Skip to main content
ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Davis, California » Western Human Nutrition Research Center » Diet, Microbiome and Immunity Research » Research » Research Project #448153

Research Project: Collaborative Research on Machine Learning in Nutrition

Location: Diet, Microbiome and Immunity Research

Project Number: 2032-10700-002-029-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Jun 15, 2025
End Date: Apr 30, 2026

Objective:
The objective of this Non Assistance Cooperative Agreement is to facilitate the joint conduct of machine learning analyses of the project, "Valorization of Dairy Side streams to Fight Calcium Deficits in Postmenopausal Women" (RENEW study) of which the microbiome and all-study data analyses are being managed by USDA, Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Western Human Nutrition Research Center (WHNRC), located on the campus of the University of California, Davis (UC Davis). The purpose of this joint research will be to complete the machine learning analyses of all the study data from the RENEW project and to publish a manuscript.

Approach:
UC Davis will support this research by ARS by employing and providing supervision of an advanced postdoctoral fellow and providing access to a high-performance computing cluster. Because the samples were previously sequenced at the UC Davis Genome Center via a previous agreement, further analyses of these data at the same location will be efficient. The ARS scientist is an expert in machine learning and will co-mentor the postdoctoral fellow. Machine learning prediction algorithms will be trained and tested from RENEW data to determine (1) which features best discriminate the four dietary treatments, and (2) which features, study-wide, predict best bone mineral density.