Supervisory Research Physiologist
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MATTHEW PICKLO, Ph.D. |
Dr. Picklo is a native of Hockessin, Delaware and earned his bachelors degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Delaware in 1990. He obtained his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from Vanderbilt University in 1995. Dr. Picklo was a research fellow at University College London from 1995-1996. From 1996-2001, he was a research fellow in the Division of Neuropathology at Vanderbilt University where he studied the impacts of catechol oxidation and lipid peroxidation in neurodegenerative disease as the PI of an NIH-funded National Research Service Award.
In 2001, Dr. Picklo began as an assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology, Physiology, and Therapeutics at the University of North Dakota and was awarded a K22 young investigator grant through the National Institute of Environmental Health Science. In 2004, Dr. Picklo became the graduate director in the Department of Pharmacology, Physiology, and Therapeutics in which he was highly involved in curriculum development. In 2007, Dr. Picklo was promoted and tenured. In 2008, he was awarded the Hermann Esterbauer Award for his extensive work into the biochemistry of lipid peroxidation.
In 2009, Dr. Picklo moved to the position of Research Leader at the GFHNRC that requires his own scientific research and administration of a research Unit. He has been the PI and co-PI of numerous grants during his academic and government career and has authored over 100 publications. He is an active member of the American Society for Nutrition, the American Oil Chemists’ Society, and a founding member of the Northern Great Plains Lipids Conference.
The ultimate aim of Dr. Picklo's research is define ways to prevent disease and improve health. His work focuses on the roles that dietary fats and oils play in maintaining good health and preventing disease.
Current research areas include:
- Identifying physiologic impacts of dietary fatty acid composition upon obesity and its comorbidities including insulin resistance and fatty liver
- Identifying how agricultural practices modify fatty acids in foods and their resulting health impact
- Development of rapid methods of lipid analyses for clinical and agricultural use.
- Identified specific lipid biomarkers that change following n-3 fatty acid intake in humans
- Discovered that long chain n-3 fatty acids exist in specific motifs in humans and mice
- Determined the impact of fatty acid composition on obesogenic outcomes in mouse models of obesity
- In team research, modeled the nutritional impacts of replacement of conventional oils with high oleic varieties.
- In team research, determined how age, sex, and genetics modify the fatty acid content of farmed rainbow trout
- In team research, determined that eating farm-raised salmon twice weekly improved plasma n-3 fatty acids and plasma lipoproteins in humans.
- Determined pathways of lipid aldehyde detoxification in the brain
- Identified selective peroxidation of n-3 fatty acids in the brain during alcohol withdrawal.
