Associate Professor Arpita Basu joined the Kinesiology and Nutrition Sciences Department during fall 2017 and teaches nutrition and metabolism, epidemiology of nutrition and physical activity, and related metabolism and public health courses within the undergraduate and graduate programs. Basu’s research focuses on understanding the health effects of dietary bioactive compounds, such as those found in fruits and beverages in modulating disease biomarkers in type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease (CVD). She has conducted several clinical trials focused on these foods, beverages, and dietary supplements among adults with the metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and CVD risks. Basu also has extensive research interests in diabetes and nutritional epidemiology and has published several reports about prospective associations of lipid and lipoprotein biomarkers, and of dietary patterns, with diabetes vascular complications. Prior to coming to UNLV, Basu was a tenured faculty member in Nutritional Sciences at Oklahoma State University for 10 years. She has been published in more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and invited book chapters. Her research has been funded by federal and industrial agencies.

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. Basu serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Nutrition, Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, and Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition. Basu is also a registered and licensed dietitian and practices within the clinical research areas of diabetes and related cardiometabolic conditions.