About TALENT

Who are we?

We are a consortium of researchers from the UK, sub-Saharah Africa and India who have a special interest in adolescent health and the ability to work together to conduct major population-based nutrition research in diverse low to middle income settings (LMICs).

Our Aims

Our overall aim is to fill large knowledge gaps about the dietary behaviour, food security, nutritional status and physical activity of adolescents in LMICs, the factors that influence these and how they change through the course of adolescence.

Why do we want to fill these gaps in knowledge?

We will use this new knowledge and understanding to develop and assess context-specific interventions to improve adolescent nutrition, engaging with adolescents themselves, their communities, and policy-makers to ensure impact and scalability. We will also build within-country capacity for quantitative and qualitative nutrition research, and intervention development, in the adolescent age group.

What are our long-term goals?

Overall, in the long-term we will address the following broad research questions in adolescent boys and girls, including food insecure and vulnerable groups, in different countries and urban, peri-urban and rural settings:

What are adolescents eating, what physical activity are they doing, and what influences these behaviours?
What is the nutritional status of adolescents?
How do nutrition behaviours and nutritional status change during adolescence?
What is the impact of diet and nutrition on adolescent growth, body composition, cognitive development and bio-markers of later disease risk?
What context-specific interventions will improve adolescent nutrition?

For more information about our exciting project, please email Polly Hardy-Johnson at pll@mrc.soton.ac.uk

Meet our Team

Transforming Adolescent Lives through Nutrition (TALENT)
Photo taken at workshop one in Dervan, India

UK Team

Professor Caroline HD Fall

Professor of International Paediatric Epidemiology
MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit
University of Southampton
Southampton General Hospital
Tremona Road
Southampton SO16 6YD
UK

Caroline Fall is Professor of International Paediatric Epidemiology at the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton, UK, and a consultant in child health at University Hospital Southampton. Her research focuses on the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) especially cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes and cognitive function. She has worked with research groups in India since 1991, on (cohort studies) the effects of maternal and child nutrition on later health, and on (intervention studies) the long-term health benefits for the next generation of improving maternal nutrition. She is a founding member of the International DOHaD Society and a leading contributor to several multi-LMIC research collaborations.

https://www.mrc.soton.ac.uk/web2/

Professor Mary Elizabeth Barker

Associate Professor of Psychology
MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit
University of Southampton
Southampton General Hospital
Tremona Road
Southampton SO16 6YD

Mary Barker is an Associate Professor of Psychology in the Medical Research Council Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, Faculty of Medicine at the University of Southampton, UK. She co-leads the Behavioral Science theme for the NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre and directs the Centre for Public Collaboration and Participation in Health Research. Her main research interest is in understanding and supporting behaviour change, primarily to improve nutritional status before conception and during pregnancy and so address the public health implications of the developmental origins of health and disease. Mary runs a programme of work aiming to engage teenagers and young women in improving their diets physical activity habits, using a combination of one-to-one support from health and social care professionals and digital sources which include smartphone games.

MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton www.mrc.soton.ac.uk

NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre http://www.uhs.nhs.uk/ClinicalResearchinSouthampton/Research/Facilities/NIHR-Southampton-Biomedical-Research-Centre/NIHRSouthamptonBiomedicalResearchCentre.aspx

Dr Susan Weller

Senior Research Fellow
National Centre for Research Methods
University of Southampton
UK

Dr Susie Weller is a Senior Research Fellow in the National Centre for Research Methods, and an Honorary Research Fellow in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Southampton, UK. She has 18 years’ experience of conducting creative, participatory and qualitative longitudinal research with young people and families. She is currently exploring the feasibility of conducting analysis across several complex qualitative longitudinal studies. She recently completed a pilot study investigating the impact of surgical intervention for infant developmental dysplasia of the hip on families, as part of a major clinical trial. She is author of two books and 50 papers.

Research centre website: https://www.ncrm.ac.uk/

Professor Marie-Louise Newell

Professor of Global Health
Institute for Developmental Sciences
University of Southampton
Southampton General Hospital
Tremona Road
Southampton SO16 6YD
UK

Professor Marie-Louise Newell, a paediatric epidemiologist, is Professor of Global Health, leading the Global Health Research Institute, at the University of Southampton, UK, where she is taking forward her research on infections in pregnancy & childhood, and early life onset of adult health. She spend eight years (until late 2013) as Director of the Wellcome Trust-funded Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, leading a programme of research on the impact of HIV and HIV-treatment on the population with an integrated infrastructure of demographic and socio-economic household surveillance, individual HIV surveillance, and nested qualitative research.

