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Director
Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, Tufts University
Tufts University
Dr. Sarah Booth is Director of the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University (HNRCA) and Senior Scientist and Leader of the Vitamin K Team at the HNRCA. The mission of the HNRCA, one of the largest research centers in the world studying nutrition and its relationship to healthy aging and physical activity, is to promote healthy and active aging based on research focused on nutrition and physical activity choices that encourage vitality. It is one of six human nutrition research centers supported by the United States Department of Agriculture. Over its 40 year existence, HNRCA scientists have made significant contributions to U.S. and international nutritional and physical activity recommendations, public policy, and clinical healthcare as it pertains to older adults.
Dr. Booth is an international leader in vitamin K research. Among her many research accomplishments, Dr. Booth discovered a previously undescribed form of vitamin K in the human diet created by the hydrogenation of dietary fats. She developed the methodology for measuring vitamin K forms in a variety of food matrices and her research team continues to generate vitamin K food composition data that are incorporated into national nutrient databases. Her research team has also studied novel roles for vitamin K in calcification disorders and kidney disease. Her current NIH-funded research investigates the role of vitamins D and K in risk of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Dr. Booth has received multiple awards in recognition of her research, the most recent being the American Society of Nutrition (ASN) E.V. McCollum Award for a Senior Investigator.
Dr. Booth is a professor in the Biochemical and Molecular Nutrition Program at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. Dr. Booth is also Treasurer for the American ASN and a member of the FASEB finance committee. Dr. Booth also serves as a Deputy Editor of ASN’s open access journal, Current Developments in Nutrition.