Paule Valery Joseph is an American nurse and researcher at the

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), as part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, supports and conducts biomedical and behavioural research on the causes, consequences, treatment, and prevention of alcoholism and ...

. She is the 2022

National Academy of Medicine The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), formerly called the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, En ...

American Academy of Nursing The American Academy of Nursing (AAN) is a professional organization that generates, synthesizes, and disseminates nursing knowledge to contribute to health policy and practice for the benefit of the public and the nursing profession. Founded in ...

Fellow.

Early life and education

Joseph is from

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

. She spent her childhood watching her mother acting as the community nurse. Her father was a teacher. She earned her

Associate of Applied Science An associate degree is an undergraduate degree awarded after a course of post-secondary study lasting two to three years. It is a level of qualification above a high school diploma, GED, or matriculation, and below a bachelor's degree. The fi ...

(AAS) in nursing at

Hostos Community College Eugenio María de Hostos Community College of The City University of New York is a public community college in the South Bronx, New York City. It is part of the City University of New York (CUNY) system and was created by an act of the Board o ...

. She moved to the

College of New Rochelle The College of New Rochelle (CNR) was a private Catholic college with its main campus in New Rochelle, New York, but also in Australia, England, and Germany. It was founded as the College of St. Angela by Mother Irene Gill, OSU of the Ursuline ...

for her

Bachelor of Science in Nursing The Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN, BScN) also known in some countries as a Bachelor of Nursing (BN) or Bachelor of Science (BS) with a Major in Nursing is an academic degree in the science and principles of nursing, granted by an accredited ...

(BSN). She moved to

Pace University Pace University is a private university with its main campus in New York City and secondary campuses in Westchester County, New York. It was established in 1906 by the brothers Homer St. Clair Pace and Charles A. Pace as a business school. Pac ...

for her graduate studies, where she earned a master's degree in nursing. She eventually joined the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

, 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. Doctorate in hand, Joseph joined the

National Institute of Nursing Research The National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR), as part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, supports clinical and basic research to establish a scientific basis for the nursing care of individuals across the life span—from management ...

as a postdoctoral researcher.

Research and career

Every year, smell and taste disorders impact hundreds of thousands of people in the United States. Joseph leads the Sensory Science and Metabolism Unit at the

. This unit looks to understand the molecular mechanisms that underpin

chemosensing A chemoreceptor, also known as chemosensor, is a specialized sensory receptor which transduces a chemical substance (endogenous or induced) to generate a biological signal. This signal may be in the form of an action potential, if the chemorecept ...

(taste, smell and

chemesthesis Chemesthesis is the chemical sensitivity of the skin and mucous membranes. Chemesthetic sensations arise when chemical compounds activate receptors associated with other senses that mediate pain, touch, and thermal perception. These chemical-induc ...

, skin sensitivity to chemicals). She is interested in the development of predictive models that can be used to understand the

gut–brain axis The gut–brain axis is the two-way biochemical signaling that takes place between the gastrointestinal tract (GI tract) and the central nervous system (CNS). The term "gut–brain axis" is occasionally used to refer to the role of the gut micr ...

. She showed that

ultra-processed food Ultra-processed foods, also referred to as ultra-processed food products (UPP), are food and drink products that have undergone specified types of food processing, usually by transnational and other very large ' Big food' corporations. These f ...

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. In 2019 Joseph was named the Lasker Scholar and National Institutes of Health Distinguished Scholar. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

Joseph switched her focus to consider why people suffering from

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

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 Long COVID or long-haul COVID (also known as post-COVID-19 syndrome, post-COVID-19 condition, post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC), or chronic COVID syndrome (CCS)) is a condition characterized by long-term health problems persisting or appe ...

. She was named the 2022

Fellow. The fellowship is the first of its kind.

Awards and honours

* 2013

Johnson & Johnson Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is an American multinational corporation founded in 1886 that develops medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and consumer packaged goods. Its common stock is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the company i ...

American Association of Colleges of Nursing The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) is a national organization of nurses in the United States that is dedicated to advancing nursing education. It was established in 1969, and represents nursing schools at 840 universities and ...

Minority Nurse Faculty Scholarship * 2016 Rockefeller University Heilbrunn Nurse Scholar Award * 2020 National Minority Quality Forum 40 Under 40 Leaders * 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

Select publications

* * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Joseph, Paule Valery Living people Venezuelan emigrants to the United States College of New Rochelle alumni Pace University alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni American nurses Year of birth missing (living people) Hostos Community College alumni