Abbott announces inaugural funding for nutrition and cognition research

The Center for Nutrition, Learning, and Memory, a collaboration between Abbott’s nutrition businesses and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), announced today the inaugural funding recipients of the Center’s annual research challenge. Thirteen research projects involving nutrition, the brain and cognition received approximately $10 million in funding for research to be conducted in the next one to three years. Recipients were selected as part of a research challenge aimed at elevating nutrition’s role in learning and memory through interdisciplinary research.

The connections between nutrition and cognition across the lifespan are at the center of the research. Studies will be conducted in several project categories, including interventional, correlational, model and tool development and core facilities. Selected proposals for 2012 are:

• Nutritional Intake, Cognitive Function and Measures of Brain Aging
• Nutritional Enhancement of Cognition Through Stem Cells
• Optimizing Assessment Tools for Determining Nutritional Enhancement of Learning and Memory
• Cognitive and Brain Development in Premature Infants
• Development of a Methodology for Investigating the Effects of Nutrition on the Maturation of Brain Networks Associated with Memory and Language in Infants
• The Effects of a Bioactive Nutrient on Cognitive Functioning in an Animal Model of Normal Aging
• Molecular Basis of Cognitive Impairment in “ChemoBrain” and Nutritional Intervention
• The Effects of Fortified Nutritional Supplementation on Cognition, Memory, and Achievement
• Synergistic Effects of Exercise and Nutrition on Cognition and Brain Health of Older Adults: A Randomized Controlled Trial
• Probing the Effect of Brain Metabolism on Cognitive Function
• Mouse Cognition Core Facility
• Nutritional Regulation of Human Neuronal Development
• Enhancing Learning and Memory in the Aged: Interactions Between Dietary Supplementation and Exercise

All primary investigators have their primary appointments at UIUC. The project teams include a diverse group of more than 45 UIUC faculty researchers, associates from seven Illinois colleges, and collaborators from eight national and international research facilities. Research will be conducted across 16 departments on the UIUC campus, along with two research institutes: the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and the Institute for Genomic Biology.

Additional details about the Center, 2012 research projects and primary investigators, and 2013 research competition timing can be found at www.cnlm.illinois.edu.