Overview
Mengyi Dong is a Post-doctoral researcher at David Lab, Department of Molecular Genomics and Microbiology, Duke University. She had a Ph.D. in Food Science and Human Nutrition with a graduate minor in Statistics from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and an M.S. in Clinical Nutrition from George Mason University. In her research journey, Mengyi has a great passion for public health-related food safety and community nutrition problems. In her dissertation work, Mengyi focused on technological innovations in food safety research, including applying microbiome, metabolomics, bioinformatics, and machine learning to enhance microbial food safety in fresh produce production systems. She also worked closely with the University Extension, farm owners, and local communities to conduct research and provide produce safety workshops. Mengyi’s nutrition research started at GMU. She studied the dietary acculturation of Chinese senior immigrants in the US and developed nutritionally fortified snacks for pregnant women in Kenya's low-income communities. Currently at Duke, Mengyi’s postdoctoral research focuses on developing and tailoring DNA metabarcoding methods for surveying human food consumption at individual and community levels. Outside the lab, Mengyi likes to spend time with her lovely little daughter. They cook, bake, garden, make crafts, and ice skate together.