Drittmittelprojekte
Hier finden Sie Informationen über laufende und abgeschlossene Drittmittelprojekte, Verantwortliche, Förderer und zugehörigen Publikationen der DONALD Studie.
Laufende Drittmittelprojekte
Principal Investigators: Prof. Dr. Ute Nöthlings
Cooperation partners: Prof. Dr. Matthias Schmid; IMBIE, University of Bonn
Researcher: Karen van de Locht, M.Sc.
Agency: DFG, grant number: 509534327
Time period: 2023 - 2025
Aim/Description
Environmental and health impacts of diets play a significant role in the current debate about a diet that simultaneously promotes human and planetary health. Plant-based dietary patterns have become increasingly societally relevant due to their lower impact on greenhouse-gas emissions (GHGE) and land use (LU) as well as their favourable effects with respect to chronic disease prevention. However, there is considerable variation in plant-based diets in populations, which calls for exploration of environmental and health associations of individual dietary practices to support behaviour change for the societal transformation needed. Next to the overall patterns of plant-based diets, the use of plant-based meat and milk alternatives is becoming increasingly popular, though the environmental and health benefits of such food alternatives as yet are unclear. The current project will therefore set out to comprehensively investigate variation in plant-based, sustainable dietary patterns in the DONALD Study. First we will examine the variation, determinants, sex differences, age and time trends of the sustainable diet indicators GHGE and LU of the habitual diets reported. Subsequently, we will derive a differentiated food pattern maximising variation in GHGE and LU using the method of reduced rank regression. Thereafter, the human health relevance of this pattern by investigating associations with indicators of cardiometabolic health in young adulthood will be analysed. We will complement this exploratory work by adopting the EAT-Lancet reference diet, and ‘healthful’ and ‘unhealthful plant-based diets’ to compare environmental impacts and nutritional quality. Finally, we will investigate the use of plant-based dairy and meat alternative food products in the DONALD Study population and evaluate associations with dietary quality, health indicators and GHGE and LU.
Principal Investigators: Prof. Dr. Ute Nöthlings, PD Dr. Ute Alexy
Researcher: Dipl. oec. troph. Eva Hohoff
Agency: Alpro Foundation
Time period: 2023 - 2024
Aim/Description
This project will compare different dietary scenarios taking real-life and complete dietary patterns into account to evaluate different levels of exchanging dairy intake with plant-based alternatives. The compilation of different subgroups of dairy alternatives allows statements to be made about the most suitable products in terms of main ingredients and fortification in a particularly vulnerable group in terms of nutrient intake and thus can result in recommendations for product selection and development. The project promises to make a strong contribution with respect to the analysis of variability in dietary patterns and adoption of plant-based alternatives for human and environmental health benefits.
Principal Investigators: Dr. Gianni Panagiotou, Prof. Dr. Ute Nöthlings, Prof. Dr. Tim Beissbarth, Dr. Biljana Gigic, Prof. Dr. Dr. Karin Michels, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Annalen Bleckmann
Researcher: Linda Kleis, M.Sc.
Agency: Federal Ministry of Education and Research, grant number: 100554612
Time period: 2022-2026
Aim/Description
PerMiCCion is a research project about the prevention of colorectal cancer in younger and future generations. In recent decades, the incidence of colorectal cancer in young adults has increased at an alarming rate. Global Westernization of the diet, synthetic food dyes, physical inactivity and sedentary behavior have been identified as major risk factors. The gut microbiota - the totality of microorganisms in the human gut - is at the interface between the early onset of colorectal cancer and these risk factors. It can be considered as a dynamic, living sensor of any change in the human body. Therefore, exploiting recent advances in next-generation sequencing may lead to novel microbiome-based prophylaxis, diagnosis and therapy against colorectal cancer in young adults.
