Sharon Donovan

About

Sharon Donovan received her B.S. and Ph.D. in Nutrition from the University of California at Davis in 1983 and 1988, respectively. After completing a post-doctoral fellowship in Pediatric Endocrinology at Stanford University School of Medicine, she joined the faculty at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in February 1991 as an Assistant Professor of Nutrition. She was promoted to Associate Professor with indefinite tenure and to Full Professor in August 1997 and August 2001, respectively. Dr. Donovan served as Director of the Division of Nutritional Sciences from 1999 to 2009 and has held the position of Center for Advanced Study Professor since 2020. She is also the Melissa M. Noel Endowed Chair in Diet and Health in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition. Her research focuses on pediatric nutrition, emphasizing the importance of proper nutrition for growth, development, cognition, and immune response during childhood. Her laboratory conducts basic and translational research aimed at optimizing intestinal and cognitive development of neonates, developing the gut microbiome, and preventing childhood obesity. Dr. Donovan has authored approximately 225 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters, and her work has been supported by major agencies including the NIH and USDA. She has been recognized with numerous awards and honors, including serving as President of the American Society for Nutrition and the International Society for Research on Human Milk…

Research topics

• Medicine
• Pediatrics
• Psychology
• Biology
• Nursing
• Endocrinology
• Bioinformatics
• Pathology
• Environmental health
• Developmental psychology

Selected publications

• SARS‐CoV‐2 and human milk: What is the evidence?

  Maternal and Child Nutrition · 2020 · 152 citations

  The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has emerged as one of the most compelling and concerning public health challenges of our time. To address the myriad issues generated by this pandemic, an interdisciplinary breadth of research, clinical and public health communities has rapidly engaged to collectively find answers and solutions. One area of active inquiry is understanding the mode(s) of SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Although respiratory droplets are a known mechanism of transmission, other mechanisms…

  DOI

• Microbiome Composition in Pediatric Populations from Birth to Adolescence: Impact of Diet and Prebiotic and Probiotic Interventions

  Digestive Diseases and Sciences · 2020 · 114 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  DOI

• Human and Bovine Milk Oligosaccharides Elicit Improved Recognition Memory Concurrent With Alterations in Regional Brain Volumes and Hippocampal mRNA Expression

  Frontiers in Neuroscience · 2020 · 48 citations

  were most strongly affected by diet. HMO and BMOS had distinct effects on brain structure and cognitive performance. These data suggest different mechanisms underlie their influence on brain development.

  DOI

• Personalized nutrition: perspectives on challenges, opportunities, and guiding principles for data use and fusion

  Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition · 2025-02-05 · 29 citations

  reviewOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Personalized nutrition (PN) delivers tailored dietary guidance by integrating health, lifestyle, and behavioral data to improve individual health outcomes. Recent technological advances have enhanced access to diverse data sources, yet challenges remain in collecting, integrating, and analyzing complex datasets. To address these, the Personalized Nutrition Initiative at Illinois organized a workshop titled "Personalized Nutrition Data: Challenges & Opportunities," which gathered experts to explo…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Perspective: Challenges for Personalized Nutrition in the Current United States Regulatory Framework and Future Opportunities

  Advances in Nutrition · 2025-01-25 · 18 citations

  reviewOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Personalized nutrition (PN) aims to provide tailored dietary recommendations to improve a person's health outcomes by integrating a multitude of individual-level information and supporting desired behavior changes. The field is rapidly evolving with technological advances. As new biomarkers are discovered, wearables and other devices can now provide up-to-the-minute insights, and artificial intelligence and machine learning models support recommendations and lifestyle behavior change. Advancemen…

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant T32DK059802

  NIH · $1.3M · 2014

• NIH Grant R01HD029264

  NIH · $516k · 1998

• NIH Grant R01HD061929

  NIH · $1.3M · 2015

Frequent coauthors

• Marcia H. Monaco

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  121 shared

• Ryan N. Dilger

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  59 shared

• Elsie M. Taveras

  58 shared

• Ronald E. Kleinman

  Massachusetts General Hospital

  57 shared

• Mei Wang

  Naturalis Biodiversity Center

  57 shared

• Julie Obbagy

  Food and Nutrition Service

  55 shared

• Sarah S. Comstock

  Michigan State University

  54 shared

• Kathryn G. Dewey

  University of California, Davis

  53 shared

Labs

• Sharon Donovan's LabPI

Education

• PhD, Nutrition

  University of California Davis

  1988

• B.S., Nutrition

  University of California Davis

  1983

Awards & honors

• Member, Center of Advanced Study, University of Illinois, Ur…
• Elected member of the National Academy of Medicine of the Na…
• Lucille S. Hurley Distinguished Lecturer (Department of Nutr…
• Spitze Landgrant Professorial Career Excellence Award (Colle…
• Paul A. Funk Recognition Award (College of ACES) (2010)

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