The Inter-Generational Programming of Health and Disease in Indians. (360G-Wellcome-098575_Z_12_Z)

The Indian and UK investigators represented in this proposal have worked together for 20 years to study connections between growth in early life and adult health. We have collected evidence that unbalanced nutrition and metabolic disorders, in pregnant mothers, programme the lifelong health of the next generation, causing impaired growth and cognitive function, and chronic non-communicable disease. Our future programme includes interventional, observational, and genetic studies, with common outc omes: body composition, cardio-metabolic measures and cognitive function. In two randomised controlled trials, we will test whether improving the overall micronutrient intake, and/or the vitamin B12 content of the mother's diet, pre-conceptionally and during pregnancy, improves outcomes in the children. Observational and genetic work will use a linked series of Indian birth cohorts, which have detailed data on mothers and children, to identify nutritional and metabolic 'messages' that cross from one generation to another to influence health. An over-arching objective is to build capacity for research into developmental origins of health and disease by strengthening networking between research groups in India and other low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), PhD studentships, and expansion of expertise in the study of epigenetic mechanisms that link maternal nutrition to health in the next generation.