In addition to the DONALD study of the University of Bonn, other renowned institutions are involved in this collaborative project: the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology., Heidelberg University Hospital, the University Hospital Münster, University Medical Center Göttingen and the University Medical Center Freiburg
The DONALD study is involved in PerMiCCion within SP3 „Prevention of early-onset CRC by dietary and lifestyle modulation of the gut microbiome“. By investigating lifestyle and behavioral backgrounds as a cause of increasing colorectal cancer incidence in younger individuals, the study aims to explore the potential for prevention of early-onset colorectal cancer through modulation of the gut microbiome. For this objective, stool samples will be collected from adult participants in the DONALD study, among others. Metagenomics sequencing will be used to generate a listing of the taxonomic composition and functional activity of the gut. Subsequently, correlations with diet and exercise from previous years can be examined.
More information of the project can be viewed here.
Principal Investigators: Professor Dr. Thomas Remer; Professor Dr. Stefan Alexander Wudy
Researcher: Luciana Franco, M.Sc.; Seyedeh Masomeh Derakhshandeh Rishehri, Dr.
Agency: German Research Foundation (DFG)
Time period: 2021 - 2025
Aim/Description
Whether a habitual high phosphorus (P)-intake may result in long-term adverse health outcomes is not yet clarified. Up do now, no population data are available on prospectively examined renal phosphate excretion rates determined in repeatedly – over years – collected 24-h urine samples for the non-invasive assessment of dietary P-intake. Studies are also lacking that examine possible long-term consequences of higher versus lower potential renal acid load (PRAL) for kidney health-relevant outcomes in young adulthood.
A detailed long-term trend analysis of P intake in healthy children and adolescents in Germany between 1990 and 2019 shall be performed, based on measurements of phosphate excretion in repeatedly collected 24-h urine samples in 3-17 years old participants of the DONALD study.
Potential long-term consequences of a high P-intake during childhood and adolescence will then be examined for different kidney health-relevant nephrological and endocrine-metabolic outcomes in adulthood.
Additionally, it shall be examined whether at least parts of the observed relationships between P-intake and outcomes may be explained by a habitually rather high dietary acid load, quantified – biomarker-based – via urinary PRAL measurements. Accordingly, preliminary information can be obtained on whether kidney health benefits reported for mainly plant-based, at least partly alkalizing diets like the mediterranean or the DASH diet may be contributorily caused by a habitually reduced dietary acid load.
Spokesperson: Prof. Dr. Juliane Fluck (ZB Med)
Head of „Use case: Nutritional epidemiology“: Prof. Dr. Matthias Schulze (Dife), Prof. Dr. Ute Nöthlings (Uni Bonn)
Researcher: Dr. Ines Perrar, M.Sc.
Agency: German Research Foundation (DFG), grant number: 442326535
Time period: 2020 - 2025
Aim/Description
Germany has accumulated a wealth of health-related personal data from well-designed cohort studies and health surveillance systems (healthy individuals) as well as clinical trials (patients) that are characterised by a deep phenotyping of study subjects with ques-tionnaires, medical examinations and molecular/genetic profiling. Their longitudinal nature and high quality make these data a valuable research resource for the development of preventive and therapeutic measures on the individual and the population level.
NFDI4Health represents an interdisciplinary research community by integrating major German institutions experienced as data holders, data analysts and methodology developers. It builds on established structures, competences and know-how and expects a rapidly growing support and participation of the research community. NFDI4Health aims to create the most comprehensive inventory of German epidemiological, public health and clinical trial data to date. NFDI4Health will build a centralised data catalogue with elaborate search functionalities, sophisticated data access manage-ment, and a data analysis toolbox, while respecting stringent requirements for privacy concerning personal health data. Standardisation services will ensure a high degree of interoperability. Use cases covering prototypical study types and areas of research will show the feasibility of a harmonised implementation of all infrastructures, tools and services in accordance with our user communities
Together with Prof. Dr. Matthias Schulze from the German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke (Dife), Prof. Dr. Ute Nöthlings (PI of the DONALD study) heads Task Area 5.1 “Use case Nutritional epidemiology”, which focus on data harmonisation of nutritional epidemiological studies. More information about NFDI4Health and TA 5.1 can be found here.
Principal Investigators: Dr. Ute Alexy, PD Dr. Anette Buyken, PD Dr. Christian Herder (4 workpackages)
Researcher: Dr. Nicole Jankovic, M.Sc.
