# Intervention Core for the Dietary Biomarkers Development Center at Harvard University

> **NIH NIH U2C** · HARVARD UNIVERSITY D/B/A HARVARD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH · 2022 · $639,807

## Abstract

ABSTRACT/SUMMARY – INTERVENTION CORE
Diet is one of the most important determinants of human health and an essential component of population-wide
primary prevention strategies. However, there is controversy about the quality and reliability of population-
based nutrition research. Indeed, the vast majority of evidence for healthy eating is informed by large studies
with dietary patterns assessed via self-report. Self-reported tools have well-recognized limitations.
Plasma biomarkers have been a mainstay of epidemiologic studies. Recent advances in metabolomics
technology has similarly fostered discovery of metabolites that are highly specific to intakes of foods or food
groups. Metabolomics offers a tangible opportunity to identify novel metabolomic signatures for a range of
foods and nutrients. However, this progress relies on the tremendous need for controlled feeding studies to
identify and validate metabolites specific to each food item and group.
Our objective is to establish an Intervention Core, equipped to perform tightly controlled pharmacokinetic and
dose-response feeding studies across a range of food items and food groups in diverse populations. We will
focus on common foods from the protein and grains food groups: (1) chicken, beef, and soybeans; and (2)
whole wheat bread, potatoes, and oats. Based on our collective extensive work in nutrition metabolomics, we
hypothesize that acute administration of these foods will have distinct metabolomics signatures that persist
over an ensuing 24-hour period. Moreover, plasma concentrations of these metabolites will respond to the
amount of the food consumed over a 6-day feeding period. Our long-term goal through these exemplar cases
is to establish a rigorous and highly productive resource to the NIH, USDA, and external investigators to
systematically catalog specific, reliable, and externally validated metabolomic signatures of nearly all
commonly consumed foods in the United States.
This proposal combines the nutrition, epidemiology, metabolomics, and feeding trials expertise of
investigators at the Harvard T.H.Chan School of Public Health, the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, and
Harvard Medical School affiliated hospitals to create a state-of-the-art nutrition-metabolomics center that will
pave the way for a new era in nutrition research. Building on a long-track record of collaboration, this proposal
will contribute novel, objective, metabolomic biomarkers for the characterization of diet in large population-
based studies. Ultimately, this proposal answers the NIDDK and USDA’s call “for objective biomarkers of
dietary intake that can serve as independent markers of dietary intake and complement current dietary intake
assessment methods.”

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10461133
- **Project number:** 5U2CDK129670-02
- **Recipient organization:** HARVARD UNIVERSITY D/B/A HARVARD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH
- **Principal Investigator:** FRANK M SACKS
- **Activity code:** U2C (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $639,807
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-08-16 → 2026-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10461133

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10461133, Intervention Core for the Dietary Biomarkers Development Center at Harvard University (5U2CDK129670-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10461133. Licensed CC0.

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