NeuroNutrition: Advancing Brain Health Through Science from Gestation to Adolescence

Robert Murray, MD, FAAP

Professor of Pediatrics, College of Medicine 
Associate Member, Primary Food Innovation Center
The Ohio State University 
Columbus, OH, USA

Robert Murray, MD, is an academic professor of pediatrics in the College of Medicine at The Ohio State University. He completed his fellowship in Pediatric Gastroenterology at Children’s Hospital, Columbus, Ohio in 1985. Since then, he has spent more than 25 years in the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. 

Prof Murray’s primary areas of focus include biomedical nutrition and pediatric manifestations of malnutrition. He has published over 70 peer-reviewed articles, including most recently “A First Step Toward Eliminating Malnutrition: A Proposal for Universal Screening”, which was published in Pediatric Practice in Nutrition and Dietary Supplements. He has contributed to numerous books and public education projects, as well as to projects involving pediatric wasting, stunting, and obesity. Dr Murray has served in many organizations; including but not limited to a member of the National Dairy Council Nutrition Advisory Committee, a member of the Children’s Hunger Alliance Governing Board, the vice-chair of the board of Action for Healthy Kids, and a collaborator with Abbott Nutrition International on nutrition education for pediatric practitioners. 

Prof Murray has received several awards. Most recently, he was a 2016 finalist for the Pathway to Populations Health Award for Columbus CEO Magazine. He was a recipient of the 2015 Child Advocate of the Year Award for Ohio Voices for Children. In 2008, he received a Special Achievement Award for obesity initiatives and Chairperson of the Year Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). Within the AAP, Dr Murray is currently their representative to the National Dairy Council Health Advisory Committee. He is the former chair of the AAP Council on School Health and is a past president of the Ohio Chapter of the AAP.

Michael K Georgieff, MD

Executive Vice Chair & Martin Lenz Harrison Land Grant Professor 
Division of Neonatology 
Faculty, Department of Pediatrics 
Director, Center for Neurobehavioral Development
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN, USA 

Dr Michael K Georgieff holds the position of the Martin Lenz Harrison Land Grant Chair in Pediatrics. He is a Professor of Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Developmental Psychology, the Executive Vice Chair of the Department of Pediatrics, and the Director of the Center for Neurobehavioral Development. He received his MD from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. He served his internship, residency and neonatal fellowship at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a fellowship in neonatology at the University of Minnesota. In addition to caring for patients on the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Dr Georgieff is Director of the NICU Follow-up Program. Dr Georgieff’s research focuses on fetal/neonatal nutrition and brain development, specifically on the effect of early life iron nutrition and neurocognitive function. He has been continuously funded in this field by the National Institutes of Health for 35 years and has published over 300 scientific articles. He advises the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Institutes of Health and UNICEF on nutrition and early child development.

Paige Berger, PhD, RDN

Investigator of Pediatrics, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Instructor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA, USA

Dr Paige Berger is a PhD-investigator and registered dietitian who has devoted her career to studying the nutritional determinants of early growth and brain development. Dr Berger received her doctorate in Nutritional Sciences from The University of Georgia. She completed postdoctoral fellowships with Dr Leann Birch at The University of Georgia (2015-2016) and Dr Michael Goran at The University of Southern California/Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (2016-2022). Dr Berger currently holds a faculty appointment at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. The goal of Dr Berger’s research is to understand human milk biology and determine its influences on infant growth, brain development, and cognitive functioning. She aims to explicate the factors in human milk that shape the structure of the brain, the foundational framework for future learning and memory. Dr Berger’s work has shown that exposure to simple and complex carbohydrates in the intra-uterine environment and through breastfeeding associates with brain development using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in full-term infants. She has also shown that exposure to the same simple and complex carbohydrates associates with cognitive capacities at 24 months of age. Her current NIH awarded research builds on previous findings and examines the role of human milk oligosaccharides on brain growth and maturation in very preterm infants. She has also received funding to expand her work to the human milk microbiome. Ultimately, Dr Berger’s findings may inform nutritional care and supplementation strategies among very preterm infants, to maximize therapeutic potential in the neonatal intensive care unit.

Elizabeth J Reverri, PhD, MS, RD

Senior Research Scientist
Abbott Nutrition
Columbus, OH, USA

Beth is a Nutrition Scientist and Registered Dietitian. Since 2017, she has worked at Abbott Nutrition in the Pediatric Nutrition Science and Innovation group, focusing on science, clinical research, and innovation in infant and toddler nutrition, with a particular emphasis on human milk oligosaccharides. She has 11 peer-reviewed publications and has presented 16 of the 26 abstracts she has co-authored at both national and international conferences. She has also given numerous presentations to healthcare professionals and guest lectures to undergraduate and graduate students on various nutrition topics. Beth has served on the leadership teams with the American Society for Nutrition and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. 

Before Abbott Nutrition, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University and The Ohio State University and, before that, a clinical dietitian at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford and Newton-Wellesley Hospital, a member of Mass General Brigham. Beth earned a PhD in Nutritional Biology from the University of California, Davis, and completed her Dietetic Internship, an MS in Clinical Nutrition, and a BS in Dietetics from Boston University. Ultimately, she aspires for her work in the nutrition field to contribute to the nutrition education of healthcare professionals and consumers.

Naiman A Khan, PhD, RD

Associate Professor
Department of Kinesiology and Community Health
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Champaign, IL, USA

Dr Naiman Khan is a Registered Dietitian and Associate Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Community Health at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He received his PhD degree in Nutritional Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2012. He is currently the Director of the Neurocognitive Health Behavior Laboratory. His research has taken a multidisciplinary approach to integrate knowledge in the areas of pediatric nutrition and cognitive neuroscience to understand the influence of foods and nutrients on specific aspects of attention and memory in children. Dr Khan has published over 100 research manuscripts and has received funding support from multiple sources, including federal agencies, private corporations, and non-profit food and commodity boards. He has appointments in Kinesiology and Community Health, Nutritional Sciences, Neuroscience, Family Resiliency Center, and the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The objective of his research program is to generate applied knowledge in nutritional neuroscience by translating the impact of nutrition on childhood cognitive health.

Amy Reichelt, PhD, BSC, CHNP

Nutritional Neuroscientist and Neuropharmacologist 
Adjunct Professor, University of Adelaide
Adelaide, Australia 
Adjunct Professor, University of Western Ontario
Toronto, ON, Canada

Dr Amy Reichelt is a Neuroscientist and Neuropharmacologist with a particular focus on the influence of nutrition on brain function. Dr Reichelt earned a PhD in Neuroscience from Cardiff University (UK) and a BSc in Psychology from the University of Birmingham (UK). Dr Reichelt’s primary research goal is to define the impacts of nutrition, lifestyle, and novel psychoactive therapies on cognitive health across the lifespan, with particular focus on adolescence. Dr Reichelt has built a strong reputation in both academia and industry as a thought leader in nutritional neuroscience, demonstrated through numerous competitive grants, awards, international speaking invitations, and publication of over 60 peer-reviewed journal articles. She uses a translational approach involving preclinical behavioral and neuropharmacology paradigms and human neurophysiology. This framework spans from cells to systems to behavior, to provide a comprehensive picture of the functional impact of diet, obesity, and pharmacological manipulations on brain health. 

Dr Reichelt has led research programs in both academia as a principal investigator (UNSW, Sydney, RMIT Melbourne and University of Adelaide), and in biotech companies, currently holding Adjunct Professor roles at the University of Adelaide and University of Western Ontario. She now works as a consultant for multiple pharmaceutical companies, providing strategic and scientific insights on clinical R&D programs and competitive positioning.