Sherry Tanumihardjo, professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, received $788,000 for her project “Partnership: Bioavailability of provitamin A carotenoids and zinc from biofortified maize and the impact on human health” through The Food and Human Health (A1343) program area priority within NIFA’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative. It was among 48 projects sharing $23 million in funding.

Project summary (from CRIS website): Biofortification is the process of increasing the nutritional value of the foods that we eat. Vitamin A and zinc are essential micronutrients that the World Health Organization considers to be short-fall nutrients. This proposal seeks to develop and evaluate the efficacy of conventionally bred biofortified orange corn (maize) with high provitamin A carotenoids and zinc to improve human nutrition. The main objectives of this proposal are to: 1) select and evaluate maize germplasm for increased provitamin A and zinc in Mexico and the US; 2) determine the influence of ß-cryptoxanthin-biofortified maize on zinc bioavailability to hen eggs compared with ß-carotene-biofortified maize and test bioefficacy of the biofortified maize and the nutritionally-enhanced eggs in Mongolian gerbils; and 3) ultimately test the selected high carotenoid/zinc variety in a bioefficacy intervention study in Mexican schoolchildren. We will evaluate the influence of the nutritionally enhanced maize on the microbiome profile in the children consuming the biofortified maize versus a typical maize. The two model animals (hens and gerbils) will demonstrate proof-of-concept for enhanced human nutrition prior to orchestrating the human intervention study in Mexico. This proposal aligns with the improvement of the nutritional profile of maize and hen eggs as more nutritious food for human consumption. This US-Mexico partnership encompasses a soil-to- maize-to-animal-to-human approach to meet the global demand for nutritious foods, which is included as part of the US Government Global Food Security Strategy and the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.