(ALPHABET) Early life programming of childhood health: a nutritional and epigenetic investigation of adiposity and bone, cardiometabolic, neurodevelopmental and respiratory health

Project summary

Utilising biological samples and data from existing European longitudinal birth cohorts at the international forefront of lifecourse epidemiology the researchers will investigate the complex relationships between maternal diet (defined by dietary quality and inflammatory potential), offspring health outcomes (including adiposity, bone, cardiometabolic, respiratory and neurodevelopmental health) and epigenetic patterns (DNA methylation) from birth throughout childhood.

The ALPHABET project aims to improve our understanding of nutritional and epigenetic biomarkers of offspring health with a view to refining dietary exposure measures and to aid development of more effective evidence-based public health strategies with an emphasis on advocating a healthy diet in pre-pregnancy, pregnancy and early postnatal life, to reduce obesity, improve health and attenuate development of a range of adverse health outcomes in future generations.