Engineering a Healthier Calorie: A Cross-disciplinary Collaboration

At a Glance

More than 475,000 Wisconsin residents have diabetes, mostly type 2. This type of diabetes is associated with diet and obesity and is helped through healthy dietary intake. Yet, more innovations in dietary interventions are needed. By leveraging expertise in metabolism and plant genetics, this novel project proposes to develop a source of plant-based foods that will reduce dietary intake of certain nutrients associated with obesity. The findings will inform future studies with the ultimate goal of improved treatment of diabetes and obesity.

This project is led by Dudley Lamming, PhD, associate professor, Department and of Medicine and co-principal Investigator: Jacob Brunkard, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Genetics, UW–Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. Collaborators include: Dawn Davis, MD, PhD, professor, Department of Medicine; Daniela Drummond-Barbosa, PhD, professor, Department of Genetics, UW–Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences; Shawn Kaeppler, PhD, professor, Department of Agronomy, UW–Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences; Hiroshi Maeda, PhD, professor, Department of Botany, UW–Madison College of Letters and Sciences; Judith Simcox, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Biochemistry, UW–Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences; Gregory Barrett-Wilt, PhD, Director of Mass Spectrometry, UW–Madison Biotechnology Center.

The Challenge

More than 475,000 Wisconsin residents have diabetes, at an annual health care cost of over $6 billion. An additional 1.4 million Wisconsin residents over the age of 20 are estimated to have pre-diabetes, making diabetes care one of the most urgent health care problems facing Wisconsin. Diabetes is an especially acute problem for underserved communities as over 40 percent of Native American and 20 percent of African American adults have the chronic condition. The vast majority of diabetes cases in the United States and Wisconsin are type 2 diabetes associated with diet and obesity, suggesting the possible benefits of dietary interventions.