DOCTORAL TRAINING IN NUTRITION AND CHRONIC DISEASES

• Sponsoring Institution: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Project Status: COMPLETE
• Funding Source: OTHER GRANTS
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 0203632
• Grant No.: 2005-38420-15825
• Cumulative Award Amt.: $207,000.00
• Proposal No.: 2005-02349
• Project Start Date: Sep 1, 2005
• Project End Date: Aug 31, 2009
• Grant Year: 2005
• Program Code: [KK]- National Needs Graduate Fellowships Program

Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY
500 S LIMESTONE 109 KINKEAD HALL
LEXINGTON,KY 40526-0001

Performing Department
GRADUATE CENTER FOR NUTRITIONAL SCIENCES

Non Technical Summary
Five of the 10 current leading causes of death (coronary vascular disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes mellitus, and atherosclerosis) in the U.S. are strongly linked with unhealthy dietary habits and obesity. The purpose of the project is to provide in depth training for doctoral students in the pathobiology and nutritional modulation of obesity and related diseases including cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer. The project will develop human nutrition scientists who will contribute greatly to meet the national needs for preventing and treating obesity and related diseases.

Animal Health Component

10%

Research Effort Categories

Basic

90%

Applied

10%

Developmental

(N/A)

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
903	6099	3020	100%

Knowledge Area
903 - Communication, Education, and Information Delivery;

Subject Of Investigation
6099 - People and communities, general/other;

Field Of Science
3020 - Education;

Keywords

training

human nutrition

graduate students

chronic diseases

funding

recruitment

human metabolism

metabolic diseases

obesity

cardiovascular diseases

diabetes mellitus

cancer

education programs

universities

nutrient disease relations

gene expression

disease prevalence

scientists

professional development

government

Goals / Objectives
The impact of nutrition on health and diseases is becoming increasingly complex. The alarming prevalence of obesity and associated diseases in industrialized societies indicates how critical it is to understand the way nutrients impact gene expression to whole body metabolism. The theme of the proposed pre-doctoral training project is "Nutrition in Metabolic and Chronic Diseases". The objectives of the training program are: (1) To provide in-depth training for doctoral students in the pathobiology and nutritional modulation of obesity and related diseases, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus and cancer; (2) To develop human nutrition scientists and professionals for leadership in human nutrition primarily in academic, research and government positions; and (3) To recruit three doctoral students into this training program and they will complete the doctoral requirements for course work and dissertation research and receive the Ph.D. degree in nutritional sciences. The graduates will have critical thinking and problem-solving skills, knowledge in nutrient metabolism, biochemistry, physiology, molecular biology and statistics as well as laboratory skills in nutrition, biochemistry and molecular biology for teaching at the college level or for basic and applied research positions or for government positions to meet the national needs in these areas.

Project Methods
Nationwide advertising will be conducted by listing the training program on the internet with GraduateSchool.com, GraduateProfile.com and the Petersons Guide for Graduate Studies and on the website of the Graduate Center for Nutritional Sciences. The Ph.D. program will be continued to be listed in the hard copy of the Petersons Guide for Graduate Studies and the Directory of Graduate Programs in Nutrition published by the American Society of Nutritional Sciences. In addition, advertisements for fellowships will be placed in ASNS Notes, a quarterly publication of the American Society for Nutritional Sciences. Special effort will be made to recruit and retain student(s) from under-represented group. Three Ph.D. students will be recruited into this training program. Each fellow will complete 17 credit hours of nutrition core courses including nutrient metabolism and seminar courses and 16 hours of support courses including biochemistry, molecular biology, physiology, statistic and ethics courses in the first two years. After the course work is completed, the fellow will take and pass the qualifying examination. Each fellow will also be guided by the Director of this training program and the Director of Graduate Studies to go though three or four laboratory rotations during the first two semesters to select the advisor and research topic, and then subsequently mentored by the major advisor and the Advisory Committee on dissertation research. Fellows will have to attend national professional meetings to present research findings and write up research results for publications in refereed research journals. After dissertation research is completed and dissertation is written, the fellow will take and pass the final oral examination, and receive Ph.D. degree in nutritional sciences upon submission of dissertation endorsed by the advisor and the Director of Graduate Studies. Some graduates will enter post-doctoral research training after completion of the doctoral study.

