Five years of collaborative European research on early nutrition programming The Power of Programming - International Conference on Developmental Origins of Health and Disease

Differences in nutritional experience during sensitive periods in early life, both before and after birth, can programme a person’s future
development, metabolism and health. Better scientific understanding of Early Nutrition Programming holds enormous potential
for implementing preventive strategies to enhance the long-term health, well-being and performance of people. This could not only
reduce costs of health care and social services, but could as well enhance wealth of societies. The Early Nutrition Programming
Project brings together a multi-disciplinary team of international scientists and leaders in key areas of the early nutrition programming
field from 40 major research centres across 16 European countries. The project with a total budget of 16.5 million Euros is
funded by the EC under the Sixth Framework Programme for Research and Technical Development and is co-ordinated by the
Children’s Hospital at Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich. The integrated programme of work combines experimental studies
in humans, prospective observational studies and mechanistic animal work including physiological studies and cell culture models,
with molecular biology techniques. The project started in 2005 and will run to October 2010. After the end of the project, the Early
Nutrition Academy (www.early-nutrition.org) will continue to serve as a platform for exchange of information,
scientific collaboration and training activities in the area of programming. This presentation will highlight some of the scientific
results and achievements and the efforts of the Early Nutrition Programming Project in respect to training and dissemination.