Nutrition

Christopher Coe and colleagues at the University of Wisconsin in the U.S. will investigate the role that the gut microbiota has in iron deficiency. By simultaneously profiling gut microbe communities and anemia, Coe hopes to better understand how these natural bacterial communities can influence this leading micronutrient deficiency.

Ricardo Radulovich of the University of Costa Rica/FUNDEVI in Costa Rica will scale-up sustainable seaweed farming ventures in Costa Rica, characterize nutritional values of various crops, and formulate them into a nutritious seaweed meal that can be marketed as a low-cost stand-alone food or as a supplement.

Michelle Lane and colleagues at the University of Adelaide in Australia will use a mouse model to examine how interventions in a father's diet at the time of conception could improve the molecular health of his gametes, which could improve the health of the pregnancy and the development and health of the offspring. Interventions to improve men's health thus might lead to healthier pregnancies and children.

Kevin Nicholas of Deakin University in Australia will study the milk composition of lactating Australian marsupials (the tammar wallaby) to identify proteins, and then their human equivalents, that promote gut function and stomach development in infants. Such proteins could be developed into a supplement for improved health outcomes for preterm and low birth weight babies.

Sean Moore and colleagues at Cincinnati Children's Hospital in the U.S. will generate a mouse model of human environmental enteropathy, which is characterized by stunted growth and physiological defects in the gut, and is caused by malnutrition and repeated infections. The model will be used to test whether environmental enteropathy is affected by diet and contaminated water, and whether it reduces the effect of oral vaccines. In Phase I, they proved that feeding mice a nutritionally deficient diet mimicked at least some of the features of the human disease.

Benjamin Yu of the University of California San Diego in the U.S. will isolate and sequence RNA found in the hair and nails of newborns to study whether specific RNA changes can be found in low-birthweight babies. This molecular tool could help uncover nutritional or environmental factors that cause newborn disease.

Loredana Quadro of Rutgers University in the U.S. will engineer strains of bacteria found in the human gut to produce the vitamin A precursor beta-carotene, and test in a mouse model the hypothesis that vitamin A-deficiency could be controlled and healthy growth of children and infant promoted through colonization of the gut by these engineered probiotics.

Bruce Hamaker of Purdue University in the U.S., and colleagues in Mali, will use a new non-invasive breath test to assess moderately malnourished children for pancreatic enzyme deficiencies that inhibit the digestion of energy-rich starch, and then test simple, local foods for their ability to deliver the alternative energy food glucose to these children for recovery, growth, and brain development.

Kiersten Israel-Ballard of PATH in the U.S., in partnership with University of Washington and Human Milk Banking (HMB) Association of South Africa, will work to develop and test a low-cost, cell-phone-based networked sensing system to provide safety monitoring of low-technology flash- heating pasteurization of breast milk designated for donation. The goal is to scale-up human milk banking for vulnerable infants in resource-limited settings.

OraLee Branch of New York University in the U.S. will research the hypothesis that inflammation of the placenta affects the postnatal growth of offspring by altering programming in the fetus that determines the makeup of the child's intestinal microbiota. Correcting such fetal programming could promote nutrient absorption and healthy growth.