Polly Hardy-Johnson

Health Psychologist and Senior Research Assistant
MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit
University of Southampton
Southampton General Hospital
Tremona Road
Southampton SO16 6YD
UK

Polly is a Trainee Health Psychologist and PhD candidate in Health Psychology Research and Professional Practice at the University of Southampton. She is also employed as a Research Fellow at the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit located at Southampton General Hospital. Her research interests include adolescent and child health, adolescent nutrition, physical activity, menstrual practices, and adolescent health-related quality of life. Polly is interested in global and population health, and the role that psychology can have in improving health behaviours and the lives of adolescents across the world.

African Teams

The Gambia

Dr Kathryn Anna Ward

Associate Professor
MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit
University of Southampton
Southampton General Hospital
Tremona Road
Southampton SO16 6YD
UK

Kate is an Associate Professor at MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology, University of Southampton. Her research focuses on the interaction between bone, muscle and environment throughout life. Her work focusses on childhood and adolescent growth and healthy ageing. Her research is based in the UK, The Gambia with collaborations in South Africa and Zimbabwe. She is PI of an ageing cohort in The Gambia studying musculoskeletal ageing and comorbidities.

Kate is Secretary of the Bone Research Society, and a member of American Society for Bone and Mineral Research Council, International Osteoporosis Foundation Committee for Scientific Advisors and several National Osteoporosis Society Committees.

https://www.southampton.ac.uk/medicine/about/staff/kaw1d15.page

Dr Sophie Elizabeth Moore

Senior Lecturer
Division of Women’s Health
King’s College London
London

Sophie Moore is Senior Lecturer in Women’s Global Health at King’s College London. Her research focuses on the nutritional regulation of ‘healthy’ fetal and infant growth, incorporating infant immune and brain development as outcomes. Much of her current research is based at the Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia (MRCG), but with implications for nutritional vulnerabilities globally. Before joining KCL she was Group Leader in Maternal and Child Nutrition at MRC Human Nutrition Research, Cambridge. She has also worked within the MRC’s International Nutrition Group at LSHTM and from 2006-12 she was Head of Station at MRC Keneba, MRCG.

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/lsm/research/divisions/wh/index.aspx

Landing Jarjou, PhD

Senior Research Associate,

Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine,

Keneba,

P. O. Bo 273, Banjul,

The Gambia,

West Africa.

Landing Jarjou is a Senior Research Associate at the Nutrition Theme Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He is the Calcium vitamin D and Bone Health team leader and also Deputy Nutrition Coordinator. His research focuses on maternal and child health in The Gambia and similar settings. He is currently investigating the long term effects of maternal calcium supplementation in pregnancy on offspring blood pressure, bone mineral status and maternal bone mineral status in midlife, which study he undertook more 20 years ago in West Kiang rural community. He is also coordinating the characterisation of bone mineral of Gambian Bone Ageing Study.

He joined the Nutrition theme, then known as Dunn Nutrition Unit, The Gambia in 1980 as a Field Assistant and then worked through the years with further training in Cambridge UK and Dunn Nutrition Labs. He obtained his MSC in Clinical Biochemistry in 1996. He later did his PhD in Nutrition investigating the effects of increasing calcium supplementation of rural Gambia pregnant women habituated to a low calcium on bone mineral status.

http://www.mrc.gm/nutrition/

Dr Ramatoulie Janha

Senior Research Associate, CDBH
Nutrition Programme
Keneba, Kiang West
P.O. Box 273
Banjul, The Gambia
West Africa

Ramatoulie Janha is a Senior Research Associate at the Nutrition Theme, Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia (MRCG) at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Her research focuses on bone health of older people, specifically on rural women at mid-life who participated in the double-blind randomized controlled trial of calcium carbonate when pregnant 20-years ago. She is also an investigator in the Gambian Bone Ageing Study, profiling bone health indices including osteoarthritis and high blood pressure in rural and urban elders. She did a PhD research degree on Malaria Pharmacogenomics and was the Senior Scientific Officer at the Molecular Diagnostics Platform of MRCG before joining the Nutrition Theme.

http ://www.mrc.gm/nutrition/

Côte d’Ivoire

Professor Valeriane Leroy

Research Director in Epidemiology and Public Health
Inserm U1027
Université Paul Sabatier
Toulouse
France

I am an infectious diseases epidemiologist with a specific interest in maternal and child health in low-income countries, especially in West Africa. To date my research has focused on HIV. My main research interests are the burden of this infection in women and during pregnancy, mother-to-child transmission and its prevention, treatment and outcomes in HIV infected children and adolescents.

