Karen Lindsay

About

Karen Lindsay is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at UC Irvine, affiliated with the Susan & Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences. She holds a B.S. in Nutrition & Dietetics from Trinity College Dublin and a Ph.D. in Maternal Nutrition in Pregnancy from University College Dublin. Her research focuses on human nutrition, nutritional biochemistry, public health nutrition, pregnancy, behavioral psychology, developmental programming, and childhood obesity. She is the Early Career Chair in Integrative Health at the Susan Samueli Center for Integrative Medicine. Her work emphasizes the interplay between prenatal nutrition, stress, and metabolic responses during pregnancy, with particular attention to how maternal diet and psychosocial factors influence fetal development and long-term health outcomes. She has contributed to understanding intergenerational transmission of obesity risk, the effects of maternal diet on insulin resistance, and the impact of maternal stress on inflammatory pathways. Her research includes longitudinal metabolomic profiling during pregnancy and investigates how maternal health behaviors and metabolic responses affect offspring health, especially in the context of obesity and gestational diabetes. Dr. Lindsay has been involved in developing and evaluating lifestyle interventions for pregnant women, supported by NIH funding, and actively participates in professional societies such as the American Society for Nutrition and the…

Research topics

• Gerontology
• Medicine
• Psychiatry
• Internal medicine
• Physical therapy
• Genetics
• Physiology
• Biology
• Bioinformatics
• Microbiology

Selected publications

• Cervicovaginal Microbiome Composition Is Associated with Metabolic Profiles in Healthy Pregnancy

  mBio · 2020 · 56 citations

  spp. Dramatic shifts in vaginal microbial communities sometimes contribute to the presence of a polymicrobial overgrowth condition called bacterial vaginosis (BV). However, many healthy women lacking BV symptoms have vaginal microbiomes dominated by microbes associated with BV, resulting in debate about the definition of a healthy vaginal microbiome. Despite substantial evidence that the reproductive health of a woman depends on the vaginal microbiota, future therapies that may improve reproduct…

  DOI

• Maternal Diet Quality and Prenatal Depressive Symptoms: The Moderating Role of Economic Well-Being

  Nutrients · 2023-06-20 · 18 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Prenatal depression is prevalent and adversely impacts maternal and infant health. This study addresses a critical literature gap and investigates the association between maternal diet quality and prenatal depressive symptoms, as well as the moderating effect of economic well-being on this link. A cross-sectional design was used, including 43 healthy pregnant women in the second trimester aggregated from two research projects. Prenatal depressive symptoms were assessed using the Edinburgh Postna…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Association of Living in a Food Desert and Poor Periconceptional Diet Quality in a Cohort of Nulliparous Pregnant Individuals

  Journal of Nutrition · 2023-06-25 · 13 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Feasibility and Acceptability of a Mindfulness-Based Smartphone App among Pregnant Women with Obesity

  International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · 2023-04-06 · 10 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Maternal obesity is associated with an increased risk for prenatal depressive symptoms. Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have been shown to reduce the risk of prenatal depression. This pilot study assesses the feasibility and acceptability of a smartphone-based MBI among pregnant women with obesity, and its potential for improving maternal mental and behavioral health outcomes. Five second-trimester pregnant women with a prepregnancy body mass index > 30 kg/m2 participated in a 30-day a…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Systematic Review of Easy-to-Learn Behavioral Interventions for Dietary Changes Among Young Adults

  Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior · 2023-05-10 · 5 citations

  reviewOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  INTRODUCTION: Improving the diet quality of young adults may support chronic disease prevention. The approaches used and efficacy of promoting small dietary behavior changes through easy-to-learn (ETL) interventions (requiring no more than 1 hour to teach the behavior) among young adults have not yet been systematically reviewed. METHODS: Following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, 2 independent electronic searches across 6 databases were conducted to…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Prenatal diet-stress interactions and the maternal metabolic response in human pregnancy

  NIH · $188k · 2018–2020

• NIH Grant N01DK092325

  NIH · $1.5M · 2007

• Prenatal diet-stress interactions and the maternal metabolic response in human pregnancy

  NIH · $737k · 2020–2024

Frequent coauthors

• Fionnuala M. McAuliffe

  University College Dublin

  139 shared

• Sonja Entringer

  Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

  97 shared

• Maria A. Kennelly

  Rotunda Hospital

  92 shared

• Claudia Buß

  86 shared

• Jamil Ahmed

  Arcadia

  82 shared

• Alain Curnier

  Aberdeen Royal Infirmary

  82 shared

• Harry Spiers

  Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

  81 shared

• Sivesh K. Kamarajah

  Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham

  81 shared

Education

• B.S., Nutrition & Dietetics

  Trinity College Dublin

  2011

• Ph.D., Maternal Nutrition in Pregnancy

  University College Dublin

  2014

Awards & honors

• NIH NICHD K99/R00 Pathway to Independence award (HD-096109,…

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