The Foods for Health Institute's Year in Review: 2012

FFHI researchers were awarded a highly competitive R.I.S.E. grant from the UC Davis Office of Research to fund the "Protecting the Fragile Intestine: Integrating Microbiota and Mucosal Health" project.
Led by Dr. David Mills, FFHI researchers started work on a multi-campus, interdisciplinary $9 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to deliver solutions to the problems of childhood malnutrition in the developing world.
The #GetUp Project brings together an eclectic group of scientists, education specialists, and gamers through a grant from the National Science Foundation to design a video game that encourages children to get up and be active.
FFHI researchers from the Metabolic Phenotype Program received funding from the Dairy Research Institute to study the nutritional effects of dairy fat.
The West Coast Metabolomics Center, a key affiliated organization of the FFHI, opened with funding from the National Institutes of Health.

The UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Foods for Health Institute undertook a collaborative research initiative to explore the connection between food, health, and cancer.
Dr. Sara Schaefer, Associate Director of the Children’s Health and Education Program, partnered with the Peregrine School in Davis to help kids learn about physical fitness.
The Foods for Health Institute partnered with the Culinary Institute of America to examine consumer preference for increasing vegetables in their diet in novel ways.

Ph.D. Student Nick Bokulich published an article in the prestigious journal Nature Methods. Earlier in the year, Bokulich was awarded the first-ever Dannon Probiotic Fellowship.
The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology highlighted a recently published paper from Ph.D. Student Daniel Garrido in the journal Molecular and Cellular Proteomics.

The brand-new Advanced Milk Processing Labopened for research under the guidance of Dr. Juliana Nobrega and Dr. Daniela Barile.
FFHI Associate Directors Jennifer Smilowitz and Angela Zivkovic, along with former postdoc Aifric O’Sullivan co-organized the “Phenotyping Responses to Food” conference with the Western Human Nutrition Research Center, which featured participants from across UC Davis, the Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the Culinary Institute of America.
The FFHI co-organized a Lunch Love Community film screening, which brought a diverse group of faculty, students, and Davis community members to the RMI Theatre to discuss school lunch programs.
Dr. Catarina Svanborg presented her exciting research on the cancer-killing protein HAMLET.
As part of the Frontiers of Interdisciplinary Biosciences series of seminars Dr. Malin Nording presented her research on measuring the health effects of air pollutants.