This project was supported by an award of €1,326,500 from the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the ERA-Net Cofund of the JPI HDHL action number 696295 (Biomarkers for Nutrition and Health), with local funding awarded from Science Foundation Ireland.
Our Research
- Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative (COSI)
- HRB Centre for Health and Diet Research (HRB-CHDR)
- Lifeways Cross-Generational Study
- Food for Health Ireland (FHI)
- Food Dudes Programme
- First 1000 days Strategies to Prevent Childhood Obesity (EndObesity)
- Early Life Programming of Childhood Health (ALPHABET)
- Diet and Lifestyle Factors and Metabolic Phenotype Contribution to Cancer Risk
- Previous Research
Early life programming of childhood health: a nutritional and epigenetic investigation of adiposity and bone, cardiometabolic, neuro-developmental and respiratory health (ALPHABET)
Monday, 15 November, 2021
The ALPHABET project aims to improve our understanding of nutritional and epigenetic biomarkers of offspring health with a view to refining dietary exposure measures and to aid development of more effective evidence-based public health strategies with an emphasis on advocating a healthy diet in pre-pregnancy, pregnancy and early postnatal life, to reduce obesity, improve health and attenuate development of a range of adverse health outcomes in future generations. Led by Dr Catherine Phillips, and in collaboration with the University College Dublin, Ireland; University of Bristol, UK; University of Southampton, UK; INSERM UMR 1153, France; Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Netherlands; Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Poland and University of South Carolina, US.
The consortium includes 7 partners from 6 countries (Ireland, UK, France, The Netherlands, Poland and the US). The partners are University College Dublin, Ireland; University of Bristol, UK; University of Southampton, UK; INSERM UMR 1153, France; Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Netherlands; Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Poland and University of South Carolina, US. Utilising biological samples and data from existing European longitudinal birth cohorts at the international forefront of lifecourse epidemiology we are investigating the complex relationships between maternal diet (defined by dietary quality and inflammatory potential), offspring health outcomes (including adiposity, bone, cardiometabolic, respiratory and neurodevelopmental health) and epigenetic patterns (DNA methylation) from birth throughout childhood.
We Aim to investigating the complex relationships between maternal diet (defined by dietary quality and inflammatory potential), offspring health outcomes (including adiposity, bone, cardiometabolic, respiratory and neurodevelopmental health) and epigenetic patterns (DNA methylation) from birth throughout childhood.
Now in the final year of the project the focus is on maternal diet - offspring epigenetic associations. The UCD analysis, in collaboration with the University of Bristol, is being led by postdoctoral researcher Dr Marion Lecorguillé.