Knowledge Generation

Timothy Wells of Cardiff University in the United Kingdom will test the hypothesis that feeding patterns help regulate growth and metabolism by altering gut microbiota and a stomach hormone that increases the efficacy of fat storage. This research may show that "grazing" instead of set meals can optimize healthy growth in children where nutrient availability is limited.

Galia Gat-Yablonski of Tel Aviv University in Israel will test in a rat model whether histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors can enhance catch-up growth after nutrient restriction, providing evidence for epigenetic pathways that might underlie stunting in malnourished children.

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.

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.

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.

Nona Andaya-Castillo of Philippine Lactation Resource and Training in the Philippines will investigate the effects that maternal diet has on the hormones that can stimulate, sustain or hinder lactation, and also explore the varying nutritional contents of breastmilk based on such diets.

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.

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.

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.