BATON ROUGE — A researcher from LSU's Pennington Biomedical Research Center has been awarded a $2 million grant to study how the brain detects changes in protein intake. 

Researcher Chris Morrison and his team were awarded the grant by the National Institutes of Health. The money will be dispersed over four years and will support research into how the brain detects changes in protein intake and how reduced protein intake drives adaptive changes in metabolism and food intake.

“Dietary protein plays a critical role in metabolism and overall health, and our brain monitors our nutritional state and responds when protein intake is reduced,” Morrison said. 

The project is funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, part of NIH; they will provide up to $2,013,180 over a four-year period.

“Congratulations to Dr. Morrison and his team on this important NIH award,” Interim Senior Vice Chancellor and Executive Director of Pennington Biomedical Jennifer Rood said. “Dr. Morrison has been a pioneer in advancing our understanding of how the body detects and responds to changes in dietary protein."