2026 Seed Grant Awardee, Johns Hopkins
Dr. Heyjun Park is an Assistant Professor in the Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is a nutritional scientist and registered dietitian whose research focuses on how early-life nutrition shapes long-term metabolic health and disease risk across the life course. Her work integrates multi-omics approaches, digital health monitoring, and population-level analyses to understand how nutrition and metabolic systems influence aging, cardiometabolic health, and chronic disease. She studies pregnancy and early life as critical windows when nutrition and metabolism can have lasting impacts on health outcomes, examining how metabolic regulation during pregnancy relates to fetal growth, biological aging, and long-term cardiometabolic risk. Her current project, supported by a 2026 seed grant, uses metabolomics data from the JiVitA 3 trial in Bangladesh to explore whether maternal metabolites in late pregnancy are associated with infant birth size differently by sex.
What is Dr. Heyjun Park researching?
Nutrition and metabolic regulation during pregnancy and early life influence fetal growth, biological aging, and long-term cardiometabolic disease risk. Her seed grant project specifically investigates whether maternal metabolic profiles in late pregnancy are associated with infant birth size differently for male and female infants.
Why study sex and gender differences in early-life metabolic health?
Studying sex and gender differences in early-life metabolic health helps researchers understand whether biological and physiological processes differ between males and females from the very beginning of life. These differences can influence how individuals grow, respond to nutrition, and develop risk for chronic diseases later in life. By identifying sex-specific patterns early, researchers like Dr. Park aim to inform more precise, targeted interventions that improve health outcomes for both mothers and children.
What did Dr. Park find?
Dr. Park’s broader research has shown that metabolic and glycemic responses vary across individuals and can be effectively studied using multi-omics data, wearable sensors, and digital health monitoring. Her current seed grant project is focused on identifying maternal metabolites that show sex-specific associations with infant birth size; these findings are still part of an ongoing investigation aimed at clarifying how maternal biology influences early development differently by sex. Her published papers can be found on Research Gate here.
Her paper published in April 2026 on Use of Continuous Glucose Monitoring With Machine Learning to Identify Metabolic Subphenotypes and Inform Precision Lifestyle Changes can be found here.
Dr. Park’s research output can also be found on Johns Hopkins website here.
What is metabolic health?
Metabolic health refers to how well the body processes and uses energy from food. It includes the regulation of blood sugar, fats (lipids), hormones, and energy balance. Good metabolic health supports normal growth, healthy aging, and reduced risk of conditions such as obesity, Type 2 Diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, while poor metabolic health can increase the likelihood of developing these chronic conditions over time.
How did The Foundation for Gender-Specific Medicine’s grant help Dr. Park’s research?
Support from The Foundation for Gender-Specific Medicine, through a Johns Hopkins seed grant initiative, enabled Dr. Park to conduct research on sex and gender differences in early-life metabolic health. The funding supports her analysis of metabolomics data from pregnant women in Bangladesh and allows her to investigate how maternal metabolic profiles influence fetal growth differently in male and female infants.
What is Dr. Park’s current status?
Dr. Park is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She continues to lead research on maternal and early-life nutrition, metabolic regulation, multi-omics, wearable health technologies, and cardiometabolic disease risk.