Professor Laurence Adonis-Koffy

Chef de service de Pédiatrie Médicale
Directrice de l’unité de néphrologie pédiatrique
CHU de Yopougon
UFR des sciences médicales – UFHB de Cocody
Abidjan
Côte d’Ivoire

Laurence Ya Adonis-Koffy currently works at the Unité des sciences médicales, University “Félix Houphouët-Boigny”. Laurence does research in Infectious Diseases, Nephrology and Epidemiology. Their most recent publication is ‘P-063 – Hyperthyroidie révélée par un syndrome nephrotique cortico sensible.’

Dr Julie Jesson

Epidemiologist and PhD Fellow
Faculté de Médecine Purpan
Inserm U1027
Université Paul Sabatier Toulouse
37 Allées Jules Guesdes
31073 Toulouse Cedex 7
France

‘Julie Jesson is an epidemiologist, post-doctoral fellow from the University of Toulouse, France. Her research topic is focused on growth and nutritional care among HIV-infected children and adolescents as well as HIV-exposed uninfected infants. During her PhD, she studied the prevalence of malnutrition and growth of HIV-infected children living in West Africa and implemented nutritional interventions among malnourished HIV-infected children in Mali, Côte d’Ivoire, Benin and Togo. She pursued within the IeDEA (International Databases to Evaluate AIDS) multiregional consortium, at the University of Cape Town, assessing stunting and growth among adolescents living with HIV. She is currently working within the CIPHER (Collaborative Initiative for Paediatric HIV Education and Research) consortium to assess growth and immunological patterns among adolescents living with HIV worldwide. Her research interests are expanding to global health research among children and adolescents living in Africa.

http://www.u1027.inserm.fr/equipe-2-332442.kjsp?RH=ACC_UMR1027

Dr Egnon Kouakou

Nutrition/Health Researcher
Felix Houphouet University Boigny
Abidjan
Cote D’Ivoire

PHD Nutrition/Health at University Felix Houphouet Boigny Abidjan Ivory Coast, Expert Consultant Trainer at the Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene of Ivory Coast, Expert Consultant Trainer International in conception and prevention of malnutrition, specialist in Nutrition public Health, Author many Publications and communications (Dubai, Canada, Italy, Danemark ect…) and a book in Nutrition/Health, Lead Guest Editor issue Malnutrition in Developing Countries, Reviewer articles University in the Journal of Public Health/Science PG group, Asian Journal Applied Sciences, Forensic Science & Addiction Research, OMICS Publishing Group Medical Journals, Journal of Chemical Biological and Physical Sciences, Nutrition & Food Sciences International Journal.

Kenya

Dr Elizabeth Wambui Kimani-Murage

Research Scientist & Head, Maternal & Child Wellbeing Unit
African Population and Health Research Center
Kitisuru
Nairobi
Kenya

Dr. Elizabeth Kimani-Murage is a Research Scientist and Head of Maternal & Child Wellbeing Unit at the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC). She is also a Wellcome Trust International Engagement Fellow; an Adjunct Assistant Professor, Brown University, USA; and an Honorary Lecturer at the University of Glasgow, UK. She is a Public Health Specialist/Public Health Nutritionist who holds a PhD in Public Health (2010), specializing in Nutrition; a Masters of Public Health (2004) specializing in epidemiology and disease control; and a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Health (1999).

Elizabeth is passionate about improving lives and promoting human dignity through policy-relevant, action-oriented research, programs and advocacy, and is championing optimal early child nutrition, development and wellbeing for children in Kenya and Africa in general. Her fellowship with the Wellcome Trust involves public engagement on the right to food and nutrition security in Kenya, particularly among the urban poor. She is leading research in child nutrition, health and development among vulnerable populations in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), using both quantitative and qualitative methods, and involving local and international partners. Her research mainly involves describing patterns of child nutrition and development and testing feasibility and effectiveness of strategies for improvement. She has generated research evidence particularly on the plight of the urban poor with regards to food and nutrition security, particularly for children in sub-Saharan Africa, and tested interventions to improve the situation.

