Associate Professor Arpita Basu joined the Kinesiology and Nutrition Sciences department during fall 2017 and teaches complementary and integrative medical nutrition therapy, nutrition therapy and pathophysiology of chronic diseases, and clinical and public health nutrition courses within the undergraduate and graduate programs. Dr. Basu’s research focuses on understanding the health effects of dietary bioactive compounds, such as those found in tea, berries, and cocoa in modulating disease biomarkers in type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular diseases. She has conducted several clinical trials focused on these foods, beverages, and dietary supplements among adults with the metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular risks. Dr. Basu also has extensive research interests in diabetes and nutritional epidemiology and has published several reports about prospective associations of lipid and lipoprotein biomarkers, as well as of dietary patterns, with diabetes vascular complications. Prior to coming to UNLV, Dr. Basu was a faculty member in Nutritional Sciences at Oklahoma State University for 10 years. She has been published in more than 80 peer-reviewed journal articles and invited book chapters. Her research has been funded by federal and industrial agencies.

Dr. Basu earned her master’s in food and nutrition from University of Calcutta India, her master’s in public health with focus on epidemiology from University of South Florida, and her Ph.D. in nutrition from Texas Woman’s University. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship in clinical nutrition at University of California Davis Medical Center. Dr. Basu has served on the editorial board of the Journal of Nutrition since 2012 and has received numerous research awards from the American Society for Nutrition and the American College of Nutrition for her research in dietary bioactive compounds in human health.