Laura Lashinger

Dr. Laura Lashinger is an Associate Professor of Instruction, Associate Chair of Undergraduate Studies, and the Director of the Online Master of Science in Nutritional Science Program in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin. She received a PhD in Cancer Biology from The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, a BS in Nursing from the University of Virginia, and a BS in Psychology and Biology from Old Dominion University. She is the Chair of the Curriculum Redesign Committee and the standing Curriculum Committee in the department. She currently teaches the Advanced Nutritional Sciences, Issues in Nutrition and Health in the undergraduate program, and Current Issues in Nutrition Science and Advances in Nutritional Sciences I: Macronutrients in the graduate program. Her research interests included understanding the connection between energy balance and pancreatic cancer development and progression. Her work highlighted the energy balance-responsiveness of this aggressive cancer, particularly when detected early, largely because of the nutrient-sensitive growth factors insulin and IGF-1. Another focus of her research is to determine effects of macronutrient intake timing on cardiometabolic outcomes such as insulin sensitivity and fat deposition.