Agency: German Research Foundation (DFG), grant number: 254799859
Time period: 2019 - 2024
Aim/Description
Our previous DFG funded project on “Modern circadian eating patterns in childhood and adolescence: Characteristics, trends, determinants and relevance for overweight and type 2 diabetes risk” showed that the habitual consumption of higher glycaemic index (GI) carbohydrate intakes in the evening may have adverse consequences for type 2 diabetes risk markers in young adulthood. Cross-sectional evidence indicates that later chronotypes have higher energy intakes at later times of the day. Hence, the shift towards a later chronotype which manifests during adolescence until young adulthood and/or a misalignment between chronotype and timing of food intake due to social schedules (social jetlag) may partially explain why this life-span emerges as a “critical time window” for the development of chronic diseases. From a life-course perspective it is crucial to also elucidate the potential shaping of circadian eating patterns already during infancy.
Therefore, the overall aim of this project is to investigate the relevance of circadian eating pattern and/or chronotype for metabolic health from infancy to young adulthood. Specifically, our project addresses whether a misalignment between the timing of energy and carbohydrate intake and individual circadian rhythm as captured by chronotype has adverse short- and long-term consequences for metabolic health and whether breast- or bottle-feeding in infancy is relevant for circadian eating pattern and body composition later in life.
These questions are addressed in a cross-over trial (1) and the open-cohort DONALD study (2).
(1) The cross-over trial will be performed enrolling each 20 university students (non-obese, 18-25 years) with an earlier and a later chronotype. Using continuous glucose monitoring it will be tested whether the 2-h and diurnal blood glucose levels and glycaemic variability differ in response to days where the same meal rich in higher GI carbohydrates is provided at breakfast (i.e. misalignment among later chronotypes) or dinner(i.e. misalignment among earlier chronotypes).
(2) Data from infants, children and adolescents regarding diet, anthropometrics and chronotype are collected in the DONALD study. Additionally, fasting blood samples are drawn in young adulthood that allows investigating the prospective relevance for type 2 diabetes risk factors.
This project will be the first to provide detailed information on the relevance of chronotype and infant feeding for the link between circadian eating pattern and metabolic health both over the short- and long-term. The results will substantially contribute to the evidence required for dietary recommendations on age groups being at substantial risk for social jetlag.
Abgeschlossene Projekte (seit 2018)
Principal Investigators: Dr. Nicole Jankovic, M.Sc.; PD Dr. Ute Alexy
Researcher: Dr. Ines Perrar, M.Sc.
Agency: VolkswagenStiftung
Time period: 2021 - 2022
Aim/Description
This study investigated the impact of the corona crisis on lifestyle changes among DONALD Study participants. The results showed changes in dietary intake, physical activity [1] and chronobiology [2] among children and adolescence in Germany during the corona crisis in comparison to the behaviour prior the lockdown. This project offerd a unique opportunity to assess changes of well-known risk factors for chronic disease development helping to formulate targeted public health actions for the current and future pandemic crises.
Publications
[1] Perrar I, Alexy U, Jankovic N. Chronobiological changes due to school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic among adolescents in the DOrtmund Nutritional and Anthropometric Longitudinally Designed cohort study. Eur J Pediatr. 2023 Jun;182(6):2801-2805. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-023-04963-9. PMID: 37032380
[2] Perrar I, Alexy U, Jankovic N. Changes in Total Energy, Nutrients and Food Group Intake among Children and Adolescents during the COVID-19 Pandemic-Results of the DONALD Study. Nutrients. 2022 Jan 11;14(2):297. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14020297. PMID: 35057478.
Scholarship for a PhD-research project – under supervision of Prof. Dr. T. Remer – awarded to Yifan Hua
Agency: Lixiang Eye Hospital of Soochow University, China
Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. T. Remer
Researcher: Yifan Hua, M.Med
Time period: 2018-2022
Aim/Description
The relationships, e.g., between markers of body fatness and net acid excretion capacity, reasonably reflected by 24-hour urine pH levels for given measured daily renal acid loads, will be studied in healthy DONALD participants as well as the importance of daily dietary proton load for different long-term health-relevant metabolites and outcomes.
