Our guest this week is Dr. de Mello who is the Meat Science and Food Safety Program Leader for the University of Nevada, Reno. He shares with us some of his work on meat and nutrigenomics and how feeding cattle different diets will affect the microRNA profile in beef and may be used as biomarkers for meat quality.

Over the course of his professional and academic career, he taught animal products and food regulations at Paulista University in Brazil and worked for JBS USA as Technical Specialist and Quality Assurance and Food Safety Superintendent. His broad research program at UNR approaches important "from farm to table" stages including animal nutrition, animal handling, harvest, fabrication, and processing.

Meat our guest: Dr. de Mello obtained his D.V.M. from University of Marilia, Brazil in 2001, M.S. from Sao Paulo State University, Brazil in 2004, and Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln in 2010.

Dr. de Mello teaches introductory and advanced meat science courses in the Department of Agriculture, Nutrition, and Veterinary Sciences. He also serves as the academia chair for the Nevada Food Safety Task Force.

You will learn about:

1. Importance of meat nutrition

2. Nutrigenomics

3. Impact on meat industry

4. Nucleotides

5. Beef nutrition

6. Meat quality