Dr. Yael Vodovotz received her Ph.D. degree from the University of Massachusetts in food science followed by a postdoctoral position at NASA as part of a joint effort between University of Houston and NASA-Johnson Space Center where she worked on various aspects of the Advanced Life Support food system as well as teaching at the University of Houston. Her NASA work continued as an Assistant Professor at Baylor Medical School, part of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute. She joined The Ohio State Department of Food Science and Technology as an Assistant Professor in 2000, and is currently a Professor. She became Center Director for the Center for Advanced Functional Foods, Research and Entrepreneurship in 2016. Dr. Vodovotz and has been working on physico-chemical and molecular properties of foods and bioplastics and has over 80 publications.
Her research focus is the physico-chemical changes of functional foods during formulation, processing and storage as they impact the delivery of bioactives, such as soy phytochemicals. We utilize molecular, structural and macroscopic analysis to fully characterize food material behavior in different conditions and subsequently can modify these products to deliver bioactives to targeted organs. Dr. Vodovotz has extensive training in thermal and mechanical analysis as well as various NMR techniques that are critical for food material analysis. Additionally, she has supervised numerous clinical trials utilizing our designed functional foods (NCTID: 02199054 Functional Snack Foods With Safflower Oil and Soy in Postmenopausal Women Having Metabolic Syndrome; NCT ID:01682941 Soy Isoflavones in Treating Patients With Recurrent Prostate Cancer or Rising Prostate-Specific Antigen; NCT ID:01514552 The Use of Functional Confections in Promoting Oral Health; NCT ID:01961869 Black Raspberry Confection in Preventing Oral Cancer in Healthy Volunteers.