Dr. Charlene Van Buiten is an Assistant Professor of Food Science in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at Colorado State University. Dr. Van Buiten’s research program integrates themes from her training in food chemistry and nutritional biochemistry to understand how food processing and nutrient interactions can enhance the biological functionality of sustainable, plant-based foods, including improvement of nutritional functionality and mitigation of inflammatory potential. She is currently focused on two overarching themes: (1) protein-polyphenol interactions and their functional health outcomes and (2) targeted fermentation as a sustainable technology for improving food quality.

 Dr. Van Buiten holds a bachelor’s degree in Nutritional Sciences from the University of Connecticut and a Ph.D. in Food Science from Pennsylvania State University. Prior to beginning her current position at Colorado State, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship in botanical therapies for metabolic syndrome at Rutgers University supported by the NIH National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. Dr. Van Buiten’s Food Structure & Function Lab at CSU is currently funded by the Colorado Agricultural Experiment Station, the California Table Grape Commission and the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.