LSU’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center has secured two multimillion-dollar awards to conduct research for the military on dealing with warfighters’ nutrition.
The first is a three-year $3.5 million clinical trial with the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, for which Pennington will host 32 young men for a 20-day inpatient study. The trial aims to examine whether it’s possible to prevent loss of weight and muscle mass by maintaining a warfighter’s testosterone. Pennington will set up a camp on its property on Perkins Road to help simulate high-activity, high-stress combat situations, says Jennifer Rood, associate executive director for Cores and Resources at Pennington.
Recruitment for the trial is set to start within the next two months, and Rood estimates it will take roughly two years to get everyone through the trial.
The trial builds on previous work completed by Pennington, which concluded that supplemental testosterone may increase muscle mass and reduce weight loss in young men who burn more calories than they consume over a short period of time.
Pennington also received a $12.9 million award to complete various studies over a five-year period to analyze biochemical markers of gastrointestinal and metabolic health, nutrition and appetite. For that award, Pennington researchers will analyze hundreds of thousands of data samples from the military.
The studies will provide the evidence required for the military to make critical policy recommendations in support of warfighter health and performance, Dr. James McClung, chief of the Army’s RIEM Military Nutrition Division.
The research will provide a salary for 23 employees. Also, for each million Pennington spends on research it’s estimated more than 21 jobs are created outside of the facility and close to $2 million is generated in business sales.
The work is the latest collaboration between Pennington and the U.S. Department of Defense. Over the past 31 years, Pennington has been awarded close to $100 million to conduct more than 140 studies related to warfighter health. Pennington has also done work with Norwegian and Israeli military special forces.
