Welcome to the Nebraska Food for Health Center

Welcome to the Nebraska Food for Health Center

James Schnable and Andrew Benson looking at a plant inside the greenhouses.

The mission of NFHC is to improve human health by linking agriculture and food production to wellness and disease prevention through microbiome research.

The Nebraska Food for Health Center (NFHC) was established in 2016 to serve as an organizational hub for promoting collaboration between research scientists in agricultural sciences and biomedical sciences. Through its specialized core facilities, collective faculty expertise, weekly meetings, and sponsored events, the Center brings together faculty from three different campuses of the University of Nebraska system (University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Nebraska Medical Center, and University of Nebraska-Omaha).

With the overall strategy of developing foods that can improve health by modulating the human gut microbiome, there are multiple interfaces where teams of scientists across a spectrum of disciplines collaborate. The NFHC research platform unites its member faculty from a diverse array of disciplines to work as collaborative teams and it provides a compass to drive discoveries and fundamental science in the agricultural and food sciences toward pre-clinical and clinical translation. The center’s novel focus on plant breeding to improve microbiome-active components of grains and legumes enables production of ingredients and foods with highly desirable effects on the gut microbiome and ultimately, our health. This focus also provides a powerful and unique link between agricultural research and biomedical research, broadening targets for crop improvement beyond yield and sustainability to include human nutrition and broadening targets for biomedical research beyond just drugs and pharmaceuticals to include foods designed to promote health and disease prevention.

Upcoming Events

Connect with Us