Abbott and University of Illinois to conduct nutrition research

Abbott has announced plans to embark on a new research programme with the University of Illinois that will examine the effects nutrition can have on learning and memory.

The pharmaceutical company has helped to establish the first ever multi-disciplinary nutrition and cognition research centre on the Urbana campus, which will lead directed and solicited studies on the way diet can affect brain development.

Its work will apply scientific approaches that have rarely been seen in the field of nutritional research, with the aim of seeing how nutrition could be used to influence childhood development and counter the effects of ageing and disease.

Dr Robert Miller, divisional vice-president for research and development and scientific affairs at Abbott Nutrition, said that using "the world's best scientific minds in the areas of nutrition, brain and cognition will allow us to advance unique and meaningful breakthroughs in this area of research".

This comes after the firm announced earlier this month that it will be working with Reata Pharmaceuticals to develop new therapies for inflammation.