The 10th Crick Symposium on Nutrition and the
Developmental Origins of Disease
On June 25 2015, an international cohort of researchers and
healthcare professionals attended the Wellcome Collection to
participate in the latest Crick symposium on nutrition and its role
in the development of disease. The sell-out event saw a range of
stimulating talks, focusing on the importance of diet during the
early stages of life and the lasting effects that childhood
nutrition can have on a person's health as an adult.
Newborn children depend on their mothers for sustenance and in
recent years it has become increasingly apparent that the lifestyle
and diet of a mother throughout pregnancy and whilst breastfeeding
can have dramatic effects on the long-term wellbeing of a child.
Obesity and its associated disorders provide some of the most
convincing evidence for this effect, with children born to
overweight mothers considerably more likely to develop conditions
such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease in later
life.
The global increase in childhood obesity is a matter of serious
public health concern and talks from Atul Singhal (UCL Institute of
Child Health) and Lucilla Poston (Kings College London) focused on
the topic of over-nutrition. Providing a series of insights from
the clinic, these presentations highlighted the way that positive
maternal lifestyle changes can benefit the development and health
of a child.
The mechanisms that cause early life nutrition to 'program' an
individual's risk of disease in later life are not fully understood
and large parts of the symposium were spent examining the
biological processes that underpin this so-called concept of
nutritional programming. Sebastien Bouret (University of Southern
California), Anne Ferguson-Smith and Susan Ozanne (both from the
University of Cambridge) joined fellow scientists from the Crick
and its partner institutions in discussions covering a variety of
topics. These ranged from the role of the 'hunger hormones', leptin
and ghrelin, in the development of the brain to the surprising
effects that nutrient availability during early life can have upon
the life span of fruit flies.
Symposium co-organiser and group leader at the Francis Crick
Institute, Alex Gould was enthusiastic about the day. "This
symposium was an exciting opportunity for the Crick to reach out to
a diverse range of speakers and attendees, from health policy
professionals and clinicians right through to basic research
scientists. The clinical significance of decades of research into
the developmental origins of health and disease has not always been
clear. This has changed over the past few years and there is now
strong evidence from numerous angles that this research is likely
to have far reaching implications for public health policy and
nutritional advice."
Crick symposia are held three times a year, bringing together
researchers from a range of disciplines to promote collaboration
and to showcase high quality science. Information on past symposia
and future events can be found here.