FSU’s ICON-Health marks first year with plans for new nutrition research facility

Tallahassee, Florida – Florida State University’s Institute for Connecting Nutrition and Health celebrated its first anniversary with a symposium examining the relationship between diet and chronic disease, while announcing plans for a biomarker research facility designed to expand the university’s nutrition research capabilities.

The October 20 event brought together researchers and healthcare professionals to discuss how lifestyle medicine and GLP-1 medications are influencing treatment, eating habits and the food industry. Titled “Blurry Lines: When Does Nutrition Become Medicine?”, the symposium was part of FSU’s Discovery Days.

The anniversary also offered an opportunity for leaders of the Institute for Connecting Nutrition and Health, known as ICON-Health, to review its first year and describe the next stage of its work. The institute connects specialists across disciplines to investigate diet-related chronic diseases and differences in how people respond to nutrition.

Professor Patrick Stover, one of ICON-Health’s founding directors, announced that a new biomarker research facility will be located in the soon-to-open FSU Health Research and Collaboration Building. The facility is expected to broaden opportunities to incorporate nutritional research into biological and medical studies.

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The planned facility will feature a microscope capable of measuring seven pathways related to health and disease simultaneously. Researchers will use fluorescent markers to observe those pathways and examine how cells respond to different amounts and combinations of nutrients.

That work will focus on biological responses that can help explain why the same nutritional exposure may affect individuals differently. By tracking cellular activity, researchers will be able to investigate whether particular nutrient combinations activate processes associated with health or disease.

“We can determine whether certain configurations of nutrients promote health pathways or promote disease pathways in the short term, which then correlates to long-term outcomes,” Stover said. “AI is reading this all the time, and when it sees a hit, it will go back and reoptimize that exposure and that response to maximize it and see what all the biological variables are.”

Stover also discussed the growing consideration of nutrition as a fundamental biological variable in research. He compared that discussion with the National Institutes of Health’s move about a decade ago to require researchers to consider sex as a biological variable in funded studies, reflecting differences in responses to medications, exposures and interventions.

“There are differences in fundamental biology, how our metabolism works, how our physiology works,” he said. “We all respond differently to the diet and that diet-disease connection. What’s good for one person in terms of maintaining their health may not be good for another person.”

The emphasis on individual responses connected the facility announcement with the symposium’s broader examination of diet, metabolism and treatment. Speakers approached those subjects through neuroscience, clinical care, sensory science and consumer behavior.

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According to figures cited in FSU’s account of the event, nearly three in four American adults are overweight or have obesity. The university also cited an estimate that 11% of U.S. adults, approximately 40 million people, now take a GLP-1 medication for weight loss, nearly four times the number in 2024.

Against that backdrop, presenters explored how weight-loss medications can influence food preferences and eating behavior. Speakers also emphasized physical activity and the preservation of muscle as important components of healthy weight loss.

Debra Ann Fadool, a distinguished research professor of biological science and neuroscience in FSU’s College of Arts and Sciences, discussed connections between the sense of smell and obesity. Her presentation was among several examining factors that influence eating and weight beyond food intake alone.

Gregg Stanwood, a professor of biomedical sciences in the College of Medicine, presented research on how GLP-1 drugs affect communication between the brain and gut. His work explores relationships involving the gut microbiome and the brain’s dopamine reward circuits.

“All motivated behavior comes from the brain,” Stanwood said.

The clinical perspective included a presentation from David W. Smith, a cardiologist with TMH Physician Partners, Services by Southern Medical Group. Smith addressed insulin resistance and fat accumulation in tissues and organs such as muscle, the liver, pancreas and heart. He also discussed lifestyle changes as a key element of cardiac rehabilitation following a heart attack.

Cammy Crolic, an assistant professor in the Dr. Persis E. Rockwood School of Marketing within the Herbert Wertheim College of Business, examined the relationship between wanting food and enjoying it. Her presentation considered how those influences can work in both directions.

Crolic said the food industry has responded to the success of GLP-1 medications with smaller portions and a stronger emphasis on product quality and enjoyment. She also described the medications as restoring people’s sense of willpower, adding a consumer perspective to the discussion of treatment and eating habits.

Beyond the research presentations, institute leaders highlighted the network ICON-Health has assembled since its launch. Its membership includes scientists, healthcare professionals and people at earlier stages of their research training.

“It’s exciting to be a year-old kid and already walking,” Professor Regan Bailey, an ICON-Health founding director, said in her welcome remarks. “We’ve been able to amass a team of more than 80 scientists, not only at the university but around the world. We have faculty, clinicians and allied health professionals as members, but importantly we also have students and trainees as members of ICON-Health.”

The symposium highlighted both that expanding membership and the institute’s partnerships as its leadership pursues improvements in public health and economic prosperity. Further information about its multidisciplinary research and work on diet-related chronic diseases is available on the ICON-Health website.