Progress 09/01/06 to 08/31/07

Outputs
Three PhD students, Sara Police, Melissa Zack, Candace Thomas are USDA fellows. Two have completed their coursework and successsfully passed qualifying examinations. All three have initiated their dissertation research. PRODUCTS: The products of the project are completion of the qualifying examination, and completion of dissertation research. OUTCOMES: Two USDA fellows have completed the qualifying examination, and are candidates for the PhD. One USDA fellow will complete dissertation research within the next 6 months. DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: One of the USDA fellows has presented results from her dissertation research at 12 regional and national meetings, and has two manuscripts under review at high impact peer-review journals. The other two USDA fellows are in the process of submitting abstracts and manuscripts for review. FUTURE INITIATIVES: The future initiatives of the project are to complete the training of the three USDA fellows and disseminate research findings through presentation at meetings and publication.

Impacts
The predoctoral fellowships allowed the PhD students to focus on academics and research, and is having a marked positive impact on their productivity. The impact of their findings will be evidenced by publication in high quality peer-reviewed journals.

Publications

• Sara B. Police, Alan Daugherty, Lisa A. Cassis. Obesity Augments the Formation of Angiotensin II-induced Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms. Experimental Biology, San Francisco, CA, 2006. (Abstract)
• Sara B. Police, Robert A. Lodder, Lisa A. Cassis. Comparison of the Effects of Diets Enriched in Sucrose Versus D-Tagatose on Obesity, Hypercholesterolemia and Atherosclerosis in LDL Receptor Deficient Mice. South East Lipid Research Conference, GA, 2006. (Abstract)
• Sara B. Police, Alan Daugherty, Lisa A. Cassis. Diet-Induced Obesity Increases the Severity of Angiotensin II-Induced Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms. Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology Conference, Washington D.C., 2005. (Abstract)
• Sara B. Police, Alan Daugherty, Lisa Cassis. High Fat Diets Promote Angiotensin II-induced Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Formation. Presented at the South East Lipid Research Conference, GA, 2005. (Abstract)
• Sara B. Police, Alan Daugherty, Lisa A. Cassis. Diet-induced obesity predisposes to Angiotensin II-Induced Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Formation. Presented at NAASO, The Obesity Society Annual Conference, Vancouver, BC, 2005. Obesity Research, Vol. 13, pA173; September 2005. (Abstract)
• Sara B. Police, Marc W. Helton, Tracy A. Henriques, and Lisa A. Cassis. Obesity-Susceptible Mice Exhibit Different Levels of Diet-Induced Obesity, yet Fail to Develop Hypertension. The North American Association for the Study of Obesity Annual Conference. Obesity Research, Vol. 12, p.A139; October 2004. (Abstract)
• Sara B. Police, J. Clay Harris, Robert A. Lodder, and Lisa A. Cassis. A Diet Enriched in Sucrose, but not D-Tagatose, Results in Obesity, Hypercholesterolemia and Atherosclerosis in LDL Receptor Deficient Mice. Journal of Nutrition, submitted, 2007.
• Sara B. Police, Alan Daugherty, Lisa A. Cassis. Obesity Promotes Angiotensin II-Induced Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Formation, Circulation, submitted 2007.

Progress 09/01/05 to 08/31/06

Outputs
Two Ph.D. students, Sara Police and Melissa Zack, are new USDA fellows. Both of them have completed their course work and sucessfully passed qualifying examinations. Both of them have begun their dissertation research. PRODUCTS: The two USDA fellows have completed course work for Ph.D. study and passed qualifying examinations. They are currently working on their Dissertation research. OUTCOMES: The two USDA fellows have become Ph.D. candidates. Research findings have been reported at national meetings. DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: One of the USDA fellow presented her research findings on obesity at four national professional meetings. These meetings were: Obesity Society Annual Conference, 2005, at Vancouver, BC, Canada; Experimental Biology Annual Meeting, 2006, at San Francisco, CA; Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology Conference, 2005, at Washington, D.C.; and Southeast Lipid Research Conference, 2005, at Calloway Gardens, GA. FUTURE INITIATIVES: The Program is actively recruiting another student to fill one more pre-doctoral fellow's position.

Impacts
The pre-doctoral fellowships allowed the Ph.D. students the financial freedom to focus on academics and research, and also the opportunity to do research in the students' interest areas. Students have produced new research findings.

Publications

• Sara B. Police, Alan Daughterty, Lisa A. Cassis. Diet-induced obesity predisposes to angiotension II-induced abdominal aortic aneurysm formation. The Obesity Society Annual Conference, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 2005. Obesity Research 13: pA173, 2005. (Abstract)
• Sara Police, Alan Daughterty, Lisa A. Cassis. Obesity auguments the formation of angiotensin II-induced abdominal aortic aneurysms. Experimental Biology Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, 2006. (Abstract)