Elizabeth is a member of several local and international technical/professional groups, and contributes to the Global Nutrition Report Series (http://globalnutritionreport.org/the-report/). She works closely with the Ministry of Health, Kenya, and other policy makers such as UNICEF. She has been actively involved in the development of the national guidelines related to child health, in particular the implementation guidelines for the Baby Friendly Community Initiative (BFCI) in Kenya, guidelines for human milk banking in Kenya, and workplace support for breastfeeding guidelines for Kenya.

http://aphrc.org/

Dr Alemu Taddese Zerfu

Nutritionist and Public Health Specialist
African Population and Health Research Center
Kitisuru
Nairobi
Kenya

Taddese is currently a Post-Doctoral research scientist at the African Population & Health Research Center (APHRC). He has also completed a one-year post-doctoral fellowship and holds a Ph.D. in Food Science and Nutrition and an MPH in reproductive health. Prior to joining APHRC, he worked as a Senior Research Advisor at the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) in Ethiopia and an assistant professor of Public Health-Nutrition, in an Ethiopian University. Taddese has authored and co-authored several journal articles including to prestigious journals such as the Lancet Global Health and the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. He is a member of the Ethiopian Young Academy of Sciences (EtYAS) and other professional associations. He is also the winner of the 2017 Tore Godal research award.

http ://aphrc.org/

South Africa

Professor Shane Norris

Director, MRC Developmental Pathways for Health Research Unit
Department of Paediatrics
School of Clinical Medicine
Faculty of Health Sciences
University of the Witwatersrand
Johannesburg
South Africa

Shane Norris is a Research Professor in the Department of Paediatrics and the Director of the MRC/Wits Developmental Pathways for Health Research Unit at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He has over 18 years of research experience in longitudinal cohort studies and epidemiology and his research expertise and interest includes: (i) maternal and child health, (ii) child nutrition, growth, body composition, and development; and (ii) intergenerational transmission and developmental origins of obesity and metabolic disease risk. He has published 270 papers and is the co-PI of the Birth to Twenty cohort, which is the longest running birth cohort in Africa.

https://www.wits.ac.za/dphru/mrcwits-developmental-pathways-for-health-researc/

Edna Nyanchama Bosire

Anthropologist and PhD student
MRC Developmental Pathways for Health Research Unit
University of the Witwatersrand
Johannesburg
South Afric

Edna Bosire is a Kenyan Citizen who currently resides in Johannesburg South Africa. She has a background in Anthropology from the University of Nairobi, Kenya- M.A in Medical Anthropology and a BA in Anthropology. She is currently pursuing her PhD studies at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. Her PhD studies focuses on chronic comorbidities (ICDs-NCDs) and is nested within the Departmental Pathways for Health Research Unit (DPHRU), a unit affiliated with the University of the Witwatersrand. Edna also works as an associate researcher at DPHRU unit in a project named – Sugar-Sweetened Beverages (SSB) study in Soweto South Africa focusing on both adolescents and adults.

Edna’s key research interests are: Chronic Multiple-Morbidities (ICDs-NCDs); Health care systems in LMICs and management of Chronic disease; Nutrition; Mental health; Reproductive and Paediatrics health. She has participated in manuscript writing as a co-author/author which are published or in review stage for publications in various Journals. When out of school, Edna likes socializing, travelling and making new friends.

Dr Stephanie Wrottesley

PhD Fellow
MRC/Wits Developmental Pathways for Health Research Unit (DPHRU)
University of the Witwatersrand
Johannesburg
South Africa

Stephanie is a Nutritional Epidemiologist currently completing her PhD at the Developmental Pathways for Health Research Unit (DPHRU) at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. She has a BSc in Nutrition (Nottingham University) and an MSc in Public Health Nutrition (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine). Her PhD work is focused on maternal nutrition and the impact on growth and development in the first 1000 days, as well as non-communicable disease risk in later life; particularly in transitioning communities. After submitting her PhD she plans to begin a Postdoctoral position with the unit, focusing on optimising pre-conception health through nutrition based interventions.

https://www.wits.ac.za/dphru/

Ethiopia

Dr Abraham Haileamlak Mitike

Professor of Paediatrics and Child Health
College of Health Sciences
Jimma University
Jimma
Ethiopia

