Faculty

John D Fernstrom, PhD

Professor of Psychiatry and Pharmacology and Chemical Biology

Contact Details

3811 O'Hara St.
Pittsburgh
 
PA
 
15213

Education & Training

PhD
Neuroscience, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Neuroendocrinology, Roche Institute of Molecular Biology

Professional Affiliations

Member, Society for Neuroscience
Member, American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
Member, American Physiological Society
Member, American Society for Nutrition

Research Interests

Neuropharmacology; Neuroendocrinology; Nutritional biochemistry
Selected Research Publications & Products
  1. Fernstrom JD. Dietary effects on brain tryptophan uptake and serotonin synthesis: Primate research in the wild can help determine if there a link to dietary protein selection. Amino Acid Research 10: 35-41, 2016.
  2. Fernstrom JD. A perspective on the safety of supplemental tryptophan based on its metabolic fates. Journal of Nutrition 146: 2601S-2608S, 2016.
  3. Sun, M, Burke LE, Baranowski T, Fernstrom JD, Zhang H, Chen HC, Bai Y, Li Y, Li C, Yue Y, Li Z, Nie J, Sclabassi RJ, Mao ZH, Jia W. An exploratory study on a chest-worn computer for evaluation of diet, physical activity and lifestyle. Journal of Healthcare Engineering 6: 122, 2015.
  4. Fernstrom JD, Langham KA, Marcellino L, Irvine ZLE, Fernstrom MH, Kaye WH. The ingestion of dietary proteins by humans rapidly induces large changes in the plasma tryptophan ratio, an important predictor of brain tryptophan uptake. Clinical Nutrition 32: 1073-1076, 2013.
  5. Choi S, DiSilvio B, Fernstrom MH, Fernstrom JD. The chronic ingestion of diets containing different proteins produces marked variations in brain tryptophan levels and serotonin synthesis in the rat. Neu-rochemical Research 36: 559-565, 2011.