CANHR II Research...

Developing a Novel Set of Diet Pattern
Biomarkers Based on Stable Isotope Ratios

Diane O’Brien, PhD, Project Principal Investigator
Rosemarie Plaetke, PhD, Co-Investigator
Bret Luick, PhD, Co-Investigator

CANHR researchers seek to understand how a subsistence diet either protects or prediposes Yup’ik people to disease. To do this we need to easily and accurately measure how much subsistence foods people eat. This project seeks to develop a new method to measure subsistence intake by matching natural isotopic signatures in blood or hair samples with those in foods. Isotopes could provide practical biomarkers of diet pattern that are quick, inexpensive to measure and don’t rely on memory and lengthy interviews.