malnutrition

Jeffrey I. Gordon, MD, has been honored with awards from the National Academy of Sciences and the Association of American Medical Colleges for his pioneering research to define the human gut microbiome.

Jeffrey I. Gordon, MD, at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis will lead an international team of scientists to find new ways to diagnose, treat and prevent a critical global health problem: malnutrition in infants and children. The work is funded by an $8.3 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Two new studies showcase the dynamic relationship between components of the diet and the intestinal microbiome. The research provides a foundation for improving human health by designing diets and foods that enhance microbes’ ability to capture specific food ingredients or that enrich the presence of beneficial microbes.

School of Medicine scientists have shown they can grow personalized collections of human intestinal microbes in the laboratory and pluck out particular microbes of interest. The research sets the stage for identifying new probiotics and evaluating whether microbe transplants can restore the natural balance of intestinal bacteria in “sick” microbial communities. 

On Jan. 12, 2010, Lora Iannotti, PhD, nutrition and public health expert at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, was in Leogane, a seaside town 18 miles west of Port au Prince, Haiti, working with local officials on improving the health of Haitian children. That’s when a catastrophic 7.0 earthquake struck the poverty-stricken country. Its epicenter, Leogane. Iannotti survived, but some 230,000 perished. Haiti was devastated; an estimated 3 million were affected by the earthquake in a country already known as the poorest in the Western hemisphere. Since last January, Iannotti, assistant professor at the Brown School, has returned to Haiti a number of times to continue her work on undernutrition and disease prevention in young children. She is back in Haiti again, one year later.

Two days before the Haiti earthquake, Lora Iannotti, Ph.D., nutrition and public health expert from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, traveled to Port-au-Prince and Leogane, Haiti, to continue her research about undernutrition and disease prevention in young children. The massive tremor changed her focus from research for the future to survival, with her team helping children in the aftermath of the quake.

Patricia Wolff examines a young patient in her pediatric clinic in Cap Haitien, Haiti.Swollen bellies, orange hair, listlessness and dull eyes — these are the traits of child malnutrition in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and where roughly one of every three children is chronically malnourished. To try to change that statistic, Patricia Wolff, associate clinical professor of pediatrics, founded Meds & Food for Kids in 2004.

Patricia Wolff examines a young patient in her pediatric clinic in Cap Haitien, Haiti.Swollen bellies, orange hair, listlessness and dull eyes — these are the traits of child malnutrition in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and where roughly one of every three children is chronically malnourished. To try to change that statistic, Patricia A. Wolff, M.D., associate clinical professor of pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, founded Meds & Food for Kids (MFK) in 2004.

Many Americans are faced with the fear of going hungry.Most Americans don’t think they’ll ever be faced with the question of how they will get their next meal, but a recent study co-authored by a social welfare expert at Washington University in St. Louis shows that at least 42 percent of the U.S. population will deal with food insecurity during their lifetime. “Food insecurity goes beyond the fear of going hungry,” explains Mark R. Rank, Ph.D., the Herbert S. Hadley Professor of Social Welfare at the university’s George Warren Brown School of Social Work. “Food insecurity means that people are unable to provide themselves and their families nutritionally adequate food on a regular basis.