The Boden Institute of Obesity, Nutrition, Exercise & Eating Disorders
Attendees at the very popular half-day symposium on the Dietary Guideline on Sugar: Science or Dogma? The event was co-sponsored by the Boden Institute and the Sydney University Nutrition Research Foundation (SUNRF). Speakers included A/Professor Janine Higgins (University of Colorado), Mr Bill Shrapnel (SUNRF), A/Professor Wendell Evans (Community Oral Health and Epidemiology), A/Professor Tim Gill (The Boden Institute), Professor Jennie Brand-Miller (The Boden Institute), Mr Neer Korn (social researcher) and Professor Bruce Neal (The George Institute).
The Boden Institute of Obesity, Nutrition, Exercise & Eating Disorders is a joint initiative of the Faculties of Health Sciences, Medicine and Science, and is administered through Sydney Medical School.
Professor Yanfang Wang from the Peking University Clinical Research Institute, speaking on Clinical Research in China: Present and Future in June 2012
The Boden Institute is committed to reducing the individual and societal impact of obesity, eating disorders and lifestyle-related chronic disease such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, cancer, mental illness and osteoarthritis.
Led by key researchers across the University, the Institute unites expertise in basic, clinical, public health and health policy research in the areas of obesity, eating disorders, nutrition, physical activity and metabolic health; clinical intervention and practice; public health programs and policy formulation and implementation.
Visiting Professor Berit Heitmann (Denmark) and Professor Ian Caterson after Berit's seminar: Prevention of Obesity - Individualised Approaches or Food Taxation?
The Boden Institute is directed by Professor Caterson, who heads up a team of internationally renowned experts. They include: Stephen Colagiuri, Louise Baur, Adrian Bauman, Jennie Brand-Miller, Maria Fiatarone Singh, Kate Steinbeck, Len Storlien, Tim Gill, Stephen Touyz, Janice Russell and Ruth Colagiuri.
The Boden Institute takes a broad approach to combating and preventing obesity and lifestyle-related chronic disease. Its researchers have expertise across the whole human life-cycle from pre-gestation to old age, and collectively have the broadest approach and expertise for combating and preventing eating disorders, obesity and lifestyle-related chronic disease assembled in Australia – from specialised clinics to public health systems.
Individual staff at the institute have international reputations and experience in a diverse range of fields including:
- Epidemiology and disease prevention research
- Behaviour change and health promotion
- Clinical trials on chronic disease prevention and management
A/Professor Andrew Holmes and Professor Louise Baur after Andy's seminar: Towards Therapeutic Engineering of the Gut Microbiota - They Are What You Eat
- Insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome
- Glycemic index and influence of dietary factors on obesity and health
- Integration of exercise physiology and nutrition to improve health across the lifespan
- Child and adolescent obesity
- Better management of obesity and translational research ensuring best practice and outcome
- Development and management of eating disorders
- Body composition and health
- Differential effect of weight on health in different ethnic groups
- Neurobiology of energy balance and nervous system control of metabolism
- Policy work to ensure health outcome sustainability
The Boden Institute brings together key researchers within the disciplines of nutrition, exercise, public health, clinical sciences and health and sustainability to greatly enhance efforts to understand and address the critical health problems posed by the rising burden of obesity and lifestyle-related chronic diseases in Australia and across the globe.
Distinguished visitors to the Boden Institute during 2011 – 2012 include:
Macrophages (the brown cells) infiltrating tissues inflamed by obesity in villi in proximal colon of mice (Photo courtesy of Jenny Hoffmann, a visiting Masters by Research student from Sweden, 2012)
- Professor Lena Carlsson, Co-Director of the Sahlgrenska Center for Cardiovascular and Metabolic Tesearch at Gothenburg University, Sweden
- Dr Eric Finkelstein, Deputy Director and Associate Professor for Health Services & Systems Research at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, Singapore, and also Associate Research Professor in Economics at the Duke Global Health Institute
- Professor Berit Heitmann, a research leader at the Research Unit for Dietary Studies, Institute of Preventive Medicine, Centre for Health and Society, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Professor Andrew Hill, Head of the Academic Unit of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences at Leeds University, UK
- Professor Jostein Holmen, Department of Public Health and General Practice, Faculty of Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
- Professor Turid Holmen, Department of Public Health and General Practice, Faculty of Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
- Dr Susan Jebb, Head of Nutrition & Health, Medical Research Council University of Cambridge, UK
- Professor Stephan Rossner, distinguished Swedish obesity researcher
- Professor Paul Trayhurn, Emeritus Professor of Nutritional Biology and Honorary Professor: the University of Buckingham & the University of Sydney
- Professor Yanfang Wang, Assistant Director of the Peking University Clinical Research Institute, China