Introducing Dr. Barile: A Glimpse into Novel Food Bioactive Compound Research and Application

A seasoned professor and researcher in Food Science and Technology at University of California-Davis, Dr. Daniela Barile has made and continues to make waves in the field. She primarily studies the chemical composition of certain foods and their connection to promoting gut health. With her hard-working team, she has conducted a plethora of research on food products like wine, milk, and plant-based foods. Dr. Barile’s work not only highlights nutritional value in previously conceived food waste, but also provides avenues for how to repurpose them to improve health in the future.

What Drew Dr. Barile to Food Science?

Dr. Barile originally had no intention of pursuing food science. Instead, she studied pharmaceutical chemistry at University of Piemonte Orientale in Novara, Italy, originally aspiring to find a pharmacological cure for cancer. After achieving her Masters degree, she started working in a pharmacy. However, Dr. Barile soon realized that the prevailing pharmaceutical model emphasized statins and other medications, leaving less space for preventive or lifestyle-based approaches. Statins are drugs used to lower cholesterol for patients with or susceptible to cardiovascular diseases (“Statins”, n.d.), and like many medications also have side effects.

When she realized that a lot of the conditions that the pharmaceutical industry pushed to be treated with prescription medications were often diet-related, Dr. Barile re-evaluated her career in pharmaceutics. Dr. Barile quotes, “working in the pharmacy is what opened my eyes to the medicines that patients were coming in to purchase, for conditions that could have been prevented with diet and exercise.” It was her realization that sparked her exploration of the food science world, particularly in what consumers are eating and how food impacts health.

Using her newfound knowledge and drive to learn more about the science of food, she returned to the University of Piemonte Orientale to pursue a Ph.D. degree in food bioactive compounds, which are non-essential components of food that can regulate metabolic activity, biochemical processes, and physiological functions. Because of these properties, bioactive compounds are an emerging subject of study due to their ability to induce health benefits beyond typical nutritional value (Teodoro, 2019). 

Figure 1. A Chart of the Categories of Food Bioactive Compounds (Câmara et al., 2021).

Serendipitously, after presenting a poster in Belgium at a conference, she was invited to the University of California-Davis (UC-Davis) as a visiting scholar in 2007. From then on, she became a professor and researcher at UC-Davis in Food Science and Technology, and is still advancing her career there to this day.

Past Research Projects

With a thorough catalogue of research initiatives, Dr. Barile has tackled numerous questions in the food science field. Some examples — in a list of many more — are her research on identifying bioactive compounds in dairy milk and side streams, which are unused byproducts of food after production (Bambridge-Sutton, 2023).

Dr. Barile, using her expertise in bioactive compounds from her Ph.D., analyzed the side streams such as grape pomace, or the solid fruit residues such as seeds, skin, and flesh that are left from producing grape juice or wine, as well as chickpea and bean aquafaba, or the liquid produced from cooking the legumes.

In 2021, Barile and her team studied chardonnay marc, also known as grape pomace from the wine chardonnay. Living in California, the largest wine-producing state in the United States, she identified that the wine industry produced large amounts of agricultural waste every year (California Department of Food and Agriculture, 2020 as cited in Sinrod et al., 2021). 

Figure 2. Graphic of Grape Pomace (“Unveiling the Hidden Health”, 2024)

Previous studies have demonstrated that grape skin and seeds are rich in polyphenols, a category of bioactive compounds found in plant foods (“What Do Polyphenols”, n.d.), which can benefit human health by decreasing oxidative stress and inflammatory markers (Zern et al., 2005 as cited in Sinrod et al., 2021). With her team, Dr. Barile wanted to investigate whether there were other compounds that contributed to the health benefits that were mainly credited to the polyphenols in chardonnay marc. So she turned to oligosaccharides. Oligosaccharides are indigestible carbohydrates, known as prebiotics, or food for good gut-microbes that maintain good gut health (“Oligosaccharides”, 2022). Before, oligosaccharides were not studied in depth due to previous lack of technology needed for analysis (Sinrod et al., 2021). In her study, Dr. Barile’s team identified significant levels of oligosaccharides and phenolic compounds, which are compounds with anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties (Albuquerque et al., 2021). Their findings are important because they give greater context to how chardonnay marc and grape pomace in general can be repurposed and valorized for nutritional value.

More recently in 2024, Barile explored oligosaccharide content in bean and chickpea aquafaba. Beans and chickpeas are legumes, which are known for their dietary fiber and protein content, and they are one of the staple foods in many cultures around the world (Huang et al., 2024). To further their knowledge, Barile and her team sought to dive deeper into the oligosaccharide and peptide composition of these legumes' aquafaba. They initially hypothesized that there would be oligosaccharides and peptides beneficial to human health in the legumes. Using laboratory techniques such as liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), they identified various health-benefiting oligosaccharides and peptides, supporting their original hypothesis (Huang et al., 2024).

Continuing with her oligosaccharide research, Dr. Barile and her team even created a comprehensive database for oligosaccharides in mammalian milk, totaling to 3193 entries for 783 distinct oligosaccharide structures from 77 different species. Their research created a database titled "MilkOligoDB," organizing data from 113 publications and over five decades of research (Durham et al., 2023). Their work provides valuable, easy-access data for future oligosaccharide research, where previous oligosaccharide profiles were more difficult to locate. 

Current Research Projects

Dr. Barile continues to pursue novel research in her field. In a recent interview with Dr. Barile, she emphasized the importance of fiber intake and its connection to a healthy gut microbiome. The gut microbiome is an essential feature of human health that is responsible for many vital functions in the body. Maintaining a good balance of beneficial bacteria is essential. Dr. Barile expresses her concern that in today’s society, many consumers are “starving their gut microbiome.” But how does one feed the gut microbiome? The answer is fiber.

