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About Sue A. Shapses, PhD

Links:

https://nutrition.rutgers.edu/faculty/sue-shapses.html

https://ifnh.rutgers.edu/centers/nutrition-exercise-metabolism/

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3128-2325

www.linkedin.com/in/sue-shapses-378449b8

Affiliations & Leadership

  • Professor, Department of Nutritional Sciences, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ (2008 – present.)
  • Professor, Department of Medicine, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. New Brunswick, N.J. (2019- present.)
  • Director, Center for Human Nutrition, Exercise and Metabolism (NExT Center), NJIFNH and of the shared facility - Body composition/Bone (multiple instruments for testing).   (2020-present.)
  • Rutgers Graduate member positions (Nutritional Sciences Graduate Program, Physiology and Integrative Biology & Molecular Biosciences Grad Program, Kinesiology & Applied Physiology Graduate Program, Food Science Graduate Program)
  • Principal Investigator of the OWLE shared dataset (NIH-AG12161) > 500 obese/overweight (Osteoporosis, Weight Loss and Endocrine). (2016 – present.)
  • Member, NIEHS Center for Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences Inst, NJ. (2007-present.) 
  • Member, Rutgers Center for Lipid Research, Rutgers University (2016-present.)
  • Elected member, Interagency Council on Osteoporosis, New Jersey State Dept of Human Services. (2012-present.)

Education and Training  

  • Columbia University, Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Dept of Orthopaedic Surg/Div of Biochemistry, NY, NY. 1991.   
  • Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Dept Critical Care Medicine, Bronx, N.Y. 1989
  • Columbia University, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, NY, NY, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), 1988.
  • Columbia University, Institute of Human Nutrition, New York, NY, Master of Science (MS). 1983
  • Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, Bachelor of Science, (Magna Cum Laude) (BS) and Internship-Strong Memorial Hospital, Rochester, NY. Board Certification (RD/RDN): #00569959.

Select Honors and Awards

  • Grants Awards:  Federal Awards (NIA-NIH, USDA).  Industry Awards (Merck, Nesle Healthcare, Johnson & Johnson, OmniActive, Proctor & Gamble, Kellogg, Slim Fast, Dairy Council).   
  • Honors/Awards: Award of Appreciation, Bone Research and Clinical Advisory Panel – dedication to occupational skeletal risks and preserving long-term skeletal health in NASA astronauts. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2017;  Service Award. Interagency Council on Osteoporosis, State of NJ-Department of Human Services, Division of Aging, 2014; Abbott Nutrition Award in Women’s Health for significant contributions: nutrition research in women's health, 2012.

Short Biography

Sue Shapses is a Professor at Rutgers University in the Department of Nutritional Sciences and has a secondary Professor position in the Department of Medicine, Rutgers-RWJ Medical School. She is the Director of the NEXT Metabolism Center (Human Nutrition, Exercise & Metabolism) at the NJ-Institute of Food, Nutrition and Health. She received her MS and PhD from Columbia University followed by postdoctoral training at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and at Columbia University (Orthopaedic Biochemistry) with more recent training in the Department of Endocrinology, University of Sydney. She is a Fellow of the Am Society of Bone Mineral Research and has served on various federal committees including those at the National Institutes of Health, NASA to prevent bone loss on space missions, and the Institute of Medicine (now the Academy of Medicine) to develop the dietary guidelines for vitamin D and calcium. She devotes time to serve as Editor of clinical journals. Most of her research has been funded by the NIH, but also receives funding from the USDA, Foundations and Pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Shapses’ clinical and translational research emphasizes the endocrine regulation of obesity and osteoporosis with focus area on circadian rhythm, inflammation, gastrointestinal absorption, and dietary interventions altering metabolism during weight reduction.  Studies also examine how specific foods or nutrients or behavioral interventions affect hormones, bone and cognition with a focus on older adults and women. Dr. Shapses enjoys teaches medical nutrition and physiology courses to undergraduate and graduate students and mentors' trainees at all levels in the laboratory. 

Research/Clinical Interests and Description

The major focus in the laboratory is to determine how obesity and loss of body weight alleviate risk of disease and contribute to the risk of osteoporosis. A focus in the lab is to determine mechanisms that regulate inflammation, cognition and bone metabolism and the role of specific nutrients such as vitamin D, protein and calcium. We recently have been addressing how circadian rhythm affects health (including bone, microbiome, cognition, circadian markers and sleep). Hormones, bone turnover and gut peptides are measured using techniques of spectrophotometry, and HPLC, and stable isotopes and mass spec to assess absorption. The lab examines healthy older individuals with a focus on obesity and imaging methods and has an interest in ethnic/ racial differences during weight loss and in those with metabolic syndrome. There is a clinical and translational research that emphasizes the endocrine regulation of obesity with current focus areas on circadian rhythm, metabolic endotoxemia, inflammation, gastrointestinal absorption/gut microbiome, sleep and cognition that use dietary interventions altering metabolism during energy restriction.  

Active research and clinical projects

Time restricted eating studies addressing circadian rhythm, bone, metabolic health, microbiome, sleep and cognition., High fat diets on endotoxin, intestinal permeability, microbiome in obesity. Weight loss and bone (2 levels of MUFA). Secondary analysis using the OWLE database. https://ifnh.rutgers.edu/centers/nutrition-exercise-metabolism/owle-study-description.html   

Publications (10 original, 6 policy and other reviews in journals, and 5 chapters)

Biography Link:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/sue.shapses.1/bibliography/public/?sortby=pubDate&sdirection=descending

Media:

These Nutrients can Strengthen Aging Bones. New York Times, July 2024 https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/22/well/eat/bones-strength-calcium-vitamin-d.html#:~:text=%E2%80%9CExercise%20and%20a%20nutrient%2Drich,%2C%20%E2%80%9Cbut%20especially%20bone.%E2%80%9D