Dr. Yi Jia (Claire) Liow

Yi Jia is a visiting Ph.D. student from the University of Tokyo. Her research explores the intersection of nutritional neuroscience, the gut microbiome, and eating behavior. 

Yi Jia successfully defended her dissertation in early February 2026 to the Department of Human Ecology at the University of Tokyo! Although Claire is enrolled at UTokyo, HEB has been her full-time home for the past 3+ years as she worked to design and complete her dissertation under my supervision. Claire's dissertation, entitled "Diet Shapes Host Eating Behavior via the Microbiome–Gut–Brain Axis," combined controlled dietary interventions in mice with multi-omics phenotyping and machine learning to show that industrialized diets alter appetite by changing the gut microbial production of metabolites regulating hunger and satiety.