Brain nutrition front and center at the Food4BrainHealth international scientific network

Paris, December 18, 2018 – After several years of close collaboration between Canadian and French research teams, thirteen institutional partners from Canada and France, including Université Laval and France's National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) and National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), today founded the International Research Network Food4BrainHealth. The new network is dedicated to nutrition and brain health, from predictive biology to disease prevention and treatment.

The agreement establishing the new international scientific network was signed at INRA in Paris with the participation of Université Laval rector Sophie D'Amours, INRA president and CEO Philippe Mauguin, CNRS deputy scientific director Yvan de Launoit, AgroSup Dijon general manager François Roche Bruyn, and representatives from the French and Canadian research teams involved in the network.

Food4BrainHealth's mission is to develop an international scientific network of high-level researchers on a highly topical theme: the relationship between nutrition and the brain. It will encourage dialogue on scientific and methodological advances, contribute to the international training of the next generation of researchers, and foster bilateral and multilateral collaboration.

The Food4BrainHealth Network concept was developed on solid foundations as part of the OptiNutriBrain International Associated Laboratory created in 2014 by INRA, the University of Bordeaux, and Université Laval. The research and training activities carried out as part of OptiNutriBrain build on the complementary expertise of scientists from the NutriNeuro Laboratory of Integrative Nutrition and Neurobiology and the Université Laval Institute of Nutrition and Functional Foods (INAF).

The Network will be coordinated by Dr. Sophie Layé, research director at INRA, and Dr. Frédéric Calon, professor at Université Laval's Faculty of Pharmacy and INAF. Dr. Layé heads NutriNeuro, a joint research unit under the supervision of INRA and the University of Bordeaux and connected with the INRA Nouvelle-Aquitaine-Bordeaux Centre and the Bordeaux National Polytechnic Institute.

INRA, the University of Bordeaux, the Bordeaux National Polytechnic Institute, the University of Bourgogne, CNRS, AgroSup Dijon, and AgroParisTech in France, and Université Laval, Université de Sherbrooke, McGill University, the University of Toronto, Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal, and the Douglas Hospital Research Centre in Canada are the thirteen partners that will be working together as part of the Food4BrainHealth International Research Network.