UofL receives $11.6 million to amplify research in nutrition and metabolic health

Chronic health conditions such as diabetes, obesity, heart disease and metabolic liver disease have sharply increased in recent decades and are among the most urgent health challenges facing our society. These conditions often are driven by obesity, poor diet and lack of exercise.

The University of Louisville has received new federal funding to amplify research to address these challenges disproportionately affecting residents of Kentucky, which ranks 43^rd in health among U.S. states.

The National Institute of General Medical Sciences has awarded $11.6 million to UofL through a five-year Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (CoBRE) grant to increase research focused on nutrition and metabolic health. With this funding, UofL will launch the Nutrition and Metabolic Health Center (NMHC), where researchers will seek new understanding about how foods affect health, how the body processes food and how environmental exposures affect metabolism. With these discoveries, they will pursue new avenues to combat chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and liver dysfunction.

“Increasing our understanding of how nutrition and metabolism affect human health is essential to tackle the most pressing health challenges of our time,” said President Gerry Bradley. “In addition to the federal funds, the university has committed $7.25 million to this broad and ambitious center. This endeavor promises to cultivate a cohort of future research leaders whose work will advance health and wellbeing in Kentucky and beyond for generations to come.”

The NMHC CoBRE builds on substantial existing research capability at UofL in diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, liver disease and metabolism. 

“Optimal nutrition and metabolism are essential for sustaining function, growth and health, and for preventing disease. Poor diet is the leading cause of premature death worldwide, contributing to over 11 million deaths annually,” said Matthew Cave, co-director of the center. “This grant will increase UofL’s biomedical research capacity and ultimately, the number of independently funded researchers conducting work in these critical areas.”

Center leaders expect their research will improve prevention of metabolic conditions and lead to new treatments for patients like Chris Lawson, who is participating in a clinical trial at UofL for an investigational medication treating liver disease related to nutrition and metabolism. 

“This medication has been a godsend for me and my wife,” Lawson said. “It not only allows me to function but lets me tolerate foods that I like occasionally. I tell people I did not hit the money lottery, I hit the health lottery by being able to participate in this trial. I have gone from stage four to stage three liver disease since January.”

Co-directors Cave and Bradford Hill, along with associate director Cheri Levinson have well established research portfolios in their specialty areas.

Cave, professor of medicine and a practicing gastroenterologist and transplant hepatologist, has conducted extensive research on the impact of toxicants, including food contaminants, on the liver and liver health. Hill, a professor of medicine, brings expertise in basic and preclinical research in heart disease, metabolism and exercise biology. Professor Levinson’s work in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Department of Pediatrics focuses on developing new treatments for eating disorders.

“Dr. Cave’s experience as a physician-scientist and my work in metabolism, exercise biology and nutrition strengthen the NMHC CoBRE program in basic, translational and clinical research and will help accelerate the pace of discovery, allowing the research to benefit people more quickly,” Hill said.

In addition to center leadership, 30 senior researchers from the UofL schools of medicine, dentistry, public health, social work, engineering and arts and sciences will collaborate within NMHC on existing and new research in nutrition, metabolism and the impact of environmental factors on health and mentor early career researchers. Collaboration through the center will help unify investigators in diverse fields of study under a common vision and maximize the impact of their research. The group will interact extensively with the Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute and the Institute of Nutritional and Metabolic Therapeutics.

Cultivating future research leaders

CoBRE grants also emphasize support for promising early career researchers with project funding and mentorship by senior faculty. The goal is to prepare these investigators to compete for independent research funding and to lead future initiatives in their research areas.

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The initial four UofL research project leaders supported by the NMHC include:

• Banrida Wahlang, assistant professor of medicine: Sex-linked biology and metabolic health. Wahlang will investigate sex differences in how food contaminants impact liver and metabolic disease.
• Andrew Gibb, assistant professor of medicine: Exercise metabolism and mitochondrial transport. Gibb’s research will lead to better understanding of the role of mitochondria in muscle performance.
• Ryan Doster, assistant professor of medicine: Breast milk carbohydrates and group B streptococcus. Doster will examine maternal diet and the quality of breast milk.
• Josiah Hardesty, assistant professor of pharmacology and toxicology: Cardiolipin and mitochondrial health. The project will explore nutritional interventions to improve mitochondrial health.

Expanding research facilities

A portion of the new funding will be used to expand core resources supporting additional basic and translational research and add new capabilities for human studies, allowing fully translational research spanning observations in cellular and animal models to validation in human subjects as well as precision nutrition. New core facilities will include: 

• Data management, analysis and AI
• Multi-omics technology
• Translational metabolic phenotyping and nutrition

Impact of CoBRE grants

The award announced today is the eighth CoBRE grant received by UofL. CoBRE grants are awarded in states with historically lower amounts of federal research funding and may be renewed for up to 15 years. 

Historically, CoBRE funding has spawned deep, productive research communities and allowed UofL to enhance research capacity, build infrastructure and develop independent investigators. Previous and current CoBRE awards have contributed more than $130 million in funding to UofL, supporting research in birth defects, cancer therapy, spinal cord injury, functional microbiomics, liver and environmental toxins, diabetes and obesity and now, nutrition and metabolic health.