Grace Shearrer
Family & Consumer Sciences | Human Nutrition & Food
Assistant Professor
Introduction
Dating back nearly a decade, my research portfolio has focused on how non-physiological systems - brain based hedonic behaviors - alter the physiological motivation to eat and weight regulation homeostasis before obesity onset.
Over my career, I have shown sugar sweetened beverage intake is a reciprocal risk factor for excess weight gain through increased hedonic brain activity, decreased endocrine regulation, and decreased satiety. In adolescents, pubertal development appears to accelerate hedonic brain response to a reward, and subsequently shifts from the reward receipt to the cue predicting the reward.
I am currently developing a model to test how pubertal development increases reward-related behaviors using non-invasive eye tracking. I hypothesize that insulin resistance during puberty is the underlying accelerating factor. My work has been recognized at the national Obesity Society meeting and international Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior meeting.
Education
Ph.D. Nutritional Science, University of Texas at Austin, 2016.
B.S.F.C. Family and Consumer Sciences (Human Nutrition and Food Pre-Medicine Career Track) and B.S. Human Physiology, University of Wyoming, 2012.
Courses Taught
- Nutrition Controversies
- Therapeutic Nutrition
- Sports Nutrition and Metabolism
- Nutrition and Weight Control
Research Interests
- Behavioral regulation of eating behaviors during periods of rapid development.
- Sugar intake on metabolic, endocrine, and neural pathways in adolescents.
- Pregnancy and the postpartum period as critical stages for insulin resistance.
- The relationship between puberty, insulin resistance, and the brain.
To learn more, please visit my research lab's website:
Professional Experience
- Research Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill from 2019-2021
- Co-Director UNC fMRI Analysis Workshop – University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2017
- Post Doctoral Fellow - Center for Women's Health Research, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2016-2019
- MRI tech at University of Texas Austin, 2012-2016
