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EAST LANSING, Mich. — Diet ID, a Michigan Rise portfolio company, announced plans to work with Michigan State University College of Human Medicine and Henry Ford Health Systems on two separate research studies on the impact of diet in pregnant women.
Together with Associate Professor, Jean M. Kerver, PhD (Nutrition), MSc (Epidemiology), RDN, Diet ID will be used as part of a research study in pregnant and post-partum high-risk women. The Diet ID platform will be a resource to assess the participants’ diet type and diet quality during the study. This partnership with Diet ID and MSU was made possible through the Michigan Health Endowment Fund for a Food as Medicine project targeting high-risk, pregnant and postpartum women.
“When I tried it, I was pleased with how quick and user-friendly Diet ID is,” said Dr. Kerver, College of Human Medicine, MSU. “As a nutrition researcher, I’m always looking for diet assessment tools that minimize time and effort for study participants.”
Diet ID is also partnering with Henry Ford Health System on REACH (Research Enterprise to Advance Children’s Health). This observational study aims to look at 3000 pregnant women in the Metro Detroit area and follow participants until their babies are at least two years old.
“The microbial community colonizing a newborn baby’s gastrointestinal tract is very important for the ongoing development of that community, which we believe has a strong impact on the optimal development of the baby’s immune system. Understanding this relationship could lead to better child and adult health and specifically the prevention of allergy and allergic asthma”, said Laura Susick, PhD of Henry Ford Health System. “This study will identify relationships between factors influencing a mother’s gastrointestinal and vaginal microbes during pregnancy, and how these factors and the mother’s microbes affect her newborn’s gastrointestinal microbial community and immune system development from birth through the first years of life. We believe that taken together these advances in understanding will lay the foundation for a strategy for the primary prevention of allergies and asthma.”
“There is no more important time to address lifelong health, and the key role of diet, than at the start, during pregnancy and infancy. The Diet ID team is genuinely thrilled to be contributing to research in the vital areas of pregnancy outcomes, and maternal-child health,” said Dr. David Katz, founder and CEO of Diet ID.
Michigan Rise Pre-Seed Fund III is managed by the Michigan State University Foundation and supported by both the Foundation and Michigan Economic Development Corporation to provide early-stage investment capital and support to Michigan high-tech, high-growth startups. Michigan Rise made its first investment in Diet ID in 2020 and has followed the progress of this innovative digital healthcare company closely.
“Diet ID’s mission to make diet a vital sign is a big audacious goal in healthcare we are excited to support” said Prem Bodagala, Director at Michigan Rise. “Diet ID has the team to execute that mission and we are proud to partner with them in the form of capital and support by leveraging relationships emanating from Michigan State University’s strategic goals around sustainable health by the year 2030.”
