Center for the Study of Nutrition Medicine (CSNM)

Since its founding, the CSNM has been an international center of excellence in innovative basic and translational research, education, and public health policy. The center seeks to advance the understanding of how diet, exercise, and maintaining a healthy body weight help to prevent many chronic diseases, including cancer, heart disease, obesity, and type 2 diabetes. The CSNM’s bench-to-bedside mission encompasses developing innovative and practical methods for improving health habits among at-risk individuals.

Under Dr. Blackburn’s visionary leadership, the CSNM made many seminal contributions to the fields of surgery, metabolism, nutrition, and obesity that have positively affected the lives and health of thousands worldwide. These include:

• The development of intravenous hyperalimentation formulations for hospitalized patients and the first multidisciplinary Nutrition Support Service in the United States.
• The first evidence-based guidelines for weight loss surgery, catalyzing the formation of accreditation bodies and standards for weight loss surgery centers across the United States.
• The discovery of a novel link between diet and cancer, demonstrating that reducing dietary fat intake improves disease-free survival among breast cancer patients.
• Investigations that include the neurocognitive basis of eating behaviors in obese individuals, exercise-induced changes in the brain that affect dietary impulse control, and cognitive dysfunction in older individuals with type 2 diabetes.

The important work of the CSNM continues under the leadership of Richard Cummings, PhD, and Jin-Rong Zhou, PhD.

Major funded projects that are currently underway include:

Look AHEAD-E

The CSNM has been a longtime, major contributor to the Look AHEAD (Action for Health in Diabetes) study, funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). Look AHEAD is a multicenter, randomized controlled trial designed to determine whether intentional weight loss reduces cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in overweight individuals with type 2 diabetes. Dr. Blackburn, one of the original principal investigators of this trial, contributed more than 40 peer-reviewed publications to the literature on Look AHEAD.

Assessment of Behavioral and Psychosocial Predictors of Weight Loss Following Bariatric Surgery

Bariatric surgery is now a first-line treatment for severe obesity. However, up to one-quarter of patients experience less than optimal weight loss, in part due to diet and lack of physical activity. Current guidelines for diet and exercise to maximize the benefits of bariatric surgery are inconsistent and/or vague. Data obtained from this NIH-funded project will assist in identifying optimal behavioral, psychosocial, and environmental targets for intervention, and pave the way for the development of standardized dietary/eating and physical activity guidelines for bariatric surgery patients.

Feihe Nutrition Laboratory

The mission of the Feihe Nutrition Laboratory at BIDMC at Harvard Medical School is to facilitate and support state-of-the art basic and translational research in the fields of nutrition, obesity, and healthy living. The Feihe Nutrition Laboratory was established in 2015 with a five-year, $4.5 million contribution from Feihe International.

Another significant role of the CSNM is educating researchers and clinicians about its research and the importance of healthy living on human health. Among its educational offerings are the long-running and popular Blackburn Course in Obesity Medicine and the monthly Longwood Nutrition Seminar Program.

Today, the CSNM carries on Dr. Blackburn’s legacy and his goal of translating basic research into clear, actionable, and innovative ways to improve human health through all the components of a healthy lifestyle.