UIUC Center Explores Connection Between Nutrition and Brain

The pharmaceutical company, Abbott and the University of Illinois have set up a center that is focused on the connection between nutrition and the health of the brain.

Located on the Urbana-Champaign campus, the Center for Nutrition, Learning and Memory is looking for research proposals that would be funded for a year. The Center's director is Neal Cohen, who heads the university's neuroscience program. He said nutritional scientists are pushing to know more about the role of nutrition in learning and memory.

"At the same time, neuroscientist are looking for ways to impact the brain that has included the effects of exercise and now the effects of nutrition," Cohen said. "This project is right at the intersection of that."

The center plans to use the U of I's existing research facilities at the Institute for Genomic Biology and the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology.

The first call for research proposals closes on January 6, and those submissions will then be narrowed down to several final projects, which will receive funding.