How obesity and diet in parents and children may raise early-onset colorectal cancer risk
Official title: A Transdisciplinary Approach to Investigating Metabolic Dysregulation in Obese Parent and Child Dyads and Risk of Colorectal Cancer
Funded at University of South Carolina at Columbia · NIH-11220725 · Data updated 2026-11-12
Testing whether an anti-inflammatory diet that changes gut microbes can lower inflammation and future colorectal cancer risk in overweight parents and their children.
Quick facts
| Grant type | U01 cooperative agreement |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | University of South Carolina at Columbia NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Columbia, United States) |
| Project start | August 16, 2022 |
| Project end | July 31, 2028 |
| Funding year | 2025 |
| Award (this year) | $20,118 |
| NIH project number | 3U01CA272977-03S1 |
| Project ID | NIH-11220725 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal candidates are overweight or obese adult parents and their children who are willing to follow a dietary program and provide stool and blood samples, typically recruited near the University of South Carolina.
✕Less likely to help
People who are not overweight, unwilling to change their diet or provide biological samples, or who have medical reasons that make dietary changes unsafe may not receive benefit from participation.
What this research studies
You and your child would join a family-based anti-inflammatory diet program aimed at shifting gut bacteria and reducing obesity-related inflammation. The team will run a clinical dietary intervention with parent–child pairs at higher risk for colorectal cancer and collect stool, blood, and physical health measures to see biological and metabolic changes. Researchers will also run complementary animal studies to understand the biological mechanisms linking diet, fat tissue, inflammation, and tumor development. The combined human and lab work is meant to identify practical diet approaches that could reduce risk of early-onset colorectal cancer.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this could show that family-focused dietary changes that alter the microbiome reduce inflammation and lower future risk of early-onset colorectal cancer.
How similar studies have gone: Previous lifestyle and microbiome-focused interventions have improved metabolic and inflammatory markers, but direct evidence that these approaches prevent early-onset colorectal cancer is still lacking.
Where this research is happening
-
University of South Carolina at Columbia
Columbia, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Hebert, James R — University of South Carolina at Columbia
- Study coordinator: Hebert, James R
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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.