Dr. Hengjun Du’s research focuses on food science and nutrition, metabolism, gut microbiota, functional foods, diet-related chronic diseases and food toxicology. His academic interests center on understanding how whole-food dietary interventions, food-derived bioactive compounds, and foodborne nanoparticles influence host metabolic health through interactions among the gut microbiota, microbial metabolites, intestinal barrier function, immune responses, and metabolic signaling pathways. His current research particularly investigates obesity, intestinal and systemic inflammation, lipid metabolism, bile acid signaling, incretin regulation, and microbiome-mediated mechanisms of dietary intervention. He employs multidisciplinary approaches, including animal models, clinical studies, cell culture, in vitro gastrointestinal digestion and colonic fermentation, microbiome analysis, metabolomics, histological evaluation, and molecular biology. His long-term research goal is to develop mechanistically informed and translational dietary strategies for the prevention and management of obesity and related metabolic diseases.