Figure 3. Health Benefits of a Healthy Gut Microbiome and Connections to other Bodily Systems (Afzaal et al., 2022)

Dietary fiber is particularly important because it is made of many types of carbohydrates indigestible by the human digestive system. Because they are indigestible, they provide as food sources for commensal or beneficial bacteria in our gut. With more food to eat, the bacteria in our gut have enough resources to stay alive and support our digestive system and bodily processes. However, many modern convenience foods tend to be lower in dietary fiber, making it more difficult to consume enough on a daily basis. As grains are often refined (being stripped of the bran) and fiber is reduced during processing for texture or shelf life (Belluz, 2019), fiber-rich options may not always be as readily available in typical packaged food choices.

Dr. Barile hopes to dive deeper into fiber research and accessibility. One problem that is difficult to solve, she quotes, is that “fiber doesn’t taste great, and so people aren’t eating it.” She believes that alleviating this fiber famine will take a combination of healthy fiber and good-tasting products that consumers will purchase. But before that happens, some foods that are naturally high in fiber already are whole grains, legumes, apples, nuts, and leafy greens (“Fiber,” 2012).

Figure 4. Foods Naturally Rich in Dietary Fiber (“Fiber,” 2012)

To add on to potential advancement in fiber research, Dr. Barile also plans to continue research on dairy and plant-based products. More can be found on her lab website.

Advice to Young Scientists

In a segment of an interview with Dr. Barile, the QuantYum Lab team inquired ways that students can gain more education on food science and the impact that diet can have on health. She encourages students to take community college classes and request courses to be offered at local schools about nutritional literacy.

For young scientists or individuals exploring STEM, Dr. Barile highly recommends gaining lab experience early. In the often convoluted path of finding a niche or area of interest, the best learning opportunities are gaining experience to find what ignites passion and fosters joy in the process.

Key Takeaways

From whole foods to streams, Dr. Barile’s projects on oligosaccharide research have contributed significantly to increasing the knowledge of food composition and are just tastes of her extensive career in research. What originally started as a goal in pharmaceutics blossomed into a fruitful profession as a professor and researcher at UC-Davis. Her advancements to the field contribute significantly to a broader understanding of how important food is to our daily lives. More than just a scientist, Dr. Barile serves as an inspiration for those interested in STEM and its intersection with food and health.

References

1. Afzaal, M., Saeed, F., Shah, Y. A., Hussain, M., Rabail, R., Socol, C. T., Hassoun, A., Pateiro, M., Lorenzo, J. M., Rusu, A. V., & Aadil, R. M. (2022). Human gut microbiota in health and disease: Unveiling the relationship. Frontiers in Microbiology, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2022.999001

2. Bambridge-Sutton, A. (2023, October 17). ‘This stuff is so abundant’: The benefits of using side streams in food production. FoodNavigator.Com. https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2023/10/17/the-benefits-of-using-side-streams-in-food-production/

3. Belluz, J. (2019, March 20). Nearly all Americans fail to eat enough of this actual superfood. Vox. https://www.vox.com/2019/3/20/18214505/fiber-diet-weight-loss

4. Câmara, J. S., Albuquerque, B. R., Aguiar, J., Corrêa, R. C. G., Gonçalves, J. L., Granato, D., Pereira, J. A. M., Barros, L., & Ferreira, I. C. F. R. (2021). Food Bioactive Compounds and Emerging Techniques for Their Extraction: Polyphenols as a Case Study. Foods, 10(1), Article 1. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10010037

5. Durham, S. D., Wei, Z., Lemay, D. G., Lange, M. C., & Barile, D. (2023). Creation of a milk oligosaccharide database, MilkOligoDB, reveals common structural motifs and extensive diversity across mammals. Scientific Reports, 13(1), 10345. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-36866-y

6. Fiber. (2012, September 18). The Nutrition Sources. https://nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu/carbohydrates/fiber/

7. Huang, Y.P., Masarweh, C., Paviani, B., Mills, D. A., & Barile, D. (2024). Exploring bioactive compounds in chickpea and bean aquafaba: Insights from glycomics and peptidomics analyses. Food Chemistry, 460, 140635. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2024.140635

8. Sinrod, A. J. G., Li, X., Bhattacharya, M., Paviani, B., Wang, S. C., & Barile, D. (2021). A second life for wine grapes: Discovering potentially bioactive oligosaccharides and phenolics in chardonnay marc and its processing fractions. LWT, 144, 111192. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lwt.2021.111192

9. Teodoro, A. J. (2019). Bioactive Compounds of Food: Their Role in the Prevention and Treatment of Diseases. Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity, 2019, 3765986. https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/3765986

10. Zern, T. L., & Fernandez, M. L. (2005). Cardioprotective Effects of Dietary Polyphenols1. The Journal of Nutrition, 135(10), 2291–2294. https://doi.org/10.1093/jn/135.10.2291

11. Oligosaccharides: Foods List, Benefits, and More. (2022, April 4). Healthline. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/oligosaccharides

12. Statins. (n.d.). [Text]. Medline Plus; National Library of Medicine. Retrieved July 27, 2025, from https://medlineplus.gov/statins.html

13. Unveiling the Hidden Health Treasures of Grape Pomace. (2024, March 11). WellVine. https://wellvine.com/blogs/articles/unveiling-the-hidden-health-treasures-of-grape-pomace

14. What Do Polyphenols Do for You? (n.d.). Cleveland Clinic. Retrieved July 29, 2025, from https://health.clevelandclinic.org/polyphenols