Research Facilities

The School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition has a comprehensive inventory of well-equipped laboratories, animal and tissue culture facilities, and computer equipment. In addition to research carried out on campus, Faculty and students conduct research projects throughout Canada and the world. Fundamental research areas include developmental nutrition; trace element metabolism; carbohydrate, protein, lipid and cholesterol metabolism; neurochemistry; nutritional toxicology; clinical nutrition; maternal and child nutrition; nutrition and behaviour; nutritional epidemiology; nutrition in developing countries; nutrition and the environment of Indigenous Peoples; nutritional status assessment. Community nutrition research focuses on diet, health and disease in high-risk populations in Canada and developing countries.

Also on the Macdonald Campus is the Centre for Indigenous Peoples' Nutrition and Environment (CINE). The Centre provides study of the impact of environments on food systems and nutritional status of Indigenous Peoples in Canada and internationally. Emphasis is given to dietary patterns, food composition, nutritional toxicology, ecology and epidemiology.

The Crabtree Laboratories of the McGill Nutrition and Food Science Centre in the Royal Victoria Hospital Centre in Montréal and other McGill teaching hospitals have excellent clinical research facilities and offer opportunities to conduct clinical research in the areas of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, lipids, nutrition support, obesity, gastrointestinal disorders and pediatrics. A Clinical Nutrition Laboratory for human feeding studies has recently been set up at 7 Maple Street on the Macdonald campus. This facility allows the collection of in depth mechanistic information regarding the flux and metabolism of nutrients to be obtained non-invasively in humans. Several members of the Centre have research laboratories in other teaching hospitals and departments of McGill University in diverse areas of research are pursued, from basic to clinical, involving vitamins, amino acid and protein metabolism, lipid metabolism and disorders, neurochemical effects of nutrients, oncology, and others.

Community nutrition research directed by faculty currently include projects in the Montreal area, and in communities of Indigenous Peoples. Through McGill International there are research programs in Latin America and in Africa.