Zhijun Liu, associate professor in the School of Renewable Natural Resources, is the AgCenter partner with the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in a nearly $8 million grant to establish a national center of excellence to study the effects of botanical products, or plant extracts, on human health and diseases. The mission of the center will be to evaluate conditions in humans that lead to development of obesity and Type 2 diabetes and to determine whether plant extracts can treat these conditions.
The research team will study the effects of specific botanical compounds and their components and how they may influence molecular and cellular processes associated with metabolic syndrome. Liu’s current work is with a plant called Sinocrassula indica.