Mike joined the Children’s Nutrition Research Center in 1990 to develop an interdisciplinary program that would link plant science and production agriculture with human nutrition concerns. He has organized and/or served on the Scientific Advisory Committees of several International Symposia. He currently serves on the Editorial Boards of the journals: Plant and Soil, Crop Science, Plant Foods for Human Nutrition, and Rice Journal.  He is the Acting Research Leader for the Delta Obesity Prevention Research Unit in Little Rock, Arkansas, and serves as the Scientific Officer for the Office of Scientific Quality Review, which conducts peer review of all USDA-ARS research projects.

His research involves understanding the molecular mechanisms and regulation of nutrient transport within plants, with the long-term goal of enhancing the nutritional quality of plant foods for human consumption. His group is currently focused on several minerals, including iron, zinc, potassium, and calcium, as well as various health-beneficial classes of phytochemicals such as carotenoids and flavonoids. He also uses in vitrocell culture methods and clinical investigations to study phytonutrient bioavailability and metabolism in humans. His group has developed labeling techniques to incorporate various stable isotopes into plant foods, to provide unique tools for these clinical studies.  As part of the BioCassava Plus Program, Mike’s group is currently focused on understanding the mechanisms by which iron moves into and throughout the cassava plant.  This information will help us refine our transgenic strategies for increasing iron concentration in storage roots.