Principal Investigator, Linus Pauling Institute
Professor Emeritus, College of Health
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Maret G. Traber, Ph.D. is the Ava Helen Pauling Professor Emeritus in the Linus Pauling Institute and Professor Emeritus in the College of Health at Oregon State University. She joined the Linus Pauling Institute as a Principal Investigator and as an Associate Professor in the nutrition faculty at Oregon State University in 1998. She was the Ava Helen Pauling Professor from 2017 to 2021, and the Helen P. Rumbel Professor for Micronutrient Research from 2012-2017. Dr. Traber is currently the Faculty Advisor for the Core Laboratory in the Linus Pauling Institute.
Research Interests
Prior to Dr. Traber's retirement in 2021, her laboratory investigated vitamin E: why do we need it?, how much do we need?, what is the best way to consume it?, and are there adverse effects from consuming too much? Nearly 100 years after the discovery of vitamin E, we recognize that α-tocopherol is required for human life, functions as a potent fat-soluble antioxidant, and is regulated by the human body. A protein in the liver, the α-tocopherol transfer protein (α-TTP), is critical to maintain adequate vitamin E concentrations in the body. Dr. Traber's lab discovered that this protein is also necessary in the developing brain, likely to deliver vitamin E as the brain is forming. To do these studies they used the zebrafish because its genes are similar to many of those in humans. Using the zebrafish model, they sought to better define the functional role of α-tocopherol by studying vitamin E deficiency. At the other extreme, they also studied vitamin E excess. They showed that vitamin E metabolism serves to prevent excess accumulation of vitamin E in the body and studied the adverse effects of vitamin E with respect to vitamin K metabolism. They developed an intravenous preparation of vitamin E labeled with deuterium to be able — for the first time — to measure the absorption, biokinetics, and bioavailability of vitamin E in humans.
Education, Research, and Professional Experience
- B.S., Nutrition and Food Science, University of California, Berkeley
- Ph.D., Nutrition, University of California, Berkeley
- Research faculty at New York University School of Medicine (1977-1993)
- Associate Research Biochemist, Department of Molecular & Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA (1994-1998)
- Associate Research Biochemist, Department of Internal Medicine, University of California, Davis, CA (1997-2002)
Featured Publications
Traber MG, Leonard SW, Ebenuwa I, Violet PC, Wang Y, Niyyati M, Padayatty S, Tu H, Courville A, Bernstein S, Choi J, Shamburek R, Smith S, Head B, Bobe G, Ramakrishnan R, Levine M. (2019) Vitamin E absorption and kinetics in healthy women, as modulated by food and by fat, studied using 2 deuterium-labeled alpha-tocopherols in a 3-phase crossover design. Am J Clin Nutr. 110(5):1148-1167. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/nqz172.
Head B, La Du J, Tanguay, RL, Kioussi C, Traber MG. (2020) Vitamin E is necessary for zebrafish nervous system development. Sci Rep. 10(1):15028. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-71760-x.
Traber MG, Leonard SW, Ebenuwa I, Violet PC, Niyyati M, Padayatty S, Smith S, Bobe G, Levine M. (2021) Vitamin E catabolism in women, as modulated by food and by fat, studied using 2 deuterium-labeled alpha-tocopherols in a 3-phase, nonrandomized crossover study. Am J Clin Nutr. 113(1):92-103. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/nqaa298.
Traber MG. (2024) Human vitamin E deficiency, and what is and is not Vitamin E? Free Radic Biol Med. 213:285-292. doi: 10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2024.01.024.
Traber MG. (2024) Deciphering the enigma of the function of alpha-tocopherol as a vitamin. Free Radic Biol Med. 221:64-74. doi: 10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2024.05.028.