Fall 2026 Missouri Data Science and Informatics Symposium

More than 2 in 5 American adults (136 million people) have prediabetes, which places them at increased risk for developing type-2 diabetes (T2D) and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Dietary polyphenols in plant foods are associated with reduced risk and symptoms of chronic metabolic disease, but only about 10% of US adults consume the recommended daily servings of fruits and vegetables. Our preclinical murine studies have shown that Concord grape polyphenols (GPs), rich in the proanthocyanidin (PAC) class of compounds, can promote metabolic benefits at least in part by altering specific gut microbes and bile acids involved in glucose homeostasis. We performed a longitudinal, single arm intervention study to investigate how our murine data would translate to humans (NCT04018066). Metabolomic, metagenomic, and metaproteomic changes were measured in healthy participants (n= 27) before and after 5 days of soy protein isolate (SPI) supplementation alone followed by 10 days of supplementation with GPs complexed to SPI (GP-SPI). Serum, fecal, and urine samples were collected before and during the 17 day study and prepared for shotgun metagenomic sequencing, mass spectrometry-based metaproteomics, and targeted metabolomics (i.e., bile acids and polyphenols metabolites). Most multi-omic changes observed after 2 and/or 4 days of GP-SPI intake were temporary, returning to pre-supplementation profiles by day 10, suggesting microbial adaptation to PAC-rich GPs. Notably, 10 days of GP-SPI supplementation decreased fasting blood glucose in association with increased serum hyocholic acid (HCA), a bile acid known to promote glucose homeostasis through increasing glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1). While causal relationships remain to be investigated, to our knowledge, this is the first study linking intake of GPs (mainly PACs) with increased serum HCA species, providing a novel mechanism by which GPs may contribute to glucose homeostasis.

That wasn't the plan: Leveraging Cancer Surveillance Infrastructure for Public Health Impact

Not every career follows a straight line, and in health informatics, that divergence can reveal unexpected areas of impact. Using the Missouri Cancer Registry and Research Center as an example to show how cancer registries evolved from passive data collection into foundational public health infrastructure, and demonstrating how data linkage, systems integration, and advanced analytics transform longitudinal, population-level data into actionable intelligence. With a One Health perspective, cancer surveillance becomes a platform for precision public health, integrating clinical, environmental, and social data, to support informed decision-making and policies.

Satellite observations and geospatial data science are transforming our ability to understand how environmental conditions shape human health. From climate-sensitive infectious disease risk to air quality, heat exposure, and environmental change, Earth observation systems provide a planetary-scale view of the conditions that influence well-being. Within a One Health framework, recognizing the interconnected health of people, animals, and ecosystems, these data allow us to link environmental dynamics with patterns of disease, vulnerability, and resilience. This talk explores how integrating satellite data, spatial modeling, and health information allows us to “read the planet’s vital signs,” revealing emerging risks and opportunities for prevention. By bringing together Earth observation and health data, geospatial science can help translate planetary signals into actionable insights for protecting health in a changing world.

BioSara Capponi is Research Staff Member in the department of Functional Genomics and Cellular Engineering at the IBM Almaden Research Center, where she leads the Cellular Engineering Lab. She is a recognized expert in computational biophysics, with expertise ranging from artificial intelligence to structural and synthetic biology. Her main interest is to understand how natural and artificial biological systems function combining structural biology with physics, mathematics, and computer science.
Dr. Capponi is IBM PI and site director of the Center for Cellular Construction [https://centerforcellularconstruction.org/], an NSF Science and Technology Center that aims at developing an engineering discipline to design cells. Dr. Capponi contributed to studies on macromolecular and cellular systems and to design antivirals and immunotherapies. During her career, she made use of different computational approaches, including molecular dynamics, enhanced sampling techniques, agent-based models, and machine learning methods.
Dr. Capponi contributions have been cited in the IBM Research Blog https://research.ibm.com/blog/accelerating-covid-discoveries, https://research.ibm.com/blog/decoding-car-t-cells, and in the 2022 IBM Research Annual Letter from Dario Gil https://research.ibm.com/blog/research-annual-letter-2022.
For a complete list of publications, refer to: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=1qW4qncAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao