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Advancing Nutrition Research to Inform Regulatory Practice
When beginning your next investigator-initiated application, consider the following NIH highlighted topic. The area of science described below is of interest to the listed NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices (ICOs). This is not a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO).
Apply through an appropriate NIH Parent Funding Announcement or another broad NIH opportunity available on Grants.gov. Learn how to interpret and use Highlighted Topics.
Topic Description
Post Date: March 20, 2026
Expiration Date: March 20, 2028
Purpose
The purpose of this topic is to advance the gold standard of nutrition and food science. We encourage participation from experts across a variety of disciplines, including nutrition, toxicology, risk analysis, behavioral science, infant and child development, chemistry, and chronic disease research.
Research Objectives
With diet-related chronic diseases continually rising, it is imperative that the NIH invest in gold standard science to advance our understanding of their root causes. Part of this effort includes cross-governmental efforts. As an example, the NIH and FDA are partnering on a comprehensive nutrition research agenda aimed at safeguarding the health of all Americans.
Priority research areas include but are not limited to:
- Ultra-processed foods
- Characteristics of highly processed foods (e.g., ingredients, specific additives, processing steps, food matrix alterations, etc.) are most predictive of adverse health outcomes
- Mechanisms by which foods classified as ultra-processed adversely affect health
- Attributes other than processing or formulation, such as energy density or palatability, might be used to characterize a food as ultra-processed
- How certain food additives might affect metabolic health
- Determining if there are objective biomarkers of exposure to highly processed foods that are linked to negative health outcomes
- How highly-processed foods might affect satiety hormones, appetite regulation, and energy homeostasis compared to minimally processed alternatives
- Early life nutrition and feeding practices
- Role of maternal and infant dietary exposures on health outcomes (including cognitive, neurodevelopmental, microbiome and metabolic) across the lifespan
- How standardized approaches for evaluating the function and safety of bioactive infant formula ingredients might be developed
- What differences, if any, in physiological and biochemical outcomes are seen between formula-fed and breast-fed infants
- Role of Human Milk Oligosaccharides on the gut microbiome, immune system development, and neurocognitive development
- Mechanisms underlying severe intestinal inflammatory disease in preterm and term infants that connect biological pathways to disease progression
- Variability in human milk composition and volume between mother-infant dyads during different phases of lactation
- Nutrition and toxicology
- Exposure of infants and young children to heavy metals and other contaminants and the sources of those exposures
- How ratios of nutrients to heavy metals relate to internal biomarkers of exposures and health endpoints
- Bioavailability of contaminants in foods and how nutritional deficiencies might impact bioavailability
- Whether there are moderating effects of nutrients in food that may impact the influence of heavy metals on child health
Participating ICOs
High priority research areas for the Office of Nutrition Research include but are not limited to:
- Understanding the physical and mental health effects of foods considered to be ultra-processed and the mechanisms of these effects
- Identifying the mechanism(s) of action of foods, nutrients, non-nutrient food components, and dietary patterns in modulating general wellness as well as the potential health impacts of contaminants
- Understanding the connection between infant feeding practices (breastfeeding, infant formulas, complementary foods, or combinations thereof) and health outcomes (including growth and development, allergies, healthy weight gain) over time
- Assessing carcinogenic, endocrine, or other effects of food additives, contaminants, and food processing byproducts
- Understanding how nutritional deficiencies may impact bioavailability of food
Andrew Bremer, MD, MAS, PhD
[email protected]
Kirsten Herrick, PhD
[email protected]
Maggie J. Nellissery, M.D.
[email protected]
Jana Eisenstein, M.S.
[email protected]
Research interests include but are not limited to:
- Understanding the relationship between infant and young child feeding habits and oral health outcomes (Including dental caries, dental and craniofacial growth and development, oral disease).
- Understanding the interplay among ultra-processed foods, oral health, and systemic health (Including oral cancer, diabetes, periodontal disease).
Margaret Grisius, DDS
[email protected]
•Identify, characterize, and quantify environmental exposures (e.g. contaminants, pesticides, microplastics, PFAS, heavy metals) introduced into the food supply during growing, processing and packaging food products in the context of human health and/or disease
•Evaluate the effects of absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME) and toxicity of these exposures in food on human health and/or disease, including development of new approaches to examine safety
•Examine the potential for adverse health impacts on infants from exposure to contaminants in breastmilk (from the mothers’ food intake and other sources) and infant formula, and explore potential interventions to mitigate these exposures from essential foods
•Leverage existing toxicity and nutrition data to identify biomarkers of these exposures introduced by processing, and their potential impact on health endpoints
Dr. Abee Boyles
[email protected]
Dr. Thaddeus Schug
[email protected]
CDR Nadra Tyus, DrPH, MPH
[email protected]
Sydney O'Connor, PhD
[email protected]
Bramaramba Kowtha MS, RDN, LDN
[email protected]
Coretté Byrd, RN, MS
[email protected]
Hsinyi Tsang
[email protected]
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