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

The impact of early-life sub-therapeutic antibiotic treatment (STAT) on excessive weight is robust despite transfer of intestinal microbes.  Sumner S

Protein Intake at Twice the RDA in Older Men Increases Circulatory Concentrations of the Microbiome Metabolite Trimethylamine-N-Oxide (TMAO).  Zeisel S

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

Dietary Choline and Betaine and Risk of CVD: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Prospective Studies.  Meyer K

A Microbiomic Analysis in African Americans with Colonic Lesions Reveals Streptococcus sp.VT162 as a Marker of Neoplastic Transformation.  Sumner S

Metabolic profiling of a chronic kidney disease cohort reveals metabolic phenotype more likely to benefit from a probiotic.  Sumner S

Trimethylamine N-Oxide, the Microbiome, and Heart and Kidney Disease.  Zeisel S

2016

Microbiota-Dependent Metabolite Trimethylamine N-Oxide and Coronary Artery Calcium in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study (CARDIA).  Meyer K

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

June 2019

The DNA Diet: Knowing How Your Genes Can Help You Fit Into Your Jeans May 20, 2019 – How are we expected to make healthy choices about food when the headlines are so confusing? We all suffer whiplash when we read butter is bad, then butter is good; when red meat is...

The Choices I.C.A.N. Make

The Choices I.C.A.N. Make

January 25, 2019 – Pregnant women are often consumed by dietary choices such as finding a great prenatal vitamin, eating foods that will promote fetal growth, and doing everything they can to protect their pregnancy. After delivery, however, the mother’s preoccupation with her diet often pauses for four to six months. The Cheatham Nutrition & Cognition Lab is turning this type of thinking on its head with the belief that what women eat while breastfeeding greatly impacts their breastmilk and ultimately, their children’s development.

January Faculty Focus: Philip May, PhD

January Faculty Focus: Philip May, PhD

January 11, 2019 – “I’ve been called ‘tenacious’,” says Philip A. May, PhD, with a hint of humor. It’s an understatement for the man who relentlessly pursues data that shed light on important public health issues across the United States and around the globe. May, professor of nutrition at the UNC Nutrition Research Institute (NRI) and in the Department of Nutrition at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at UNC-Chapel Hill, has been a demographer and epidemiologist for the better part of 50 years. He calls his style of research “shoe-leather” epidemiology, meaning that he gathers information for studies by getting out in the field and immersing himself in communities to really know the people in his studies. For nearly 30 of those years, May’s focus has been on learning about the often-dire effects and alarmingly high prevalence of fetal alcohol exposure.

Women’s Health, Preconception Nutrition, and the Right to Choose

Women’s Health, Preconception Nutrition, and the Right to Choose

December 16, 2018 – If you’ve ever been around a pregnant woman, you’ve probably heard her mention something about food cravings. Or she’s mentioned that she won’t drink coffee or eat Oreos because they are “bad for the baby.” Food is a hot topic during pregnancy because of how it can drastically affect the developing baby. But how many times have you heard a woman mention that she is eating healthier because she is going to try to get pregnant?

December Faculty Focus: Susan Sumner, PhD

December Faculty Focus: Susan Sumner, PhD

December 15, 2018 – Through the ages, science has often been in the company of poetry. They came together recently when Susan Sumner, PhD, described how she got her start in Biomarker Discovery using spectroscopic methods as an undergraduate at North Carolina State University (NCSU): “I found it exciting to envision molecules dancing in multidimensional space in response to applied physical factors such as magnets, radio frequency pulses, or electric fields.”

NRI Faculty Member Receives Prestigious NIAAA Award

NRI Faculty Member Receives Prestigious NIAAA Award

December 17, 2018 – Philip A. May, PhD, has received the 2018 Mark Keller Award bestowed by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).