Maternal, Newborn, and Adolescent Health

Farook Jahoor of Baylor College of Medicine in the U.S. will conduct studies to test whether healthy women in India produce less arginine, an amino acid critical for a successful pregnancy, than pregnant Jamaican and American women and will research the underlying mechanisms to inform possible interventions to reduce the number of low birth weight babies in India.

Zdenko Herceg of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in France will evaluate the impact of seasonal dietary aflatoxin exposure of pregnant women in rural Africa by identifying epigenetic biomarkers of exposure, growth impairment, and disease risk. This will facilitate the development of interventions to improve child health.

Lindsay Allen of ARS Western Human Nutrition Research Center in the U.S. will develop methods to rapidly and accurately measure concentrations of multiple micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) in small volumes of human breast milk. This will enable them to test whether micronutritional supplements during lactation can boost infant health and development. In Phase I, they established new methods to detect low concentrations of specific micronutrients including vitamin B12, iron, copper and zinc.

Amy Webb Girard of Emory University in the U.S. will develop and pilot test the use of feeding bowls with illustrations of appropriate feeding practices during pregnancy, lactation, and early childhood, along with sieved spoons that can be used to test the appropriate thickness of infant meals, in an effort to improve nutrition and growth during the critical first 1,000 days of infant development.

Margaret Kabahenda of Makerere University in Uganda, along with Barbara Stoeker of Oklahoma State University in the U.S., will work through local health centers to provide pregnant women with coupons for a low-cost ration of Mukene (silver fish) in an effort to increase women's use of prenatal services and reduce their risk for anemia while improving fetal growth and newborn survival.

Steven Zeisel of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the U.S. will test the hypothesis that adequate levels on choline in the diets of pregnant and nursing mothers is needed for optimal brain development of fetuses and infants. He will develop and validate a methodology to measure infant memory and cognition for use in a larger study on the effects of dietary choline on infant development in The Gambia.

Richard Veilleux and Mark Williams of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in the U.S., along with Merideth Bonierbale of the International Potato Center in South America, will examine genetic and environmental influences that affect the accumulation of phytonutrients, specifically iron and zinc, in potatoes. Understanding the interaction between microorganisms in the soil and genes in the plant could lead to strategies to alleviate human micronutrient deficiencies in populations dependent upon the potato as a staple.

Bogdan Mateescu of ETH University in Switzerland will explore the role of mammalian microRNAs maternally transmitted to infants through milk. This project could lead to the development of innovative nutritional supplements for correcting unhealthy growth or protecting infants from pathogens.

Aaron Dossey of All Things Bugs, LLC in the U.S. proposes to develop a method for the efficient production of nutritionally dense food using insect species. Dossey and collaborators will identify candidate species and test the nutritional value, shelf-stability, and palatability of a dried powder made from these insects for use in food products to help eliminate malnutrition in children.

Geoffrey von Maltzahn of Essentient Inc. in the U.S. proposes to design a solar-powered production system to produce pure DHA, a key lipid for infant nutrition, in a low-cost bioreactor. These cell cultures could be used to mass-produce DHA for infant nutrition and development without the need for land or fresh water.