NIH Highlighted Topic: Advancing Nutrition Research to Inform Regulatory Practice
Introduction
With diet-related chronic diseases continually rising, it is imperative that the NIH invest in gold standard science to advance our understanding of their root causes. Part of this effort includes cross-governmental efforts. As an example, the NIH and FDA are partnering on a comprehensive nutrition research agenda aimed at safeguarding the health of all Americans.
Priority research areas include but are not limited to:
- Ultra-processed foods
- Characteristics of highly processed foods (e.g., ingredients, specific additives, processing steps, food matrix alterations, etc.) are most predictive of adverse health outcomes
- Mechanisms by which foods classified as ultra-processed adversely affect health
- Attributes other than processing or formulation, such as energy density or palatability, might be used to characterize a food as ultra-processed
- How certain food additives might affect metabolic health
- Determining if there are objective biomarkers of exposure to highly processed foods that are linked to negative health outcomes
- How highly-processed foods might affect satiety hormones, appetite regulation, and energy homeostasis compared to minimally processed alternatives
- Early life nutrition and feeding practices
- Role of maternal and infant dietary exposures on health outcomes (including cognitive, neurodevelopmental, microbiome and metabolic) across the lifespan
- How standardized approaches for evaluating the function and safety of bioactive infant formula ingredients might be developed
- What differences, if any, in physiological and biochemical outcomes are seen between formula-fed and breast-fed infants
- Role of Human Milk Oligosaccharides on the gut microbiome, immune system development, and neurocognitive development
- Mechanisms underlying severe intestinal inflammatory disease in preterm and term infants that connect biological pathways to disease progression
- Variability in human milk composition and volume between mother-infant dyads during different phases of lactation
- Nutrition and toxicology
- Exposure of infants and young children to heavy metals and other contaminants and the sources of those exposures
- How ratios of nutrients to heavy metals relate to internal biomarkers of exposures and health endpoints
- Bioavailability of contaminants in foods and how nutritional deficiencies might impact bioavailability
- Whether there are moderating effects of nutrients in food that may impact the influence of heavy metals on child health
See more information here, including participating NIH Institutes/Centers and their specific interests relating to the Highlighted Topic.
Apply to a highlighted topic through an appropriate NIH Parent Funding Announcement or another broad NIH opportunity available on Grants.gov. Learn how to interpret and use Highlighted Topics.
Please contact Dr. Karen Cielo, Director of Research Development, if you are interested in applying or would like to discuss the opportunity.