Sept. 12, 2007

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COLLEGE STATION – After spending her educational and professional careers in the four corners of the country, Dr. Alice Villalobos has settled in Bryan/College Station. Villalobos said she is looking forward to beginning her new position as assistant professor in the department of nutrition and food sciences. Her husband, Dr. Michel Massett, will be an assistant professor with the department of health and kinesiology.

Dr. Michael McBurney, head of the department of nutrition and food science, said, "Her research will address physiological regulation and toxicological modulation of nutrient transport. She will use in vitro and in vivo models to study the impact of diet and exposure to heavy metals, like cadmium, on brain development in young animals.

"Her research will help us understand the impact of early life exposure to heavy metals and diet on human development," McBurney said.

It may eventually lead to the discovery of how nutrients and medications can be more effectively delivered to the body and how some less desirable elements – such as heavy metals – can be eliminated, Villalobos said.

In her new position at Texas A&M, Villalobos will spend half her professional time in research and the other half in teaching and service.

"This semester I will teach introductory course for non-majors," she said, to a class of about 300 – many of whom will be freshmen and sophomores.

"It's an exciting time of life, your time as an undergraduate," Villalobos said. "For many students, this is a unique opportunity to meet people and make new friends from all over."

Villalobos earned a bachelor of science degree in biology from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and a doctorate in physiology from the University of Arizona in Tucson. Her first post-doctoral position was with the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences in North Carolina, and her second was with the University of Connecticut.

After that, she worked in environmental medicine at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in New York for six years, she said.

In her research, she studies epithelial transport, or how compounds are transported through certain areas of the body – pathways for nutrients or drugs, Villalobos said.

"Our main project is to study choline, a very fundamental component, a building block of membranes that surround cells," she said.

That research and the support available for it at Texas A&M are a large part of what attracted her to the university, she said. The opportunity to teach, especially in such a new department, was another.

And the fact that Texas A&M is a Big 12 university with "a lot of school spirit and a big athletic program" didn't hurt, she said with a laugh, adding that she and her husband are college football fans.

"My husband and I are very happy to be here," Villalobos said. "This is an outstanding university."