Research Associate, Center for Precision Nutrition and Health, Cornell University
slh277@cornell.edu LinkedIN ORCID

Database Developer/Statistical Support
Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University
jtk93@cornell.edu 

Research Coordinator
Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University
amb599@cornell.edu 

Samantha L. Huey, Ph.D.

Dr. Samantha Huey, PhD is a Research Associate in the Joan Klein Jacobs Center for Precision Nutrition and Health at Cornell University. Dr. Huey’s research interests include examining the connections between nutrition, the gut microbiota and immune function in maternal and child health and in particular how precision nutrition may apply in this context. She is investigating these questions in children and mothers who participated in two randomized controlled trials in Mumbai and South India, both of which examined the efficacy of consuming biofortified crops-based foods on growth, immunity, and cognition. During her PhD training, she lived for two years in Mumbai to facilitate the first trial—which involved a complex study design, 20 urban slum community field sites, and managing hundreds of personnel and staff (ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT02233764). She conducted an acceptability trial before the study was launched, published in 2017. Her dissertation work on nutrition status and the gut microbiome in the children participating in the Mumbai trial has been published in both nutrition and microbiology journals.

Dr. Huey’s current research questions include determining the impact of biofortified crops on the gut microbiome and whether the gut microbiome may predict longer team health outcomes; of particular interest is elucidating inter-individual differences in response to a given intervention. Dr. Huey also supports the NIH Nutrition for Precision Health (NPH) Initiative as part of the Data & Analytics Team for the Research Coordinating Center (RCC), co-led by Cornell (Co-PI: Dr. Saurabh Mehta) and RTI International (Co-PI: Dr. Marie Gantz). Finally, Dr. Huey leads efforts to synthesize evidence on micronutrients, biofortification, obesity, precision nutrition, diagnostic test accuracy, the gut microbiome, and maternal and child health to enable translation to action and guidelines such as for the World Health Organization.

Dr. Huey’s full PubMed Bibliography: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/samantha.huey.1/bibliography/public/

Select MRG Publications:

1. Huey SL, Mehta NH, Konieczynski EM, Bhargava A, Friesen VM, Krisher JT, Mbuya MNN, Monterrosa E, Nyangaresi AM, Boy E, Mehta S. Bioaccessibility and bioavailability of biofortified food and food products: Current evidence. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2022 Nov 17:1-23. doi: 10.1080/10408398.2022.2142762. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36384354.

2. Huey SL, Krisher JT, Morgan D, Mkambula P, Gannon BM, Mbuya MNN, Mehta S. A review of portable quantitative and semi-quantitative devices for measurement of vitamin A in biological samples. Curr Res Biotechnol. 2022 May 12;4:253-274. doi: 10.1016/j.crbiot.2022.04.003. PMID: 36033130; PMCID: PMC9407042.

3. Huey SL, Krisher JT, Morgan D, Mkambula P, Srinivasan B, Gannon BM, Mbuya MNN, Mehta S. Portable Devices for Measurement of Vitamin A Concentrations in Edible Oil: Field Readiness of Available Options. ACS Omega. 2022 May 17;7(21):17502-17518. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.1c07181. PMID: 35664625; PMCID: PMC9161250.

4. Huey SL, Krisher JT, Bhargava A, Friesen VM, Konieczynski EM, Mbuya MNN, Mehta NH, Monterrosa E, Nyangaresi AM, Mehta S. Review of the Impact Pathways of Biofortified Foods and Food Products. Nutrients. 2022 Mar 12;14(6):1200. doi: 10.3390/nu14061200. PMID: 35334857; PMCID: PMC8952206.

5. Mehta S, Huey SL, Ghugre PS, Potdar RD, Venkatramanan S, Krisher JT, Ruth CJ, Chopra HV, Thorat A, Thakker V, Johnson L, Powis L, Raveendran Y, Haas JD, Finkelstein JL, Udipi SA; Project Sabal. A randomized trial of iron- and zinc-biofortified pearl millet-based complementary feeding in children aged 12 to 18 months living in urban slums. Clin Nutr. 2022 Apr;41(4):937-947. doi: 10.1016/j.clnu.2022.02.014. Epub 2022 Feb 24. PMID: 35299084.

6. Huey SL, Finkelstein JL, Venkatramanan S, Udipi SA, Ghugre P, Thakker V, Thorat A, Potdar RD, Chopra HV, Kurpad AV, Haas JD, Mehta S. Prevalence and Correlates of Undernutrition in Young Children Living in Urban Slums of Mumbai, India: A Cross Sectional Study. Front Public Health. 2019 Jul 12;7:191. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2019.00191. PMID: 31355176; PMCID: PMC6639755.

7. Huey SL, Jiang L, Fedarko MW, McDonald D, Martino C, Ali F, Russell DG, Udipi SA, Thorat A, Thakker V, Ghugre P, Potdar RD, Chopra H, Rajagopalan K, Haas JD, Finkelstein JL, Knight R, Mehta S. Nutrition and the Gut Microbiota in 10- to 18-Month-Old Children Living in Urban Slums of Mumbai, India. mSphere. 2020 Sep 23;5(5):e00731-20. doi: 10.1128/mSphere.00731-20. PMID: 32968008; PMCID: PMC7568645.

