HNFAS Faculty


FACULTY INFORMATION
Banna, Jinan
Professor in Human Nutrition  


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Email:  jcbanna@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-7857
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Nutrition Education, Community Nutrition
Butel, Jean
Asst Spec  


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Email:  jbutel@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-7069
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Cacpal, Kristina
Extn Agent  


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Email:  kcacpal@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 567-6929
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Farm to School
Caires, Kyle
Associate Extension Agent  


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Email:  kccaires@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 541-760-6317
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Beef cattle support, livestock, 4-H livestock program
DuPonte, Michael W
Emeritus  


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Email:  mduponte@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 969-8201
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Livestock and Pasture Management
Esquivel, Monica
Associate Professor and Dietetics Program Director  


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Email:  monicake@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-8691
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, community based participatory nutrition, child health promotion, food and nutrition security
Fukumoto, Glen K
Co Extn Agent  


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Email:  gfukumot@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 322-0165
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Pasture, Livestock & Waste Management
Hackney, Lara
Instructor  


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Email:  laraj27@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-3837
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

He, Yanghua
Assistant Professor of Genomics and Epigenomics  


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Email:  yanghua.he@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-7090
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

1. Benchwork: Sequencing platforms: Illumina HiSeq; Mi-seq; 10*Genomics; Nanopore sequencing. Library constructions for sequencing: DNA-seq; RNA-seq; ChIP-seq and CUT&RUN; MBD-seq; MeDIP-seq; WGBS; RRBS; Bisulfite cloning sequencing; pyrosequencing; HiC; PLAC-seq; ATAC-seq. CRISPR-based technologies (Genome-editing and Epigenome-editing). sgRNA Library Screening. 2. Data analysis: Bioinformatics in Genetic and Epigenetic data analysis; Galaxy platform; Linux Operating System; Computational languages: Perl, Python, R, Matlab, SAS, C++
Ho, Kacie
Associate Professor  


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Email:  kacieho@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-8286
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Jha, Rajesh
Professor and Graduate Chair of Animal Sciences  


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Email:  rjha@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-4122
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Monogastric Animal Nutrition, Gut Health and Physiology, Feed and Feed Additive Evaluation
Jun, Soojin
Professor  


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Email:  soojin@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-8283
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Food Engineering, Food Processing, Food preservation, Biosensing
Kim, Yong-Soo
Researcher  


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Email:  ykim@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-8335
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Growth physiology; muscle biology ; meat science: Cattle-ProductionSwine-Production-all aspectsCattle-PostharvestSwine-Postharvest
Lee, Chin Nyean
Specialist  


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Email:  chinl@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-4882
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Reproductive Physiology Dairy Science: Cattle-Dairy -Pasture ManagementForage Crops in gen.-MarketingCrops in gen.-Agricultural DevelopmentAnimals in gen.-Agricultural DevelopmentPasture in gen.-Management
Lee, Cheng Sheng
Researcher and Exec Dir Ctr for Trop & Subtrop Ag  


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Email:  chenglee@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-3385
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Reproduction control in marine finfish and marine shrimp; Early life history of fish and shrimp; Ecology of live feed organisms; and Aquaculture Management in general.
Lee, Mi-Jeong
Associate Professor  


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Email:  leemj7@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-9565
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Li, Yong
Professor  


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Email:  liyong@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-6408
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Food Microbiology, Food Safety
Mishra, Birendra
Associate Professor  


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Email:  bmishra@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-7021
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Reproductive Physiology of Domestic Animals and Poultry, Environmental stress on reproduction, Transcriptional regulation of egg formation in the laying hens, nutritional programming to increase the reproductive efficiencies.
Morgan Bernal, Lydi
Jr Extn Agent - Oʻahu Farm to School  


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Email:  lydi@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-7095
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Farm-to-School, school gardens, teacher professional development, coalition building
Nakamoto, Stuart T
Extension Economist/Spec  


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Email:  snakamo@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-8125
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Agribusiness marketing/adding value (marketing of Specialty crops and products), agribusiness management, agribusiness economics, risk management, tea, blueberries
Novotny, Rachel
Professor  


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Email:  novotny@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-3848
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Community and global nutrition; Maternal and child nutrition; Public health nutrition; Field assessment of nutrition status
Odani, Jenee
Lecturer  


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Email:  jsodani@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-7095
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Small ruminant support and general animal health; diseases of terrestrial and aquatic livestock; Board-certified in veterinary anatomic pathology
Oshiro, Melelani
Asst Extn Agent  


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Email:  mabran@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 322-0165
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Small ruminant support and livestock
Reichhardt, Caleb Case
Assistant Professor of Livestock Animal Production  


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Email:  CCReichh@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-7691
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Beef cattle management and muscle biology.
Seale, Andre P.
Researcher  


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Email:  seale@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-8961
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Comparative endocrinology, fish physiology, cell and molecular biology, signal transduction, aquaculture.
Thorne, Mark
Specialist  


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Email:  thornem@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 887-7625
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Grazing management and beef cattle support
Yang, Jinzeng
Professor & Chair  


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Email:  jinzeng@hawaii.edu
Phone:  (808) 956-6073
Special Skills and Knowledge:  

Molecular biology, animal biotechnology, transgenic animals, genetics, gene regulation, muscle biology, lactation physiology, mammary gland biology
12 May 2023

Heat and Salt

HNFAS faculty, students continue to study fish transcription factors

Heat and Salt

How do fish cope with changes in water temperature and salinity when they are literally bathed in those stressors? That question was answered just a few years ago by researchers in the Dept. of Human Nutrition, Food and Animal Sciences, who discovered that fish mediate heat stress and salinity acclimation via the hormone prolactin.

Continuing that research, HNFAS students under mentor Andre Seale have found multiple transcription factors that are sensitive to ambient solute concentration. These factors control the gene that encodes for prolactin, and respond  to changes in  salinity and temperature encountered by the fish.

Gene switches sensitivity

“Transcription factors are molecules that turn genes on and off by binding to DNA,” explains grad student Tharindu Malintha, who recently defended his PhD dissertation with “Environmentally Sensitive Transcription Factors in the Prolactin Cell, Gill and Kidney of Mozambique Tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus).” 

Changes in temperature, he adds, can activate or inhibit these same transcription factors and characterize the molecular pathways activated in gills and kidney when fish are in different salinities. 

How tight? 

Meanwhile, with support from a UROP award, HNFAS undergrad Ke Cao has been working on a project to show how tight-junction proteins help fish cope with change. Tight-junction proteins play a key role in maintaining structural integrity between cells. When fish are challenged with rapidly changing salinities, these proteins act to prevent excessive water movement across the gill.

Cao recently presented at the 46th annual Albert L. Tester Memorial Symposium and the UROP undergraduate showcase.  

"I’m extremely proud of these two young scientists,” says Andre, who is the 2023 recipient of the Ka Pouhana Dean’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring. “Through their hard work and dedication, they produced impactful research while making speedy progress toward their personal and professional development."

Read Malintha’s and Andre’s full article, “Osmosensitive transcription factors in the prolactin cell of a euryhaline teleost,” which appears in a recent Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology.

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HNFAS Department

1955 East West Road
AgSci 216

Honolulu, HI 96822

phone: 808-956-7095

fax: 808-956-4024


hnfas@hawaii.edu

 

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