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News Release
Monday, March 30, 2009
FNIH and NIH Announce Major Study of Childhood Malnutrition and Intestinal Infections
The Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH), together with the Fogarty International Center (FIC), today announced the launch of a five-year study to investigate the linkages between malnutrition and intestinal infections and their effects on children in the developing world, funded by a grant of nearly $30 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to the FNIH. An estimated twenty million children under the age of five are severely malnourished, leaving them more vulnerable to illness and early death, according to the World Health Organization.
Poor nutrition in early childhood may lead to cognitive defects and poor physical development; increase susceptibility to and severity of infections; and diminish the effectiveness of childhood vaccines. Meanwhile, infections causing diarrhea can damage the intestines, impair nutrient absorption and impact the immune system. Despite recent advances in treatment of diarrheal disease that have dramatically decreased deaths, the vicious cycle of diarrheal diseases and malnutrition negatively impacts the long-term health and development of tens of millions of children living in resource-poor areas of the world.
"Understanding the complex relationships between malnutrition and intestinal infections is critical to improve children’s health," said Tachi Yamada, President of Global Health for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. "We hope this research network will make discoveries that will in turn help us save the lives of those most at risk."
FNIH and FIC are coordinating the research effort, which will be conducted in collaboration with other partners, including universities in the United States and institutions in the developing world. These partnerships will establish a network of urban and rural sites in Asia, Africa and South America. Sites were chosen on the basis of their diversity of exposure to intestinal pathogens, disease prevalence, investigator experience and local scientific capacity. In addition, the genetic heterogeneity of the human populations involved in the network will enable collaborating investigators to study the host factors responsible for differential susceptibility to infectious pathogens and malnutrition. These associated genomic studies will be supported by grants from the Gates Foundation to the University of Virginia and to Washington University, St. Louis.
"With the establishment of this remarkable partnership, we hope to shed light on critical questions such as which organisms or infections disrupt growth and development, as well as identify the time in early life when those factors have the greatest impact on morbidity and mortality," said Charles A. Sanders, M.D., FNIH Chairman.
The network will be coordinated by Co-Principal Investigators Michael Gottlieb, Ph.D., of FNIH, and Mark Miller, M.D., of Fogarty.
"The interactions between diarrheal diseases and malnutrition produce a vicious cycle that has devastating developmental consequences for the world’s poorest children," said Fogarty Director Roger I. Glass, M.D., Ph.D. "We have much to learn about this relationship and expect that the robust and expanding network that we are establishing will provide us with a wealth of useful information."
The network’s main objectives are to create a standardized and harmonized set of epidemiological tools to accurately study the links between intestinal infections and gut physiology as risk factors for malnutrition across a number of diverse sites in the developing world. By applying mapping and modeling to the data obtained from these studies and from others, the network also will be able to apply the knowledge gained to quantify the global burden of disease and to evaluate effective interventions in an effort to promote the health and well-being of children around the world.
For more information about the program, visit http://origem.info/malnutritionstudy/
The Foundation for the National Institutes of Health was established by the United States Congress to support the mission of the National Institutes of Health (NIH): improving health through scientific discovery. The foundation is transforming the way biomedical research is initiated, supported and conducted, and blazing the trail for a new era of discovery through innovative public-private collaborations. The foundation provides expertise, experience and an integrated infrastructure for creating new biomedical research and training initiatives across multiple disciplines in support of the mission and causes of NIH. It brings together industry, academia and the philanthropic community to collaborate, leverage resources and create unique opportunities to accelerate the pace of scientific discovery and biomedical research that may translate into successful healthcare solutions.
The Foundation for NIH is a nonprofit, 501(c) (3), corporation that actively seeks funding partners for a broad portfolio of groundbreaking programs and projects in support of biomedical research.
Fogarty, the international component of the NIH, addresses global health challenges through innovative and collaborative research and training programs and supports and advances the NIH mission through international partnerships. For more information, visit: www.fic.nih.gov.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.
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