Nutrition researchers recognized by industry

The professor based at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston received the award at the International Congress of Nutrition in Durban, South Africa last week. A day earlier Professor David JP Barker of Southampton University and the Oregon Health and Science University in the US received €120,000 from the Danone Institutes for his work that is now known as the foetal origins hypothesis. The theory suggests that restricted growth of the foetus due to nutritional deprivation in early life is an important cause of some of the common adult chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease, hypertension and type-2 diabetes. Both DSM and the French dairy group Danone are keen to be seen promoting new research in nutrition and both are awarding prize money to influential researchers every two years. Dr Russell's work laid the groundwork for investigating the role of carotenoids in carcinogenesis. His team also used advanced techniques to determine the human conversion of carotenoid precursors to vitamin A from various dietary sources, influencing the approaches to vitamin A deficiency. Danone's prizewinner Professor Barker first put forth his hypothesis in 1986 and since then dozens of large-scale epidemiological and experimental studies have supported the link between low birth weight and increased risk of developing chronic disease in later life. There is also evidence that obesity, asthma and obstructive lung disease originate in utero; and emerging evidence that cancers from the breast, ovary and prostate, osteoporosis, polycystic ovary syndrome, and mental disorders including schizophrenia and depression all originate in utero, said the Danone Institutes statement. The researcher's theory is expected to influence public health policy, encouraging a new focus on the nutrition of girls and young women and their babies as well as the lifestyles of men and women in middle age in order to help prevent chronic disease.

Nutrition researchers recognized by industry

Dr Rob M. Russell, a scientist specializing in carotenoid metabolism, last week won DSM's €25,000 prize for his major influence on furthering understanding of beta-carotene's role in cancer.

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