Posted October 3, 2025 by Dan Moser
Janos Zempleni, Willa Cather Professor of nutrition and health sciences, will deliver the Nebraska Lecture Nov. 12.
Zempleni’s talk, “The Little Particle That Could: Milk Exosomes,” is at 3:30 p.m. in the Nebraska Union’s Swanson Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public, with a reception to follow. A live webstream will be available on the Nebraska Lectures website.
Zempleni will discuss his research into the use of universal milk exosomes, which are natural nanoparticles contained in milk, to transport therapeutics, gene editing tools, plasmids and more to targeted locations in the human body.
He will illustrate the relevance of milk exosomes for cognitive development and brain health in early stages of life and the power of milk exosomes to deliver therapeutics to targeted locations in the human body, including the brain. Earlier this year, Zempleni and his colleague Jiantao Guo launched a startup company, Minovacca, that aims to commercialize this technology.
Zempleni, who also is director of the Nebraska Center for the Prevention of Obesity Diseases, has been at UNL since 2001. He received his Bachelor of Science degree and his Ph.D. in nutrition sciences from the University of Giessen in Germany. He previously had stints at the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
The Nebraska Lectures are offered twice a year and feature high-profile presentations by distinguished Husker faculty who address topics of broad interest in an engaging, accessible format. Archived videos from each lecture are available on the event website.
The Nebraska Lectures: The Chancellor’s Distinguished Speaker Series is sponsored by the Office of the Chancellor, Office of Research and Innovation and Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. Speakers were selected by the UNL Research Council.