Abraham Haileamlak is a professor of pediatrics and child health and Consultant Pediatric Cardiologist at Jimma University with over twenty five years’ experience in health care services. He studied medicine and then pediatrics in Addis Ababa University and pediatric Cardiology in Wolfson Medical center in Israel. Besides his academic and clinical activity, he served as Vice President of the University for Seven years and Dean of College of Health Sciences for six years. Since 2006, Abraham is the Editor-In-Chief of Ethiopian Journal of Health Sciences, a peer reviewed journal that appears six times a year. Abraham has published over 40 research outputs on peer reviewed journals. He received from Ethiopian Ministry of Health an Extraordinary Award for Passion, dedication and Exceptional life time Contribution to the Health Sector Advancement of Ethiopia (2015); Pediatrician of the year award (2013) by the Ethiopian Pediatric Society. For his exceptional performance, in 2017, he was awarded Honorary Doctorate Degree by University of Oslo. Internationally, he is now the member of International Committee for Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Dr Mubarek Abera Mengistie

Assistant Professor of Mental Health
PhD in Nutrition and Child Health
Jimma University
Jimma, Ethiopia

Child and Adolescent Nutrition and Mental Health Expert

Background: Trained in BSc in Public-Health, MSc in Mental Health, and PhD in Nutrition and child health. Had experience of working as a clinician and director of health center for 3-years under the ministry of health. Currently am lecturer and researcher at the faculty of medical sciences in Jimma University with additional role in coordinating health research and postgraduate study program in my faculty. I’m conducting research on child and adolescent nutrition, and mental/developmental outcome. I’ve accomplished researches on maternal substance use and weight of the newborn, school based child and adolescent mental health and nutrition, body composition and mental/developmental outcome of children.

https://www.ju.edu.et/

https://www.ju.edu.et/jucan/

Indian Teams

Dervan

Dr Suvarna Patil

Medical Director
B.K.L. Walawalkar Hospital, Diagnostic & Research Center & Rural Medical College
Dervan
India

I completed my education in M.D. Internal Medicine in 1995 and started working in Metropolitan city, Mumbai. I took a rather indirect path to my position, starting as a CMO and becoming active in various leadership positions as a way to become more involved and to understand the “how and why” of how people got sick and hurt, and how to both prevent or minimize the suffering. Over 20 years I improved my knowledge and skill base in Cardiology, Pulmonary Medicine, Hemodialysis, Endoscopy and Intensive care by training and working with super specialty visiting consultants coming from various institutes in Mumbai and Pune. I also went abroad, both to Chicago in USA and Leicester in UK. I am now working with a goal to decrease the inequalities of health facilities received by the rich and the poor.

Dr Ulka Banavali

Nutritionist
BKL Walawadkar Hospital, Diagnostic and Research Center, and Rural Medicine College
Dervan
India

Pune

Dr Chittaranjan S Yajnik

Director, Diabetes Unit
KEM Hospital
Sardar Moodliar Road
Rasta Peth
Pune 411 011
Maharashtra
India

Prof. Chittaranjan Yajnik is a clinical diabetes specialist who established the Pune Maternal Nutrition Study in India – a multigenerational cohort, investigating the role of maternal nutrition in the inter-generational transmission of diabetes. His bio-bank dates back to samples collected from 1987. He has facilitated transfer of many research technologies to India from the wide range of collaborators across different specialties. He is well known for his description of the “thin fat Indian”. He also highlighted the role of deranged 1-C metabolism in the mothers and their effects on the offspring. He has started a pioneering randomized-controlled trial in Pune to improve micronutrient status of adolescents to reduce susceptibility to diabetes in offspring. He has been entitled with many prestigious awards for excellence in the areas of DOHaD and Diabetes research by National and International bodies including International Diabetes Federation, International DOHaD society, World India Diabetes Foundation and Danish Diabetes Academy. He is advisor to many National and International health organizations. Prof. Yajnik has published over 250 scientific papers, reviews and chapters in prestigious journals and books.

Dr Kejal Joshi Reddy

Diabetes Unit
KEM Hospital
Sardar Moodliar Road
Rasta Peth
Pune 411 011
Maharashtra
India

Dr. Kejal Joshi Reddy is a Public Health Nutritionist and an early career researcher. She has been working in the area of “Micronutrient deficiencies (Iron and Iodine) among vulnerable population” since 2006. She has worked extensively in community with rural and urban Pregnant women, School aged children and various stakeholders towards her efforts to alleviate micronutrient deficiencies among Indian population. She has also worked on “Efficacy trials of Double Fortified Salt supplementation”. Currently she is working with Prof. Yajnik’s team to understand the changes in 1-C metabolism during pregnancy and the effects on the offspring.

Mrs. Pallavi Yajnik

Mrs. Pallavi Yajnik has been working as an administrator and logistic co-ordinator for all the research cohorts at Diabetes Unit since last 15 years. She has been also handling the finance and HR related activities for all the projects at the unit.

