MANTP

UW-Madison was the site of much of the nutrition research and training conducted in the United States in the first half of the 20th century.  Much of the work at Madison was centered in what was then the Agricultural Chemistry department, now Biochemistry. Many of these early studies were considered "Experiments That Changed Nutrition Thinking" (J Nutr 127:1017S-1053S, 1997).   In 1913-1917 E.V. McCollum was the first to use the rat as a model to study nutritional requirements .  It was also here that Hart, Humphrey, McCollum and Steenbock provided the first unambiguous proof that an adequate diet required more than protein, a few minerals and an energy source and Elvehjem isolated nicotinic acid as the anti-black tongue (pellagra) factor and demonstrated that copper was an essential nutrient for mammals (J Biol Chem Classic 277:e22, 2002).  Recognizing both the need to give focus to the nutritional sciences as a discipline and the exemplary opportunities at UW-Madison, Dr. Alfred E. Harper, Prof. of Biochemistry, formed a Department of Nutritional Sciences in 1968.  Faculty from across campus with research interests in nutrition were given affiliate appointments in the Department of Nutritional Sciences and the opportunity to participate in a departmental graduate training program.  Examples include H. DeLuca’s seminal work that lead to the identification of the active form of vitamin D (J. Biol. Chem. Classic 281: e41, 2006), the elucidation of its function as a hormone, and the synthesis of novel vitamin D analogs with wide-ranging therapeutic impacts.  It was also here that J. Suttie discovered the vitamin K-dependent carboxylase and elucidated the action of the vitamin K antagonist and widely-used anticoagulant warfarin and W. Hoekstra discovered that selenium was a component of glutathione peroxidase, providing the first biochemical basis for the essentiality of selenium in humans.  From these roots, the Nutritional Sciences department and the IGPNS has grown to become a program that emphasizes the critical roles of both basic and applied nutrition research in promoting optimal human health.

MANTP trainers continue this strong campus emphasis on nutrition through their cutting edge research in basic and applied aspects of nutrition research.  Selected recent examples of discoveries by current trainers and their students focusing on basic science aspects of nutrition research include:  J. Ntambi investigated the roles of stearoyl-CoA desaturase isoforms in the tissue-specific control of lipid metabolism and diet-induced obesity (Science 297:240, 2002; PNAS 102:12501, 2005; Trends Cardiovasc. Med. 14:77, 2004); A. Attie discovered Sorcs1, a novel type II diabetes quantitative trait locus that contributes to diabetes in two human populations (Nature Genetics 38:688, 2006; Diabetes in press, 2007); D. Eide developed a new family of intracellular zinc sensor molecules for the analysis of zinc metabolism in living cells (PNAS 103:8674, 2006); R. Eisenstein established a novel basis for the regulation of IRP1 and mammalian iron metabolism (EMBO J. 25:544, 2006); M. Drezner showed that disorders of renal phosphate wasting have unique effects on the regulation of vitamin D metabolism (Endocrinology 145:3408, 2004);  M. Clagett-Dame identified novel retinoic acid-regulated genes and defined a critical retinoid-sensitive window of development in the late gastrula-stage mammalian embryo (PNAS 99:3422, 2002; Dev Biol. 257:14, 2003); G. Groblewski provided a molecular understanding of how pancreatic acinar cells differentially coordinate the release of digestive enzymes in response to hormone/ neurotransmitter stimulation (J. Biol. Chem. 282: 9635, 2007).  S. Smith established the chick embryo as a model for understanding molecular defects associated with fetal alcohol syndrome and elucidated  how ethanol induces neural crest cell apoptosis (Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 30:552, 2006); T. Prolla and R. Weindruch demonstrated that increased rates of mutation of mitochondrial DNA are associated with enhancement of aging-related phenotypes (Science 309:481, 2005).  Hence, studies of biochemical and molecular nutrition at UW-Madison are at the forefront of nutrition-related biomedical research aimed at understanding the function and regulation of nutrients and nutrient metabolism in health and disease.

MANTP trainers also perform nutrition research in humans with more immediate implications for human health. D. Schoeller observed that exercise increased fat utilization during short term consumption of a high-fat diet supporting the concept that regular exercise helps maintain a healthy body composition (Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 85:109, 2007);  A. Adams found that maternal smoking was associated with increased prevalence of overweight children in Native Americans and that low recognition of the risks of childhood obesity amongst caregivers in this community may impair the effectiveness of interventions aimed at reducing obesity  (Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 82:393, 2005; Obes. Res. 13:146, 2005); J. Kemnitz together with D. Schoeller and R. Weindruch showed that caloric restriction in monkeys enhanced insulin sensitivity and reduced energy expenditure (Am J Physiol. 285:R1340, 2003;Am J Physiol.292:E101, 2006); D. Ney demonstrated that the glucagon-like peptide-2 (GLP-2) receptor is expressed by vagal afferent neurons and intraperitoneal GLP-2 activates vagal afferents in the brainstem (Endocrinology, 148:1954, 2007); H. Lai identified a new approach for more accurately assessing the nutrition status of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients prompting a revision of the clinical practice guidelines of the CF Society (Curr.Opin.Pulm.Med. 12:422, 2006) and identified better predictors of which CF children are most likely to respond to nutritional interventions (Pediatrics 117:391, 2006;). S. Tanumihardjo determined the bioconversion rate of provitamin A carotenoids in biofortified maize and found it to be 4 times more efficient than the Institute of Medicine's value for dietary sources of vitamin A (J Nutr. 136:2562, 2006).  In these ways, MANTP trainers are helping to reduce the risk of nutrition-related health problems in humans.

Participating Graduate Programs: Much of the nutrition research at UW-Madison is performed by faculty that are members of the Department of Nutritional Sciences or the Department of Biochemistry and/or who are members of either the Interdepartmental Graduate Program in Nutritional Sciences (IGPNS) or the Integrated Program in Biochemistry (IPiB).
To become a predoctoral trainee in the MANTP, a student must be a member of the research program of one of the MANTP trainees and be either an IGPNS (http://www.nutrisci.wisc.edu/grad_ns/g_main.html) or  Integrated Program in Biochemistry (IPiB; http://www.biochem.wisc.edu/ipib/) graduate student.

Modern nutrition is a multidisciplinary science uniquely suited to integrate complex biological phenomena to improve human health.  Integrating the molecular and biochemical aspects of nutrition research with human and clinical nutrition research is essential for advancing the treatments of nutrition-related chronic diseases.  The IGPNS was formed in 1988 by Dr. John Suttie to meet this diversity in approach and objective to effectively train the next generation of Nutritional Scientists.  IGPNS formalized the interdepartmental cooperation that had fostered the outstanding research and training at the UW–Madison and served as a basis for formation of the Molecular and Applied Nutrition Training Program (MANTP). In 2007, the Integrated Program in Biochemistry was added as a second degree program for MANTP trainees.  This important addition reflects the long-term and continuing interactions between the Nutritional Sciences and Biochemistry departments as well as the origins of Nutrition research on this campus that occurred in the Department of Agricultural Chemistry (now Biochemistry).  The tradition of strong nutritional sciences-related research continues in the IPiB through the work of MANTP trainers Attie, Bertics, Clagett-Dame, Ntambi amongst others.