Lara Dugas

Lara Dugas, PhD, MPH, FTOS is Associate Professor of Epidemiology in the Department of Public Health Sciences at Loyola University Chicago, part of the Parkinson School of Health Sciences and Public Health. She holds the AXA Research Chair in Non-Communicable Disease Epidemiology (2021-2026) at the University of Cape Town. Her research focuses on metabolic health disparities, gut microbiota, and cardiometabolic risk in populations of African origin. Dugas leads the METS-Microbiome study exploring diet, physical activity, and microbiome impacts across Ghana, South Africa, Jamaica, Seychelles, and the US.

Education: Bachelor's (University of Cape Town), Master's (Loyola University Chicago), PhD (University of Cape Town). Key roles include Program Director for Clinical Research Methods and Epidemiology at Loyola. Her work integrates social determinants of health and ecological factors to address obesity and diabetes disparities.

Research interests emphasize energy expenditure, metabolite profiling, and the gut microbiome's role in chronic diseases. Notable grants include NIH-funded studies on sleep metabolism and global health transitions. She has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles, with contributions to doubly labeled water methodology and global epidemiology.

• Scientific awards: AXA Research Chair in Non-Communicable Disease Epidemiology
• Key collaborations: Modeling the Epidemiologic Transition Study (METS), METS-Microbiome, and the I-CORPS translational medicine initiative

Labs/teams: Center for Health Informatics Research (CHOIR), Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM). Active in global health equity initiatives, including the Health EQ Collaborative.