Obesity research summit is Oct. 10 at Nebraska Innovation Campus

            Faculty from all four University of Nebraska campuses are expected to participate in a summit of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Transdisciplinary Obesity Prevention Research Initiative on Oct. 10 at Nebraska Innovation Campus.

            "TOPRI's mission is to bring together researchers and practitioners from UNMC, UNO, UNK and UNL who have obesity-focused research agendas, in order to explore broader, more powerful collaborations," said summit leader Amy Struthers, associate professor of advertising and public relations in the UNL College of Journalism and Mass Communications and primary investigator of the initiative.

            "We are confident these conversations will lead to increased opportunities for exciting innovations and external funding."

            The summit will allow participants to learn more about each other's work, but even more so, will generate concrete next steps toward a transdisciplinary center for obesity prevention across the University of Nebraska system.

            Bert Boyer, professor of molecular biology, director of the Center for Alaska Native Health Research and associate director of Human Health, Institute of Arctic Biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, will present the keynote address, "Engaging rural Alaska Native community members in obesity-related genomics research."

            "Our college is delighted to lead the effort to assemble obesity researchers," said Maria Marron, dean of the College of Journalism and Mass Communications. "The translational work of engagement and outreach skills that we teach and practice can help researchers move discoveries out into our communities for greater impact."

            The work of the summit will complement and build on the recently announced Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence for the new Nebraska Center for the Prevention of Obesity Diseases through Dietary Molecules as well as interface with the Minority Health Disparities Initiative and groups with similar research agendas at all four University of Nebraska campuses.

            An afternoon poster session by graduate students and post-doctoral students will feature obesity-related work from groups across the four campuses.

            The summit will be from 8:15 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Nebraska Innovation Campus conference center. For more information, to register for the summit, or to register for the poster session, go to http://go.unl.edu/ugao.

Writer: Sue M. Roush, College of Journalism and Mass Communications