Alexandra DiFeliceantonio

Alexandra DiFeliceantonio, PhD is an Assistant Professor at Virginia Tech's Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. She serves as Associate Director of the Center for Health Behaviors Research at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC in Roanoke, Virginia. Her research focuses on understanding the neural mechanisms underlying food choice and reward processing, particularly regarding ultra-processed foods.

Dr. DiFeliceantonio earned her BS in Psychology from Sweet Briar College (2008) and her PhD in Psychology from the University of Michigan (2013). Prior to joining Virginia Tech in 2019, she served as an Associate Research Scientist at Yale University. Her DONNUT LAB investigates how modern food environments influence physiology, brain function, and individual differences in food response that may confer disease risk.

Her research program examines how food properties affect brain-physiology interactions and how individual differences in response to these properties influence health outcomes. Recent work has explored glycemic control's role in food learning, the addictive potential of ultra-processed foods, and how dopamine signaling mediates food reward. Her laboratory employs multimodal brain imaging and metabolic measures to study food motivation.

Dr. DiFeliceantonio's publication record demonstrates expertise in food reward neuroscience, with recent articles examining ultra-processed foods, nutrient conditioning, and metabolic influences on food choice. Her work has been highlighted in major media outlets including the New York Times.

• Mentor of the Month, Virginia Tech Graduate School (2022)
• Timothy J. Bartness Award, Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior (2021)
• Invited Scholar in the iTHRIV Scholar Program (2020)
• Travel Award to NIDDK Neuroimaging and Modulation in Obesity and Diabetes Meeting (2019)

She advises doctoral students in the Translational Biology, Medicine, and Health Graduate Program and has secured significant research funding including a $2.75 million grant to study brain signals governing food decisions. Her work has practical implications for understanding obesity mechanisms and developing interventions for unhealthy eating behaviors. She leads the DiFeliceantonio Lab which has developed research tools like the NOVA-scored picture set to evaluate ultra-processed foods.