Congratulations to Professor Nicole Roy, HVN Priority Research Programme Leader for Digestive Health, on being awarded $1,174,972 from the Health Research Council to evaluate the effect of an Aotearoa NZ Diet for metabolic health on the gut microbiome.
The work will build on the HVN-funded He Rourou Whai Painga study, which is evaluating the effects of a predominantly New Zealand produced diet on the risk of cardiometabolic disease.
Professor Roy and her team will aim to understand the role of such a diet on the composition and function of the gut microbiome and associations with metabolic health outcomes and biomarkers of cardiometabolic disease risk.
Team members include Professors Jeremy Krebs and Richard Gearry from the University of Otago, Professor Mike Taylor from the University of Auckland, Dr Meika Foster (Te Ātiawa; Ngāti Mutunga) from Edible Research and Associate Professor Tommi Vatanen from Helsinki University in Finland.
HVN-funded PhD student, Ella Silk (Ngāti Kahu and Ngāpuhi, former Pūhoro STEMM Academy intern) is working on the clinical phase of this study in Christchurch and will be analysing the gut microbiome and establishing associations with metabolic health outcomes and biomarkers of cardiometabolic disease risk.