8. Huey SL, Acharya N, Silver A, Sheni R, Yu EA, Peña-Rosas JP, Mehta S. Effects of oral vitamin D supplementation on linear growth and other health outcomes among children under five years of age. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2020 Dec 8;12(12):CD012875. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD012875.pub2. PMID: 33305842; PMCID: PMC8121044.

9. Huey SL, Yu EA, Finkelstein JL, Glesby MJ, Bonam W, Russell DG, Mehta S. Nutrition, Inflammation, and the Gut Microbiota among Outpatients with Active Tuberculosis Disease in India. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2021 Oct 18;105(6):1645-1656. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.21-0310. PMID: 34662867; PMCID: PMC8641345.

10. Mehta S, Huey SL, McDonald D, Knight R, Finkelstein JL. Nutritional Interventions and the Gut Microbiome in Children. Annu Rev Nutr. 2021 Oct 11;41:479-510. doi: 10.1146/annurev-nutr-021020-025755. Epub 2021 Jul 20. PMID: 34283919.

    Link to complete published work

Jesse T. Krisher

Jesse Krisher is a Data Analyst who helps researchers through all phases of a study from conception and database design through data management, analysis, and publication. He has developed and implemented mobile data capture solutions for clinical trials, longitudinal studies, and surveillance projects in India, Uganda, and several Latin America countries, managing the flow of data from the field sites, solving complex data management challenges, and analyzes datasets for publication. Previous to Jesse’s work in global health research, he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Certificate in Public Health Sciences, led medical device design teams, and supported implementation and clinical use of complex neurosurgical navigation systems in hospitals in the US. Jesse recently became a father and is passionate for the outdoors and traveling to learn about history, culture, and cuisine.

Select MRG Publications:

1. Finkelstein JL, Guetterman HM, Fothergill A, Johnson CB, Qi YP, Jabbar S, Zhang M, Pfeiffer CM, Rose CE, Yeung LF, Williams JL, Krisher JT, Ruth C, Roy Choudhury D, Venkatramanan S, Haas JD, Kuriyan R, Mehta S, Bonam W, Crider KS. A Randomized Trial of Quadruple-Fortified Salt for Anemia and Birth Defects Prevention in Southern India: Protocol Design and Methods. Curr Dev Nutr. 2023 Feb 21;7(3):100052. doi: 10.1016/j.cdnut.2023.100052. PMID: 37181934; PMCID: PMC10111605.

2. Huey SL, Mehta NH, Konieczynski EM, Bhargava A, Friesen VM, Krisher JT, Mbuya MNN, Monterrosa E, Nyangaresi AM, Boy E, Mehta S. Bioaccessibility and bioavailability of biofortified food and food products: Current evidence. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2022 Nov 17:1-23. doi: 10.1080/10408398.2022.2142762. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36384354.

3. Huey SL, Krisher JT, Morgan D, Mkambula P, Gannon BM, Mbuya MNN, Mehta S. A review of portable quantitative and semi-quantitative devices for measurement of vitamin A in biological samples. Curr Res Biotechnol. 2022 May 12;4:253-274. doi: 10.1016/j.crbiot.2022.04.003. PMID: 36033130; PMCID: PMC9407042.

4. Mehta S, Huey SL, Ghugre PS, Potdar RD, Venkatramanan S, Krisher JT, Ruth CJ, Chopra HV, Thorat A, Thakker V, Johnson L, Powis L, Raveendran Y, Haas JD, Finkelstein JL, Udipi SA; Project Sabal. A randomized trial of iron- and zinc-biofortified pearl millet-based complementary feeding in children aged 12 to 18 months living in urban slums. Clin Nutr. 2022 Apr;41(4):937-947. doi: 10.1016/j.clnu.2022.02.014. Epub 2022 Feb 24. PMID: 35299084.

5. Huey SL, Krisher JT, Bhargava A, Friesen VM, Konieczynski EM, Mbuya MNN, Mehta NH, Monterrosa E, Nyangaresi AM, Mehta S. Review of the Impact Pathways of Biofortified Foods and Food Products. Nutrients. 2022 Mar 12;14(6):1200. doi: 10.3390/nu14061200. PMID: 35334857; PMCID: PMC8952206.

6. Ruth CJ, Huey SL, Krisher JT, Fothergill A, Gannon BM, Jones CE, Centeno-Tablante E, Hackl LS, Colt S, Finkelstein JL, Mehta S. An Electronic Data Capture Framework (ConnEDCt) for Global and Public Health Research: Design and Implementation. J Med Internet Res. 2020 Aug 13;22(8):e18580. doi: 10.2196/18580. PMID: 32788154; PMCID: PMC7453324.

Anna M. Bennett, M.P.H.

Anna received her B.S. in Movement Science and Spanish from Gordon College (Wenham, MA) and her M.P.H in Epidemiology from the School of Health Sciences at New York Medical College (Valhalla, NY). She first travelled through India in 1997 as volunteer with the Missionaries of Charity visiting marginalized groups to provide friendship and deliver goods, a trip that profoundly began to shape her world view. She worked as Program Coordinator at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx N.Y., supporting research and community outreach to increase access to colorectal cancer screening and preventative care. After moving to Ithaca, N.Y., Anna joined the Ithaca City School District as an inclusive educator and started to develop her passion for helping all students succeed. She comes to the Division of Nutritional Sciences as Research Coordinator and is pleased to be supporting the mission and vision of MRG.