Excited to establish this affiliation and research collaboration on maternal-neonatal microbiome!

Ravinder Nagpal, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition & Integrative Physiology and a Faculty Affiliate of the Institute for Successful Longevity, has been recognized as a visiting associate professor of the Yakult Probiotics Research Laboratory at the Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine in Tokyo, Japan. The affiliation comes along with a collaborative research grant of about $80,000 for a preclinical project studying the role of maternal dietary patterns on the development of neonatal gut and neurocognitive health. The collaborative project aims to understand how different dietary patterns during gestation and nursing may differently shape the neonatal microbiome, thereby influencing the early-life development of intestinal, metabolic and neurocognitive health.