Discovery Dialogues - The Fork as a Prescription: Is Your Diet Your Greatest Risk or Your Best Medicine? with Vi Nguyen (3/16/26)

In this Discovery Dialogues presentation, Vi Nguyen presented her research on Advanced Glycation End Products (AGES) and their impact on health, particularly focusing on their role in prostate cancer development and disparities. She explained how AGES form in food during cooking and processing, with certain foods like bacon containing much higher levels than previously recognized. She discussed the connection between food deserts and prostate cancer incidence rates in Virginia, emphasizing the need to consider both biological and socio-environmental factors in cancer prevention approaches. The presentation concluded with recommendations for diet modifications to reduce AGE exposure and future research directions aimed at understanding racial disparities in cancer progression.