Faculty Profile for Dr. Gar Yee Koh

profile photo for Dr. Gar Yee Koh
Dr. Gar Yee Koh
Assistant Professor — School of Family & Consumer Sciences
FCS FCS
phone: (512) 245-0199
Scholarly/Creative Work
Awards
Grants
Service

Biography Section

Biography and Education

 About

Dr. Gar Yee Koh is an Assistant Professor in the School of Family and Consumer Sciences at Texas State University. Dr. Koh earned her doctorate degree (PhD) in Nutritional Sciences from Iowa State University (ISU), as well as a Master’s in forestry and a Bachelor’s degree in Nutritional Sciences, both from Louisiana State University. She also completed her postdoctoral trainings at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University (2015 – 2019) and Citrus Research and Education Center at the University of Florida (2019 – 2020). As part of a multidisciplinary team, her research work aimed to promote gut health and metabolic disease prevention at the cellular and molecular levels.

Dr. Koh’s research focuses on promoting gut health to prevent complications resulting from obesity and other metabolic diseases. Her research has 3 main themes: 1) remodel gut microbiota to prevent obesity-induced gut inflammation, 2) identify and develop new dietary interventions to optimize vitamin D status in people with obesity and diabetes, and 3) investigate the effect of maternal diet on vitamin D metabolism among offspring. Her lab employs a variety of biochemical and molecular techniques, cell culture, rodents, and other in vitro methods to address these health priorities.

Dr. Koh is currently seeking collaborative opportunity in nutrition and gut microbiome, particularly with a focus on obesity and/or diabetes.

A complete list of Dr. Koh’s bibliography can be found here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/1DWn58WVizhAy/bibliography/public/

Teaching Interests

 Physiology, Nutrition, Metabolism

Courses currently teaching:
NUTR 3367 Nutrition Physiology

Research Interests

 -Gut microbiome and metabolic health
-Prebiotic and prebiotic
-Dietary fiber and vitamin D metabolism
-Colorectal cancer prevention
-Obesity and gut inflammation

Selected Scholarly/Creative Work

  • Farber, C. M., Renteria, K., Ritter, J., Muraida, J., Rivers, C., McKenzie, A. L., … Lane, M. A. (2023). Comparison of maternal versus postweaning ingestion of a high fat, high sucrose diet on depression-related behavior, novelty reactivity, and corticosterone levels in young, adult rat offspring. Behavioural Brain Research, 455, 114677. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2023.114677
  • Teoh, C. M., Cooper, A., Renteria, K., Lane, M., Zhu, J., & Koh, G. Y. (2022). Supplementation of methyl-donor nutrients to a high-fat, high-sucrose diet during pregnancy and lactation normalizes circulating 25-dihydroxycholecalciferol levels and alleviates inflammation in offspring. Metabolites, 12(12), 1252. https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo12121252
  • Koh, G. Y., Butler, E., & Nobles, Z. (n.d.). Combination effects of fructooligosaccharides and vitamin D on antimicrobial peptides expressions in the small intestine.
  • Renteria, K., Teoh, C. M., Constantine, E., Cooper, A., Lozano, N., Bauer, S., & Koh, G. Y. (2024). Combination of vitamin D3 and fructooligosaccharides upregulates colonic vitamin D receptor in C57BL/6J mice and affects anxiety-related behavior in a sex-dependent manner. Nutrition Research.
  • Bauer, S., Lozano, N., Teoh, C. M., Constantine, E., Cooper, A., Renteria, K., & Koh, G. Y. (2023). Characterize the combination effects of prebiotic fiber and vitamin D on systemic and colonic vitamin D signaling in mice. Current Developments in Nutrition, 7(Supp 1), 757.

Selected Awards

  • Award / Honor Recipient: Hamish N. Munro Award for Excellence in Post-Doctoral Research, Jean Mayer USDA HNRCA at Tufts University. May 2017
  • Award / Honor Recipient: Research Excellence Award, Iowa State University. December 2015
  • Award / Honor Recipient: Outstanding Reviewer, Food and Function. 2017
  • Award / Honor Recipient: Reviewer of the Year 2016, Journal of Diabetes. 2016
  • Award / Honor Recipient: Graduate Student Research Award, American Society for Nutrition. April 2014

Selected Grants

  • Zhu, Jie (Co-Principal), Koh, Gar Yee (Co-Principal). Effect of maternal methyl-donor nutrients supplementation during pregnancy and lactation on the risk of cardiometabolic disorders among offspring, Research Enhancement Program, Texas State University, $13370. (Funded: December 3, 2021 - June 30, 2023). Grant.
  • Koh, Gar Yee (Principal). Optimizing vitamin D status with prebiotic fiber – a novel strategy for prevention of obesity-induced gut inflammation, Texas State University, $8000. (Funded: January 2024 - May 2025). Grant.
  • Zhu, Jie (Co-Principal), Koh, Gar Yee (Co-Principal), Salcedo, Ramona (Co-Principal). Supporting Undergraduates in Research to Gain Experience (SURGE) 2023, College of Applied Arts, Texas State University, $6000. (Funded: August 31, 2023 - June 1, 2024). Grant.
  • Huertas Pau, Maria del Mar (Principal), Lu, Yuan (Co-Principal), Fuess, Lauren (Co-Principal), Peterson, Ryan (Co-Principal), Koh, Gar Yee (Co-Principal), Gracia, Dana (Co-Principal). MARK:Acquisition of tissue processing and embedding machines to produce fixed-paraffin-embedded blocks of biological tissues, Texas State University, $52500. (Submitted: September 2022, Funded: September 2022 - February 2023). Grant.
  • Koh, Gar Yee (Co-Principal), Zhu, Jie (Co-Principal), Salcedo Price, Ramona (Co-Principal). Supporting Undergraduates in Research to Gain Experience (SURGE) 2022, College of Applied Arts, Texas State University, $6000. (Funded: August 12, 2022 - June 1, 2023). Grant.

Selected Service Activities

Member
Research Enhancement Program FY25
September 2024-Present
Member
Search Committee - Assistant Professor
September 2024-Present
Reviewer / Referee
American Society for Nutrition
February 2024-Present
Reviewer / Referee
Journal of Animal Science and Biotechnology
2023-Present
Reviewer / Referee
Frontiers in Chemistry
2022-Present