Bevital AS
Pregnancy and infancy, represent developmental windows where nutritional status can affect multiple metabolic processes impacting cell proliferation, organogenesis, epigenetic programming, embryonic development, placental health, pregnancy outcomes, infant growth, and neurodevelopment. Focusing on single nutrients, may overlook the dynamic nature of the maternal and infant metabolome, other nutritional factors, and their potential interaction with multiple metabolic processes. The approach may also overlook nuanced biochemical changes in response to intervention, in favor of focusing on changes in individual biomarkers and the use of arbitrary cut-offs, limiting understanding of intervention effects. Targeted metabolomics is one component of a systems biology approach to cohort studies and randomized controlled trials, allowing precise and simultaneous quantification of multiple nutrition-related and endogenous metabolites. This approach can be used to identify metabolic subgroups with specific responses to supplementation and to characterize distinct metabolic pathways that respond to the intervention, thereby improving mechanistic understanding and targeting of nutritional strategies. Utilizing the targeted analyses of B-vitamins and one-carbon metabolites, the presentation will describe metabolic profiles in pregnant mothers and infants. The presentation will aim to highlight metabolic signatures that potentially link B-vitamin status and intake to one-carbon metabolism. This work will inform future research questions and interventions to investigate nutritional factors and related metabolic mechanisms linked to impaired growth, neurodevelopment, and health outcomes.
As Research Director at Bevital, an internationally recognized targeted metabolomics laboratory, Adrian oversees the development and application of Bevital’s high-precision targeted metabolomics services. His expertise lies in developing and applying high-precision, targeted metabolomics techniques to investigate biomarkers, specific metabolites and metabolic pathways related to nutrition, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and neurodegenerative conditions. Adrian’s diverse publication record showcases the use of targeted metabolomics to investigate various disease states and outcomes. These include investigating vitamin B12, folate status, and one-carbon metabolism in relation to pregnancy, infant growth and development outcomes, amino acid profiling in relation to cardiometabolic, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative conditions, the kynurenine pathway and NAD metabolism in relation to inflammation, immune activation and neurological disorders, and gut-microbiome derived metabolites in relation to cancer, fatty liver disease, and more. In the past 12 years at Bevital, Adrian has partnered in a wide range of national and international collaborations across various fields of biomedical research investigating nutrition, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and neurodegenerative conditions across diverse cohorts and populations.