NIH Highlighted Topic: New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) for Dietary Supplement and Nutrition research

Karen Cielo | Posted on July 01, 2026

Background

Research on diet-related health outcomes and food safety often relies on animal studies and population-level endpoints and/or is focused on individual dietary components. However, translational limitations of these approaches can include limited relevance to human biology, metabolism, and dietary exposure patterns; poor sensitivity for detecting subtle, chronic, or life-stage-specific effects; and inability to assess complex foods, novel ingredients, or processing or matrix effects. As such, the development and validation of methods that are more human-relevant and appropriate for investigating dietary intake and modern food system health effects are urgently needed.

Purpose

This topic encourages innovative research on human-relevant new approach methodologies (NAMs) (e.g., organoids, tissue chips, microphysiological systems, multi-omics technologies, computational models) to evaluate the safety and efficacy of foods, food components, and dietary supplements for health optimization and chronic disease risk reduction across the lifespan.

Objectives include developing and validating human-based NAMs to:

  • Investigate absorption/distribution/metabolic processes involved in dietary intake of nutrients or non-nutrient bioactive compounds across multiple physiological systems
  • Simulate/predict health outcome relevant interactions between cellular, organ, and body systems in response to complex food or dietary supplement matrices

High priority research areas include (but are not limited to) studies that:

  • Identify and validate nutrient or non-nutrient bioactive compound (e.g., botanical phytochemicals, additives) exposure/status biomarkers that are relevant to human health and chronic disease
  • Generate replicable, interoperable datasets on nutrient or bioactive compound absorption and/or metabolism in the context of different (genetics, sex, age, underlying health condition) populations
  • Quantify bioaccessibility (amount of substance released from a food/supplement matrix) or bioavailability (amount of substance absorbed and available to organs/microbiota) of nutrients or bioactive compounds, especially in the context of multi-ingredient dietary supplements or processed foods
  • Assess interactions between food- and dietary supplement-induced cellular/tissue/organ functional modifications (e.g., gene expression, metabolomics, proteomics, nutrient absorption, immune signaling) to improve predictions for whole-person health outcomes
  • Investigate mechanisms of action or biological signatures across complex physiological systems in response to multi-ingredient food interventions and dietary supplement exposure
  • Characterize dietary bioactive substances’ impact on key developmental processes (e.g., neurodevelopment, immune system maturation) to assess potential risks associated with fetal and early childhood exposure

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.