How a Mediterranean-style diet changes blood and urine markers tied to heart disease
Official title: Mediterranean diet, Metabolites, and Cardiovascular Disease
Funded at Harvard University D/b/a Harvard School of Public Health · NIH-11416109 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project looks at whether chemicals in urine and blood that change with a Mediterranean-style diet relate to future heart attack, stroke, or heart failure risk in adults.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Harvard University D/b/a Harvard School of Public Health NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Boston, United States) |
| Project start | July 15, 2013 |
| Project end | February 28, 2027 |
| Funding year | 2025 |
| Award (this year) | $70,526 |
| NIH project number | 3R01HL118264-12S2 |
| Project ID | NIH-11416109 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Findings are most relevant to older adults or people with heart disease risk factors similar to those who enrolled in the PREDIMED trial (people at high cardiovascular risk).
✕Less likely to help
Young, healthy people with low cardiovascular risk may not directly benefit because the work focuses on an older, higher-risk population.
What this research studies
Researchers are using stored blood and urine samples from people who took part in the PREDIMED trial to measure many small molecules (metabolites). They compare a randomly selected subcohort with participants who later had heart attacks, strokes, heart failure, or cardiovascular death to find metabolites linked to the diet and disease. The team will study changes from baseline to one year after the dietary intervention to identify metabolite patterns tied to the Mediterranean diet and its main foods. Urine and plasma metabolomics are combined with statistical models to build biomarkers that could help tailor diet advice in the future.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could produce simple urine or blood biomarker panels that reflect adherence to a heart-healthy Mediterranean diet and help predict future cardiovascular risk.
How similar studies have gone: The original PREDIMED trial showed the Mediterranean diet reduces cardiovascular events, and emerging metabolomics work has begun linking diet patterns to biomarkers, though the combined urine-plus-plasma multi-metabolite approach is relatively new.
Where this research is happening
-
Harvard University D/b/a Harvard School of Public Health
Boston, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Hu, Frank B — Harvard University D/b/a Harvard School of Public Health
- Study coordinator: Hu, Frank B
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.