Microbiome and Nutrition
The complex community of bacteria, yeasts and viruses living in our intestines, collectively known as the gut microbiome, is shaped, in part, by what we eat. Genetics, environment, and other factors also influence an individual’s microbial community. Research at the NRI investigates these complex relationships and their impact on disease risk. We use animal models and bioinformatics to study the associations between nutritional metabolites, gut microbiome, and health. What happens in the gut doesn’t stay in the gut. Your microbiome can play a role in cardiovascular disease, obesity and diabetes, and even cancer. Our team envisions a future where analysis of your microbiome can determine disease risk, and medical foods can be prescribed to treat and prevent disease by regulating the microbiome.
Publications
Microbiome and Nutrition Publications
2020
Population studies of TMAO and its precursors may help elucidate mechanisms. Meyer K
2019
Association of dietary patterns with the gut microbiota in older, community-dwelling men. Meyer K
2018
Meta-analysis of human genome-microbiome association studies: the MiBioGen consortium initiative. Meyer K
Human microbiota, blood group antigens, and disease. Sumner S
2017
Trimethylamine N-Oxide, the Microbiome, and Heart and Kidney Disease. Zeisel S
2016
Diet and Gut Microbial Function in Metabolic and Cardiovascular Disease Risk. Meyer K
Antibiotic-mediated gut microbiome perturbation accelerates development of type 1 diabetes in mice. Sumner S
Related News
Choline Biomarker Study Call for Participants
August 28, 2017 – The Zeisel Lab at the NRI is recruiting participants for a clinical study on the essential nutrient choline. The lab needs healthy females and males between the ages of 17 and 70 to take part in a six-week study. Participants will be asked to provide blood samples and will eat meals provided by the NRI during the course of the study. “Healthy” means normal body weight, and no smoking, drug abuse, unusual diets, allergy to soy, or chronic diseases. All qualifying participants will be paid when they complete the study.
You Can Help Advance Our Science
July 27, 2017 – The Zeisel Lab at the NRI is recruiting participants for a clinical study on the essential nutrient choline. The lab needs healthy females and males between the ages of 17 and 70 to take part in a six-week study. Participants will be asked to provide blood samples and will eat meals provided by the NRI during the course of the study. “Healthy” means normal body weight, and no smoking, drug abuse, unusual diets, allergy to soy, or chronic diseases. All qualifying participants will be paid when they complete the study.
Female Tea Drinkers See Epigenetic Changes in Cancer and Hormone Genes
June 27, 2017 • That morning or midday beverage may have a greater effect on our genes than previously thought, especially if you happen to be female and consume tea on a regular basis. New evidence from a group of investigators at Uppsala University shows that tea consumption in women leads to epigenetic changes in genes that are known to interact with cancer and estrogen metabolism. Findings from the new study were published recently in Human Molecular Genetics in an article entitled “Tea and Coffee Consumption in Relation to DNA Methylation in Four European Cohorts.”
NRI Grooms Next Gen Scientists
June 27, 2017 • Grant Canipe didn’t always know that he wanted to be a scientist. His revelation came one day at Northwest Cabarrus High School in Concord, NC, when a Duke University student came to Canipe’s AP biology class to discuss his research and plans for graduate school. Canipe found himself inspired by that student’s experience so much that he himself is now completing his doctorate at UNC Chapel Hill in developmental psychology and nutrition. He studies under the direction of Carol L. Cheatham, Ph.D. in the Cheatham Nutrition & Cognition Laboratory at the UNC Nutrition Research Institute (NRI), located on the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis. […]
July 2017
NRI Grooms Next Gen Scientists When Grant Canipe graduated from Northwest Cabarrus in 2009, he joked that he was leaving Concord and never coming back. But in an interesting twist, he did come back and is now working as a scientist at the UNC Nutrition Research...
University of North Carolina Introduces New Research Core Merging Nutrition And Genetics
June 1, 2017 • The University of North Carolina Nutrition and Obesity Research Center (NORC) introduces the new Nutrigenetics and Nutrigenomics (NGx) Core. Located in the UNC Nutrition Research Institute (NRI) on the NC Research Campus in Kannapolis, NGx has been created to assist investigators in conducting studies that lead to a better understanding of the impacts lifestyle and genetics have […]