The Division of Nutrition established in 1985 has many research interests. These include developmental biology and nutrition, requirement of macro and micro nutrients across life cycle, clinical nutrition, body composition assessment, sarcopenia and metabolic flexibility and stable isotopic methods in nutrition.
The Division has over the last 25 years become a centre of excellence in human physiological and biochemical research. It also has begun to use molecular and epidemiological methods in order to study problems from a cell-to-society perspective. The research from the Division, particularly the energy and amino acid requirements of humans, has been used as core evidence in setting guidelines for requirements.
The Division of Nutrition is also an IAEA collaborative center.
The Clinical Nutrition unit of the division also provides nutritional and lifestyle advice for the patients of St. John’s Medical College Hospital. The patients are referred to the clinic either by self referral or from other departments. A complete nutritional assessment is conducted on the patients following which individualized dietary advice is provided. Dietary plan for specialized tube feeds and parenteral nutrition are also provided by the unit.