C. elegans Based Assay to Identify the Health Benefits and Toxicity of Food Ingredients

The field of food science is growing rapidly to develop new substances with added nutritional values and discover new therapeutic benefits such as a source of natural antioxidants health- promoting materials nutraceuticals and potential functional foods. The identification and quantification of nutritional benefits in food ingredients and the evaluation of their biological activities are important to gauge their efficacy and safe applications. The traditional method of nutritional profiles using mass-spectrometry measurements provides knowledge of the active molecules but cannot provide any information on their biological activities that require in vivo models. Efficacy studies with higher mammals are costly and take several years to complete. To overcome these challenges we propose to develop a C. elegans-based alternative to animal testing strategy to assess the health benefits of ingredients available in food herbal preparations plants and derived products. Our high-resolution imaging platform with an automated image analysis pipeline will facilitate rapid detection of multiple phenotypes related to lipid storage stress level gut health growth and reproductive health. We will test the robustness of our assay and validate using six food ingredients in consultation with our industry and academia collaborators. In addition our assay will also help identify adverse effects allowing our customers to define safe-dose limits for their ingredients. Our technology can help identify the health benefits of novel food products and new materials helping USDA Food Science and Nutrition to meet the long-term goals of producing novel food products that can improve health and avoid adverse effects on human health outcomes.