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"Our Freedom to Discover research will enable our
multidisciplinary team to study the bacteria that live in the
intestine of infants, attempting to define how an infant's genetics
and dietary interventions contribute to bacterial colonization of
the intestine and how these factors affect an infant's intestinal
nutrient requirements," said Sharon Donovan. She is the Melissa M.
Noel Professor in the Department of Food Science and Human
Nutrition, director of the Division of Nutritional Sciences at the U
of I, and the principal investigator in the funded research.
"Our hope is that this research will enable us to optimize
nutrition in baby formulas," Donovan said. Colleagues George C.
Fahey Jr., Peter J. Garlick, H. Rex Gaskins, Gary R. Griglione,
Terry F. Hatch, Mark S. Kuhlenschmidt, Roderick I. Mackie, Larry B.
Schook, Kelly S. Swanson, Kelly A. Tappenden and Bryan A. White will
be working on this endeavor.
"Babies are born without intestinal bacteria, and the type of
bacteria that take up residence in the neonatal intestine are
affected by how the infant is delivered, the diet the infant
receives and the baby's genetic background," said Donovan.
"Breast-fed infants display a pattern of intestinal bacteria
considered more beneficial than that of formula-fed infants."
"These differences appear to have both short- and long-term
effects on intestinal health, including the prevention of infantile
diarrhea and inflammatory bowel diseases later in life. Optimal use
of infant formulas is impossible without a better understanding of
the unique components in human milk," she stressed.
"Recent research has revealed that an infant's genetics may be a
primary factor in determining which bacteria take up residence,"
added Rex Gaskins, a U of I professor in the Department of Animal
Sciences, Division of Nutritional Sciences and the Institute for
Genomic Biology.
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 "If this is so, the genes contributing to specificity in
bacterial colonization may also be involved in common intestinal
disorders that appear to result from gene-environment interactions,
such as inflammatory bowel diseases. This award will enable us to
use unique animal models to define the extent to which diet versus
host genetic background influences the types of bacteria that
colonize and persist in the developing intestine," he said.
In addition to funding basic research, the award money will be
used to transition the group's findings in model systems to the
clinical setting. In doing so, the researchers will augment the
training of U of I medical students and foster collaborative
projects between the medical school and researchers in the Division
of Nutritional Sciences at the U of I.
"This grant allows us the opportunity to evaluate literally all
dimensions of this important and emerging area of research," said
George Fahey, U of I professor of animal sciences and nutritional
sciences. "There is no question that infant formulas of the future
will be nutritionally superior as a result of the findings from the
laboratories of this multidisciplinary team of scientists."
The selection places U of I scientist Sharon Donovan and her
colleagues in an elite class of researchers in their field. "It is
really an honor to be included among these prestigious research
institutions," said Donovan.
Other programs currently receiving the award are Harvard Medical
School, Baylor College of Medicine's Children's Nutrition Research
Center in Houston, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical
Medicine, the University of British Columbia in Canada, the
University of California at Davis, and the University of Turku in
Finland.
[University
of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental
Sciences news release]
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