International Atomic Energy Agency partners with India’s St. John’s Research Institute
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), headquartered in Austria, and Bengaluru-based St. John’s Research Institute (SJRI) have agreed to increase cooperation to better understand the underlying factors of complex nutritional problems.
The synergies of the IAEA and SJRI will allow tackling challenges countries face in nutrition.
Redesignated as an IAEA Collaborating Centre until 2025, the Institute will contribute to defining daily requirements of vitamin B12 and the dosages used in clinical supplementation and public health fortification programmes. Vitamin B12 deficiency is a widespread, growing public health problem globally with significant nutritional and clinical importance.
SJRI is working on developing a more accurate, non-invasive method to improve evaluating bone health of elder people and the responsiveness of interventions to prevent osteoporosis. To enable easier monitoring of child growth and body composition as part of bigger surveys, the Institute will develop and validate an App that measures length of under 3-year-old children, as well as body volume, body density and body fat in adults.
SJRI was designated as the first IAEA Collaborating Centre for Nutrition in 2010 and the designation was renewed in May 2016.