Sanford Health gives five grants to SDSU

Five research studies have been selected to receive grant funding through a partnership between South Dakota State University and Sanford Health. The collaborative research on human nutrition, weight management and other dietary-related areas addresses the key objectives of Profile by Sanford.Sanford Health is providing $250,000 annually for five years for the seed-grant program. Also, SDSU obtained an additional $170,000 through the South Dakota Board of Regents Research and Development Innovation program to bring the total collaboration with Sanford to $420,000 for the 2015 fiscal year.The grant recipients' areas of study will include the following:

• Lacey McCormack, Ph.D. (College of Education and Human Sciences)"Successful weight management: Barriers and facilitators to losing and maintaining weight"Purpose: To improve the long-term success of the Profile program by focusing and creating educational solutions that reduce barriers to weight loss and weight maintenance and capitalize on generative moments.
• Jay Trenhaile, Ed.D. (College of Education and Human Sciences)"The Impact of ongoing motivational interviewing training on Profile coaches in the area of weight loss"Purpose: To provide training to several randomly selected coaches to develop and refine skills in motivational interviewing with an emphasis placed on relationship building between coach and member.
• Hemachand Tummala, Pharm.D. (College of Pharmacy)"Safety and efficacy of Profile by Sanford diet formula in conjunction with novel anticancer drugs for cancer therapy"Purpose: To improve the therapeutic outcomes in cancer patients through a combination of a specially designed diet formula with novel drugs.
• Bonny Specker, Ph.D. (EA Martin Program in Human Nutrition)"Yoga: Improving compliance and long-term weight loss with Profile"Purpose: To determine the effectiveness of a three-month yoga program on increasing compliance and improving weight loss while participating in the Profile program.
• Moul Dey, Ph.D. (College of Education and Human Sciences)"Epigenetic outcome of prenatal high fat diet in offspring cardio-metabolic health"Purpose: To delineate epigenetic alterations arising from in utero exposure to a maternal high fat-intake and late gestation diabetic conditions using a previously validated rat model.

"We're pleased with the number of applicants and with those selected for this research," said Rich Adcock, president of Sanford Frontiers, which developed Profile. "This natural collaboration between SDSU and Sanford is sure to expand our research and efforts of development."About Sanford HealthSanford Health is an integrated health system headquartered in the Dakotas and is now the largest, rural, not-for-profit health care system in the nation with locations in 126 communities in nine states. In addition, Sanford Health is in the process of developing international clinics in Ghana, Israel, Mexico and China. Sanford Health includes 39 hospitals, 140 clinic locations and 1,360 physicians in 81 specialty areas of medicine. With more than 26,000 employees, Sanford Health is the largest employer in North Dakota and South Dakota. The system is experiencing dynamic growth and development in conjunction with nearly a $1 billion in gifts from philanthropist Denny Sanford. These gifts are making possible the implementation of several initiatives, including global children's clinics, multiple research centers and finding cures for type 1 diabetes and breast cancer. For more information, visit sanfordhealth.org.