TraCS partner N.C. A&T awarded NIH grant to research heart disease prevention

EAST GREENSBORO, N.C. — A leading food scientist at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University is part of a team that has received the most competitive grant offered by the National Institutes of Health to investigate whether plant-rich diets can become the newest weapon in the fight against cardiovascular disease.

Shengmin Sang, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Functional Foods in N.C. A&T's College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences (CAES), will conduct a controlled human feeding study and analyze data collected from that study. This project is funded by a five-year, $3.2 million grant from the NIH's National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. A&T will receive the largest portion of the award, $1.4 million.

"We know that plant-based foods are good for human health and are linked to a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, but the internal mechanisms of how they work are still unclear," said Sang. "For this project, we want to provide scientific evidence that links plant-based food to the prevention of cardiovascular disease."

Read more at ncat.edu/news