Domingo Piñero
Clinical Associate Professor, Nutrition; Director, Undergraduate Program
Nutrition and Food Studies
Domingo J. Piñero joined the faculty of the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health in August 2002 and became director of the undergraduate program in 2008. He received his B.S. in Nutrition in 1986 from the Universidad Central de Venezuela; an M.S. in Nutrition in 1991 from the Universidad Simón Bolívar, Venezuela; and his Ph.D. in Nutrition with a minor in Demography in 1998 from The Pennsylvania State University. From 1998-2002 he was a Research Assistant Professor at the G.M. Leader Family Laboratory for Alzheimer's Disease Research, in the Neuroscience Department of the Penn State College of Medicine.
Dr. Piñero’s research interests are in pediatric nutrition in Latinos; especially pediatric obesity, and iron nutrition and cognitive development. He is most interested in multidisciplinary approaches to the solution of nutritional problems early in life. His current research centers on the prevention of child and adolescent obesity in the Latino community. Dr. Piñero earned a New York University Research Challenge Fund Award in 2004 for his pediatric obesity prevention collaborative research at Bellevue Hospital and was the recipient of the 2007 Teaching Excellence Award of the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University. Currently involved in interdisciplinary work in the BODY (Banishing Obesity and Diabetes in Children) project targeting obese children in NYC public schools.
Selected Publications
- Watts SO, Piñero DJ, Alter MM, Lancaster KJ. An Assessment of Nutrition Education in Selected Counties in New York State Elementary Schools (K-5). Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior; 2012; 44: 474‐80.
- Sweat S, Bruzzese J-M, Albert S, Piñero DJ, Fierman A, Convit A. The Banishing Obesity and Diabetes in Youth (BODY) Project: Description and Feasibility of a Program to Halt Obesity-Associated Disease Among Urban High School Students. J Community Health. 37(2):365-71, 2012.
- Black JL, Piñero DJ, Parekh N. Zinc and Cognitive Development in Children: Perspectives From International Studies. Topics in Clinical Nutrition: 24(2):130-138, 2009.
- Piñero DJ, Connor JR. Iron and Brain Function. In Nutritional Neuroscience, Nutrition Brain and Behavior Series. (Harris B. Lieberman, Robin B. Kanarek, and Chandan Prasad, Eds.) CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, Boca Raton, Florida, 2005
- Patton SM, Piñero DJ, Surguladze N, Beard J, Connor JR. Subcellular localization of iron regulatory proteins to Golgi and ER membranes. J Cell Sci 118:4365-4373, 2005
- Garback LM, Lancaster KJ, Piñero DJ, Bloom ED, Weinshel EH. Use of Herbal Complementary Alternative Medicine in a Veteran Outpatient Population. Topics Clin Nutr 18(3):170-176, 2003
- Piñero DJ, Li N, Hu J, Beard JL, Connor JR. The intracellular location of iron regulatory proteins is altered as a function of iron status in cell cultures and rat brain. J Nutr 131(11):2831-2836, 2001.
- Piñero DJ, Jones BC, Beard JL. Variations in dietary iron alter behavior in developing rats. J Nutr 131(2):311-318, 2001.
- Piñero DJ, Connor JR. Iron in the Brain: An important contributor in normal and diseased states. Review. Neuroscientist 6(6):435-453, 2000.