Dr. Babette Zemel

Such insight has practical implications for disease prevention and lifelong wellness, as well as broader scientific implications for understanding human plasticity and evolution. To this end, she has focused on two particular health concerns, bone fragility and obesity. She has been the Principal Investigator on numerous longitudinal studies funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health that have advanced our understanding of bone mineral accretion from early childhood through adulthood, and the effects of growth, muscle development, physical activity, genetics, diet and chronic disease during this critical life phase. She has developed reference ranges for clinical assessment of bone health, body composition and growth of children, including children with Down syndrome. She has also conducted studies of the development of obesity and its consequences. She currently is conducting a prospective, longitudinal study of African American pregnant women and their children examining factors contributing to excess weight gain in African American infants and young children, including the microbiome and the metabolome. A full list of her publications can be found at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/babette.zemel.1/bibliography/public/