FSU’s ICON-Health marks first anniversary, announces new biomarker research facility

Florida State University’s Institute for Connecting Nutrition and Health (ICON-Health) marked its first anniversary by announcing plans for a new biomarker research facility during a symposium held Oct. 20 as part of FSU Discovery Days.

Nearly three in four U.S. adults are overweight or have obesity, and an estimated 11% of U.S. adults — about 40 million — now take a GLP-1 medication for weight loss, nearly four times the number in 2024. The “Blurry Lines: When Does Nutrition Become Medicine?” symposium examined how poor diet drives chronic disease and how lifestyle medicine and GLP-1 are changing treatments and even food choices.

The forces shaping how we eat are complex. Neuroscience and sensory science experts at the event described how weight-loss medications can influence food choices, helping people eat differently. They also emphasized that physical activity and preserving muscle are critical components of healthy weight loss.

The event also highlighted ICON-Health’s first-year accomplishments and partnerships as institute leadership works to improve public health and economic prosperity.

“It’s exciting to be a year-old kid and already walking,” Professor Regan Bailey, an ICON-Health founding director, said in her welcome remarks. “We’ve been able to amass a team of more than 80 scientists, not only at the university but around the world. We have faculty, clinicians and allied health professionals as members, but importantly we also have students and trainees as members of ICON-Health.”

New biomarker research facility

Professor Patrick Stover, a fellow ICON-Health founding director, announced a new biomarker research facility that will be housed in a soon-to-open FSU Health Research and Collaboration Building. The facility will significantly expand nutritional research opportunities across biological or medical studies.

Biomarkers help researchers understand how individuals respond differently to nutrients. The facility will feature a microscope that can measure seven health- and disease-related pathways simultaneously. Researchers can use fluorescent markers to track those pathways and study how cells respond to different nutrient doses and combinations.

“We can determine whether certain configurations of nutrients promote health pathways or promote disease pathways in the short term, which then correlates to long-term outcomes,” Stover said. “AI is reading this all the time, and when it sees a hit, it will go back and reoptimize that exposure and that response to maximize it and see what all the biological variables are.”

About a decade ago, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) began requiring that sex be considered as a biological variable in the research it funds, because men and women can respond differently to exposures, medications and interventions. Stover said nutrition is now being discussed as a fundamental biological variable in the same way.

“There are differences in fundamental biology, how our metabolism works, how our physiology works,” he said. “We all respond differently to the diet and that diet-disease connection. What’s good for one person in terms of maintaining their health may not be good for another person.”

Research presentations

With poor diet and food environments as primary drivers of obesity and other chronic diseases, weight loss was a recurring theme among the ICON-Health members presenting:

• Debra Ann Fadool, distinguished research professor of biological science and neuroscience in the College of Arts and Sciences, explored the connection between the sense of smell and obesity.
• Gregg Stanwood, professor of biomedical sciences in the College of Medicine, presented on how GLP-1 drugs rewire the brain and gut. “All motivated behavior comes from the brain,” said Stanwood, whose research explores the relationship between the brain and the gut microbiome, including the role of dopamine reward circuits.
• David W. Smith, a cardiologist with TMH Physician Partners, Services by Southern Medical Group, presented on insulin resistance — fat being stored where it should not be, in muscle, the liver, the pancreas and the heart — and on lifestyle change as a key part of cardiac rehabilitation after a heart attack.
• Cammy Crolic, assistant professor in the Dr. Persis E. Rockwood School of Marketing at the Herbert Wertheim College of Business, discussed how wanting a food can influence how much we like it, and vice versa. She said the food industry has responded to the success of GLP-1 drugs by reducing portion sizes and emphasizing higher-quality products and peak enjoyment. GLP drugs are restoring people’s sense of willpower, Crolic said.

Visit the ICON-Health website to learn more about how this institute is pioneering a comprehensive approach to tackle diet-related chronic diseases through its multidisciplinary nutrition research initiatives.