Mumbai

Dr Sirazul Ameen Sahariah

Community Health Physician
Project manager SARAS KIDS
Centre for the Study of Social Change
MN Roy Human Development Campus
Plot No 6, F Block, Opp. Government Colony
Bandra East
Mumbai 400 051
India

Dr Sirazul Ameen Sahariah is public health physician and epidemiologist who studied medicine and MD from Gauhati Medical College and MSc Epidemiology from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London. After working as research officer and senior resident in AIIMS he led a team of 200 staffs to plan and implement a food based nutrition intervention study involving over 6500 women in slums of Mumbai city, a collaborative research between Centre for the Study of Social Change, Mumbai, and University of Southampton, UK. He is current research interest include long term effect pre-conceptional food supplementation on cognitive function, body composition and cardiometabolic risk markers in children.

www.snehamumbai.org

https://www.emphasisstudy.org

Harsha Chopra

Nutritionist
Centre for the Study of Social Change
MN Roy Human Development Campus
Plot No 6, F Block, Opp. Government Colony
Bandra East
Mumbai 400 051
India

Title: Nutritionist & Coordinator at Sneha-MRC

As a Co-ordinator: Co-ordinating the activities of 5 Sneha centres in India, Writing Newsletters, Organizing the Annual Sneha Conference.

As Nutritionist: Planning and standardizing nutritious recipes for the pregnant women, Collecting dietary data of women and children, Training the Project Assistants, Nutrition education to the Health workers, Project Clerks and Pharmacists, Analyzing data and writing research articles.

Mrs Meera Jayant Gandhi

Social worker
Centre for the Study of Social Change
MN Roy Human Development Campus
Plot No 6, F Block, Opp. Government Colony
Bandra East
Mumbai 400 051
India

Mysore

Dr GV Krishnaveni

India Alliance Senior Research Fellow
Epidemiology Research Unit
CSI Holdsworth Memorial Hospital
PB No. 38
Mandi Mohalla
Mysore 570 001
Karnataka
India

I am an epidemiological researcher working for over 20 years in studies on the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) in Mysore, India. The main objective of these studies is to understand the influence of maternal and offspring life course factors, including nutritional status on development of adult non-communicable disease. I have been mainly involved in the setting-up and the follow-up of the Mysore Parthenon Cohort at Holdsworth Memorial Hospital in Mysore, India, which is one of the few cohorts aimed to investigate the long-term associations of maternal gestational diabetes on offspring health. My research interests include anthropometry and body composition, developing and testing dietary and physical activity methods and assessing cardiometabolic and psychological wellbeing and stress responses in children and adolescents.

Dr K Kumaran

Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Consultant in Public Health
Epidemiology Research Unit
CSI Holdsworth Memorial Hospital
PB No. 38
Mandi Mohalla
Mysore 570 001
Karnataka
India

After qualifying in medicine, Kumaran was closely involved in setting up the initial Mysore DOHaD (Developmental Origins of Health and Disease) studies. The success of the Mysore projects attracted funding for a new purpose built research centre. He subsequently trained in public health in the UK and worked at consultant level in academic and service public health. He returned to India in 2012 to work across various Indo-UK collaborative projects related to DOHaD. His role is to provide support to the setting up and management of teams for ongoing and future projects, and contribute to the development of future research strategy, acquisition of funding and translation of research evidence into public health practice. He is currently the Secretary of SNEHA (Society for the Natal Effects of Health in Adults), India.

Dr Shama Joseph

Nutritionist
Epidemiology Research Unit
CSI Holdsworth Memorial Hospital
PB No. 38
Mandi Mohalla
Mysore 570 001
Karnataka
India

Our Research

TALENT members came together for two consortium workshops in 2018, one in Devern, India and another in Johannesburg, South Africa. The purpose of these workshops was to build capacity in collecting large-scale quantitative and qualitative research in each of the TALENT sites.

Workshop One: BKL Walawalker Hospital, Dervan, India

During this workshop, the TALENT consortium worked together to discuss:

-The aims of the TALENT consortium, GCRF Pump priming research.

-Quantitative and qualitative data to be collected from adolescents.

-Secondary analysis of data that has already been conducted in each of the sites.

-Stakeholders in each of the TALENT sites and ways in which they can be engaged with the project.

-Literature reviews to be conducted.

Researchers in each of the sites were also trained in how to collect qualitative data. The researchers were trained in how to conduct in-depth interviews and focus groups, and supported in writing interview schedules to be used for their research.