Publications
Hua Y, Herder C, Kalhoff H, Buyken AE, Esche J, Krupp D, Wudy SA, Remer T. Inflammatory mediators in the adipo-renal axis: leptin, adiponectin, and soluble ICAM-1. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol. 2020 Sep 1;319(3):F469-F475. https://doi.org/10.1152/ajprenal.00257.2020. PMID: 32744085.
Hua Y, Esche J, Hartmann MF, Maser-Gluth C, Wudy SA, Remer T. Cortisol and 11 beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 2 as potential determinants of renal citrate excretion in healthy children. Endocrine. 2020 Feb;67(2):442-448. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12020-019-02151-0. PMID: 31813102.
Hua Y, Krupp D, Esche J, Remer T. Increased body fatness adversely relates to 24-hour urine pH during childhood and adolescence: evidence of an adipo-renal axis. Am J Clin Nutr. 2019 May 1;109(5):1279-1287. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqy379. PMID: 30997510.
Principal investigator: Dr. Ute Alexy
Cooperation partner: Dr. Gunter Kuhnle, University of Reading, Prof. Dr. Anette Buyken, University Paderborn, PD Dr. Christian Herder, German Diabetes Center Düsseldorf
Researcher: Ines Perrar, M.Sc.
Agency: Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) through the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE), grant number: 2816HS024
Project duration: 2017-2020
Aim/description
The overall objective of the project was to obtain a detailed overview of the development of sugar intake (e.g. total sugars, added sugars, free sugars, sugar from food groups) since 1985 among children and adolescents in Germany [1, 2]. In addition, this project was the first to investigate the impact of sugar intake in adolescence on liver health - determined by fatty liver indices - in young adulthood [4]. Since dietary survey methods based on self-reporting bear the risk of selective underestimation of sugar intake by the participants, it is importent to supplement the investigation with data based on biomarkers. Sugar intake was therefore additionally estimated using urinary fructose and sucrose excretion as a validated predictive biomarker for total sugar intake [3, 4].
Publications
[1] Perrar I, Schmitting S, Della Corte KW, Buyken AE, Alexy U. Age and time trends in sugar intake among children and adolescents: results from the DONALD study. Eur J Nutr. 2020 Apr;59(3):1043-1054. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-019-01965-y. PMID: 30976903.
[2] Perrar I, Schadow AM, Schmitting S, Buyken AE, Alexy U. Time and Age Trends in Free Sugar Intake from Food Groups among Children and Adolescents between 1985 and 2016. Nutrients. 2019 Dec 20;12(1):20. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12010020. PMID: 31861789.
[3] Perrar I, Gray N, Kuhnle GG, Remer T, Buyken AE, Alexy U. Sugar intake among German adolescents: trends from 1990 to 2016 based on biomarker excretion in 24-h urine samples. British Journal of Nutrition. 2020 Feb 27:1-9. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007114520000665. PMID: 32102699.
[4] Perrar I, Buyken AE, Penczynski KJ, Remer T, Kuhnle GG, Herder C, Roden M, Della Corte K, Nöthlings U, Alexy U. Relevance of fructose intake in adolescence for fatty liver indices in young adulthood. European Journal of Nutrition. 2021 Sep;60(6):3029-3041. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-020-02463-2. PMID: 3346436.
Principal investigator: Prof. Dr. Thomas Remer
Cooperation partner: Michael Thamm, Robert Koch Institute Berlin
Researcher: Dr. Jonas Esche
Agency: Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) through the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE), grant number: 2817HS007
Project Duration: 2018-2019
Aim/description
The aims of the project were to characterize both the average proportion of iodized salt in total salt intake and the contribution of iodized table salt to the iodine intake in Germany. In addition, trends in iodine intake were investigated. The investigation based on data of the representative German Health-Interview and Examination-Survey for Adults (DEGS1), the representative German Health Interview and Examination Surveys for Children and Adolescents KiGGS-wave-2 as well as data of the DONALD study.
Publications