Position Title
Assistant Professor
Education:
- B.Sc., University of Guelph, Canada, 2013
- M.Sc., University of Guelph, Canada, 2015
- Ph.D., Wageningen University, the Netherlands, 2019
Research Interests:
Dairy cattle play a crucial role in the global food ecosystem as net producers of human food (e.g., milk) from human-inedible resources (e.g., agricultural byproducts). Maintaining production of high-quality milk while addressing issues related to environmental sustainability and resource availability requires deeper understanding of the interactions between key dietary components like energy and protein, and the dynamics of digestion and metabolism in response to nutritional manipulation.
The Nichols’ Lab focuses on characterizing the digestive and metabolic flexibility of dairy cattle to elevate our understanding of dietary protein and energy interactions, mammary gland metabolism, and postabsorptive nutrient utilization to improve the transfer of dietary nutrients into milk.
We conduct studies investigating metabolite flux at the tissue level (e.g., mammary gland), energy and nitrogen balance, digestibility, and milk production in response to nutritional interventions. Further, we are interested in how the postabsorptive efficiencies of nutrients (e.g., amino acids) interact and change with the physiological state of the cow throughout and across lactations. Experiments to explore these gaps in knowledge utilize intensive characterizations of metabolism using arteriovenous difference methodology and isotopically labelled metabolites at various stages of lactation in response to nutritional manipulation.
Our lab has strong collaborations with global animal nutrition companies and other top-tier university research groups, with opportunities for interested students to gain international experience in the animal nutrition industry.