CSIRO Human Nutrition
Our diet, activities and attitudes all have an effect on health and wellbeing
Clinical trials
CSIRO Food and Nutritional Sciences' human clinical research is investigating lifestyle strategies to prevent and manage Australia's biggest killers - obesity, heart disease, cancers and diabetes.
CSIRO Human Nutrition, managed by CSIRO Food and Nutritional Sciences and located in Adelaide, has specialist expertise in the design and conduct of large intervention trials for the treatment of obesity and diabetes.
The purpose built clinical trial facility, encompassing in vivo and in vitro and behavioural and cognitive assessment capacity provides a significant competitive advantage.
The group is also distinctive locally and internationally by the depth of dietetic experience, with over 50 completed trials and through access to a wide variety of biochemical, animal and cell culture skills.
We have skills and abilities in nutrition, psychology, public health, consumer and sensory science, medicine, and exercise physiology that no other competitor can currently match.
The physical capability coupled with the experienced research and support team facilitates a large number and wide variety of clinical nutrition trials each year. Their expertise in the design, conduct and timely execution of these trials has positioned this group as leaders in Australia, and highly competitive with international counterparts.
Typical range of activities in research programs include:
- measurement of physical and cognitive outcomes of dietary interventions
- use of biomarkers relating to cardiovascular disease
- development and validation of novel indicators of disease states
- in vivo and in vitro testing
- cost effective trial design
- trial design to ethical requirements of the NHMRC
- sophisticated behavioral assessment techniques (web-based delivery, Computer-Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI), qualitative assessment involving focus groups, individual interviews)
- cross-cultural measurement, strategic long-term relationships in Asian universities
- state-of-art instrumentation e.g. ultra sound measurement of endothelial function
- data management, statistical analysis and interpretation
- communication strategies for appropriate targeting of the scientific community, media, government sector (including regulators), general public and food industry