Paule Valery Joseph

Paule Valery Joseph is an American nurse and researcher at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. She is the 2022 National Academy of Medicine and American Academy of Nursing Fellow.

Early life and education Joseph is from Venezuela. She spent her childhood watching her mother acting as the community nurse. She earned her Associate of Applied Science (AAS) in nursing at Hostos Community College. She moved to the College of New Rochelle for her Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN). She moved to Pace University for her graduate studies, where she earned a master's degree in nursing. She eventually joined the University of Pennsylvania, where she studied sucrose thresholds receptor genes in children. She discovered that differences in the way young people taste sugar may impact their dietary intake, resulting in long-term conditions including obesity. Joseph leads the Sensory Science and Metabolism Unit at the National Institute of Nursing Research. This unit looks to understand the molecular mechanisms that underpin chemosensing (taste, smell and chemesthesis, skin sensitivity to chemicals). She showed that ultra-processed food can increase the risk of certain cancers and heart disease. Joseph demonstrated that people on plant-based, low-fat diets lost weight faster than those on animal-based low-carb, high-fat diets. Based on this research, Joseph believes it will be possible to improve personalised nutritional programmes.

During the COVID-19 pandemic Joseph switched her focus to consider why people suffering from COVID-19 reported losing their sense of taste and smell. She has attempted to define clinical standards for measuring taste and smell, and is conducting investigations into the taste and smell of people suffering from Long COVID. She was named the 2022 National Academy of Medicine American Academy of Nursing Fellow. The fellowship is the first of its kind.

Awards and honours

2013 Johnson & Johnson American Association of Colleges of Nursing Minority Nurse Faculty Scholarship 2016 Rockefeller University Heilbrunn Nurse Scholar Award 2020 National Association of Hispanic Nurses 40 Under 40 Award 2021 Association for Chemoreception Sciences Ajinomoto Award for Young Investigators in Gustation 2022 National Association of Hispanic Nurses Janie Menchaca Wilson Leadership Award 2025 Guggenheim Fellowship

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