Grant: Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship Program

Rationale: Cancer often results in serious muscle loss, which can make chemotherapy side effects worse. Eating enough protein is important for muscle health, but people respond differently to changes in their diet because of individual factors like their genes and habits. Precision nutrition, which means making diet plans tailored to each person's specific needs, may help. However, this area, especially for patients with cancer, needs more research. Aims: Our team has recently studied whether a high-protein diet can prevent muscle loss in people with colorectal cancer. Now, we want to expand this research using precision nutrition. We will study how individuals respond to the diet in the study and explore the links between body chemicals, gene activity, and muscle and fat levels. We will also use what we learn to design and conduct a study to explore how effective personalized digital nutrition advice is for helping patients with cancer gain muscle. Research Plan: I will use urine and blood samples before and after the diet change to look for muscle-related markers and see how they relate to overall health and body makeup. I want to identify markers that work well to a high-protein diet and find new ones for muscle mass. I will also run a 12-week digital program to try to boost muscle mass in patients, using what we learned from the previous tests to give personalized nutrition advice. Anticipated results/impact: My study is very important for patients and our health care system. I will find ways to build muscle to have a direct beneficial for people with cancer. I will observe how people respond to a high-protein diet and expect to find groups of people with unique responses in our study. This information will help us give more personalized diet advice. People can live longer and better lives. If our study is successful, it could lead to more research in precision nutrition, helping people with different health conditions.