2024 Funded projects

How can we better cultivate healthy eating behaviour in our children?Unhealthy eating patterns, characterized by excessive consumption of highly palatable (high-sugar and high-fat) processed foods, are alarmingly prevalent among children globally. A poor early-life diet profoundly impacts on the metabolic programming and infant brain development, heightening the risk of obesity later in life, and associated cognitive impairment, including attention, executive function, and decision making.

Human neurodevelopment occurs from early pregnancy through to early adulthood. During this time, there are several windows in which the developing brain is sensitive to environmental influence. Such environments can affect the senses, language, learning, memory, and higher-order thinking.We know that the mix of beneficial organisms in our gut, the microbiome, plays a role in brain development up to at least age three. However, it is not known whether the microbiome has a lasting impact on brain development beyond infancy.

Senior Lecturer in the department of Anatomy & Neuroscience, University College Cork, and funded investigator with APC Microbiome Ireland‍NourishMinds: Unraveling the Impact of Early-Life High-Sugar Diets on Neuro-Cognitive Development and Gut-Brain Pathways in ChildrenA poor early-life diet profoundly impacts on the metabolic programming and infant brain development, heightening the risk of obesity later in life, and associated cognitive impairment, including attention, executive function, and decision making.