Tzu-Wen L. Cross, PhD (she/her/hers)

Associate Professor
Purdue University
West Lafayette, Indiana, United States

Dr. Tzu-Wen Cross is an Associate Professor of Nutrition Science and Director of the Gnotobiotic Animal Facility at Purdue University. Her research integrates nutrition, microbiology, and physiology to establish causal relationships between diet, the gut microbiome, and host health using germ-free and gnotobiotic animal models. Her laboratory investigates how gut microbial metabolism of dietary components influences endocrine signaling, metabolism, and reproductive health, with a particular focus on microbial metabolism of phytoestrogens and the bidirectional interactions between the gut microbiome and sex hormones. Her work aims to identify microbiome-mediated mechanisms through which nutrition can be leveraged to improve metabolic and endocrine health.

Presentation(s):

• An Inconvenient Truth? Limited Impact of Diet on Human Gut Microbiota Communities

  Saturday, July 25, 2026
  4:30 PM - 6:00 PM ET

  Disclosure(s): No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.

• How Much Does Diet Really Matter? The Gut Microbiome’s Response to Repeated Diet Quality Cycling

  Saturday, July 25, 2026
  5:09 PM - 5:26 PM ET

  Disclosure(s): No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.

• Panel Discussion / Questions and Answers - An Inconvenient Truth? Limited Impact of Diet on Human Gut Microbiota Communities

  Saturday, July 25, 2026
  5:43 PM - 6:00 PM ET

  Disclosure(s): No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.

• Diet and Cancer & Nutritional Microbiology Joint GEM Forum - Diet at the Intersection of Cancer, the Microbiome, and Immunotherapy

  Tuesday, July 28, 2026
  10:00 AM - 11:30 AM ET

  Disclosure(s): No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.