conducted from 2009 to 2011. The original study involved bringing in babies at six months of age to see if the mom’s genotype for the gene that determines how fatty acids are used in the […]