Nutrition

Deanna Gibson and Sanjoy Ghosh of the University of British Columbia Okanagan in Canada will test in a mouse model whether modifying the dietary intake of pregnant mothers can lead to the establishment of healthy microflora in an offspring's intestinal tract once they are born. Maternal diets thus could be altered to help bolster the mucosal immune response and reduce susceptibility of disease in infants.

Thomas McDonald of the University of Nebraska Medical Center in the U.S. will work with colleagues to produce an edible algae that produces a colostrum protein to enhance mucosal immunity in infants. The team will test the ability of the algae to prevent infectious diarrheal diseases, a major cause of infant mortality in the developing world.

John Groopman of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the U.S. will test the hypothesis that exposure during pregnancy to aflatoxin, a toxin produced by mold that widely contaminates staple grains and nuts in hot, humid environments, can lead to stunted fetal growth. Groopman will assess levels of biomarkers related to aflatoxin exposure in serum samples and compare them to maternal and infant data to determine if aflatoxin contributes to smaller birth size.

Kerry Schulze and colleagues at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the U.S., working with the JiVitA Project in Bangladesh, will study urine and blood samples from an established cohort of two-year old children in Bangladesh to assess whether non-nutritional factors such as aflatoxin exposure, chronic inflammation, and compromised gut integrity cause the deceleration of growth exhibited by many children in that country by 24 months of age.

Craig Harris of the University of Michigan in the U.S. will develop 3-dimensional embryo culture models to study how maternal diets and environmental factors affect embryonic growth when organ tissues are being developed. Understanding this process could inform ways to reduce disruptions to the fetal development process that might affect growth, disease susceptibility and behavior later in life.

Jessica Fanzo of Bioversity International in Italy and colleagues at Save the Children UK will analyze the nutritional value and local acceptability of wild and neglected foods in Kenya to help introduce these underutilized foods and significantly reduce the costs of a nutritious diet for mothers and children in the region.

Qiang Chen of Arizona State University in the U.S. proposes to engineer edible plants, such as lettuce and rice, to express beneficial proteins found in human milk. The protein bodies in these plants allow for the stable, high accumulation of these human milk proteins, and the plants can either be eaten directly by infants or formulated into baby food to provide essential nutrients and antibacterial benefits.

Robin Bernstein of George Washington University in the U.S. will investigate how bioactive components in breastmilk affect the maturation of gut defense systems in infants in an effort to better understand potential preventative and therapeutic strategies to eliminate intestinal disease and promote infant development.

James Berkley of Oxford University in the United Kingdom and Kelsey Jones of Imperial College, working at the KEMRI/Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Kenya will test whether enhancing therapeutic meals for malnourished children with essential fatty acids derived from the local Nile Perch fish could improve their immune defense systems and reduce severe infections that lead to mortality. If successful, these meals could enhance immune response instead of simply producing growth in malnourished children.

James Petrie of CSIRO in Australia will provide proof of concept that a readily available leafy green vegetable in Africa can be engineered to produce long-chain omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA. Such locally grown greens could be used in diets to improve infant cognitive development.