Fargo, N.D. – Chung Park, NDSU professor of animal sciences, was recently awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute. The grant money, which totals $285,000 for two years, will be used to investigate whether supplementing methyl nutrients (choline, folate, vitamin B12 and methionine) in a mother’s diet will reduce the risk of her offspring developing breast cancer.

Park has received grant funds from the institute three times, the Department of Defense Medical Research Program twice and the American Institute for Cancer Research for his studies on the epigenetic influence of maternal dietary lipotropes (methyl nutrients including methionine, choline, folic acid, and vitamin B12) upon udder development, lactation and mammary carcinogenesis.  Park’s lab also recently received a grant from the Northern Canola Growers Association for $54,000. For the past several years, the USDA-National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the Northern Canola Growers Association have been supporting Park’s research on canola oil and human health.

The research is supported by the National Institutes of Health grant number 1R15CA164768-01A1. This content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

NDSU is recognized as one of the nation's top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.