College of Medicine
Strath Lab
Led by Larissa Strath · Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics
What we study
The Strath Lab studies how diet affects pain and cognitive health through epigenetic and immune mechanisms. Researchers use human and rodent models to explore nutrition's role in chronic pain, inflammation, and neurological diseases like Alzheimer's.
What working here is like
- Wet lab
- Clinical
- Surveys & interviews
- Human participants
- Coding helps
- Projects
- 3
- Papers
- 5
Current projects
Characterizations of Metabolism in Pain (CHOMP)
Investigates how metabolism and nutrition influence chronic pain.
Pain and Nutrition in Dementia and Alzheimer's-2 (PANDA-2)
Explores the link between nutrition, pain, and cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease.
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KIVA: Knee Pain, Integrated Vitamin Assessment, and Mental Health
The study examines how diet, measured by the Dietary Inflammatory Index, relates to pain and brain function in older adults. Students calculate the DII from food recalls, measure pain with the Brief Pain Inventory, and test cognition with the NIH Toolbox.
From the Spring 2025 UF Undergraduate Research Symposium · abstract book, p. 274
Summaries are written by AI in plain language from public symposium abstracts and may be imperfect.
Recent papers, explained
- Fast-Food Fat Cravings Predict Menstrual Pain Severity: A Secondary Analysis
2026 · Current Developments in Nutrition
Tests whether fast-food cravings predict menstrual pain severity while controlling for stress.
- Moderate iron restriction improves metabolism via epigenetic regulation of GDF15
2026 · The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry
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- Response to “Prepregnancy GLP ‐ 1 Receptor Agonist Use: Unaccounted Pretreatment BMI May Distort Obstetric Outcome Signals in Real‐World Studies”
2026 · Obesity
- Pain and Nutrition in Dementia and Alzheimer’s Phase 1: a cross-sectional, observational study design
2026 · Frontiers in Dementia
Explores how diet and inflammation may affect pain and dementia risk in older adults.
- Prepregnancy GLP ‐ 1RA Exposure and Risk of Hypertensive Disorders of Pregnancy Among Women With Obesity and Diabetes
2026 · Obesity
Studies whether prepregnancy GLP-1RA use raises risks of pregnancy complications in obese diabetic women.
Plain-language summaries are AI-written and reviewed by us; check the paper for details.
How to reach out
Larissa Strath hasn't set up this page yet. You can also look them up in the UF directory (search “Larissa Strath”).