Five researchers from Nebraska and Oklahoma will study the role of nutrition in cancer prevention. The researchers each received a $50,000 seed grant to conduct their research over a one year period.
Grants were awarded through a collaborative project between the Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition in Omaha and the Peggy and Charles Stephenson Cancer Center in Oklahoma City.
Dr. Courtney Pinard, Research Scientist at the Gretchen Swanson Center, says there will be bench science studies that look at serious nutritional compounds and there will be public health studies.
"Looking in Oklahoma across all child care centers that are on Native American reservations and looking at the environment and what factors related to obesity are happening. And the other is in Nebraska at a The Little Priest Tribal College, and it is looking at a broad range of environmental factors, including the architectural design at the college and parent–child dyad interaction.”
Dr. Pinard says the second public health study also focuses on the problem of obesity. Research for the studies will be conducted throughout 2012 and findings will be presented in Omaha at a symposium in Spring of 2013.