Research Program: Carcinogenesis & Chemoprevention, Prevention & Etiology
Assistant Professor, Department of Food Science and Nutrition

speter@umn.edu
612-625-1785 — office

Dr. Peterson received her Ph.D. in nutritional sciences from the University of Washington in Seattle. She completed her Ph.D. work in the area of food and cancer, particularly related to cruciferous and apiaceous plants.

Research Interests

Dr. Peterson investigates the effects of plant foods and their constituents on biotransformation enzymes and carcinogen metabolism. She is also interested in the effects of gene-diet interactions on the activity of biotransformation enzymes. Her overall goal is to identify diet-based strategies that decrease the risk of developing cancer.

Selected Publications

Lampe JW, Peterson S. (2002) Brassica, biotransformation and cancer risk: genetic polymorphisms alter the preventive effects of cruciferous vegetables. J Nutr 132: 2991-2994.

Peterson S, Lampe JW, Eaton DL. (2004). Genetic susceptibility to dietary carcinogens. In: Watson D, editor. Pesticides, veterinary and other chemical residues in food. Cambridge, UK: Woodhead Publishing Ltd.

Peterson S, Lampe JW, Bigler J, Horner NK, Potter JD. (2005) Cruciferae interact with UGT1A1*28 polymorphism to determine serum bilirubin levels in humans. J Nutr 135: 1051-1055.

Peterson S, Lampe JW, Gross-Steinmeyer K, Bammler TK, Eaton DL. Apiaceous vegetable constituents inhibit human cytochrome P-450 1A2 (hCYP1A2) activity and hCYP1A2-mediated mutagenicity of aflatoxin B1. Food Chem Toxicol. 2006 Sep;44(9):1474-84.

Turesky RJ, Yuan JM, Wang R, Peterson S, Yu MC. (2007) Tobacco smoking and urinary levels of 2-amino-9H-pyrido[2,3-b]indole in men of Shanghai, China. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2007 Aug;16(8):1554-60.