Arkansas Children’s Nutrition Center Celebrates 30 Years of Research to Make Kids Better Today and Healthier Tomorrow

LITTLE ROCK, AR. (Oct. 29, 2024) – The Arkansas Children’s Nutrition Center (ACNC) is celebrating three decades of discoveries that have helped children around the world grow up healthier and stronger.

ACNC was established in 1994 through congressional appropriation of USDA funding and today has a portfolio of large-scale studies exploring how maternal diet, physical activity and early feeding practices influence a child’s growth and development.

The center is part of the Arkansas Children’s Research Institute (ACRI) and is a partnership with the USDA-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS). ACNC is one of six National Human Nutrition Centers funded by the USDA-ARS, and one of just two focused on pediatric and maternal nutrition and metabolic health in the United States.

“The Arkansas Children’s Nutrition Center plays a critical role in defining and delivering unprecedented care for children,” said Pete Mourani, MD, senior vice president and chief research officer of Arkansas Children’s, president of ACRI and a professor of Pediatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). “We are a full-service research center that propels discovery science while simultaneously implementing evidence-based practices to understand how those elements work in real-life environments.”

ACNC opened as the only such center not housed on federal property and offering a six-bed live-in facility, multi-subject/day outpatient building, including clinical nutrition laboratory, human brain function laboratory, recruiting center, and psychological evaluation unit.

Over the last 30 years, USDA-ARS has invested more than $170 million in funding for Arkansas Children’s Nutrition Center. The National Institutes of Health has supported multiple ACNC projects as well. The translational research approach ACNC has taken over the past 30 years has enhanced our understanding of the impact of feeding infants human milk or various infant formulas on cognition, growth and development. It has also expanded our understanding of how nutrition and physical activity influence maternal and child metabolism and brain function during critical periods of development, including pregnancy, early childhood and pre-adolescence.

“ACNC’s research is truly translational,” Mourani said. “That means our scientists oversee studies within traditional scientific labs, as well as clinical studies and trials among children and mothers to examine how nutrition and physical activity impact growth and development. We are also proud to host community-based studies that take the best evidence we know from the lab and the clinic to real-world settings where families live, learn and play.”

To learn more about the studies in which ACNC is currently enrolling visit archildrens.org/acnc.

ABOUT ARKANSAS CHILDREN’S

Arkansas Children's is the only health care system in the state solely dedicated to caring for Arkansas' 850,000 children. The private, non-profit organization includes two pediatric hospitals, a pediatric research institute and USDA nutrition center, a philanthropic foundation, a nursery alliance, statewide clinics, and many education and outreach programs — all focused on fulfilling a promise to define and deliver unprecedented child health. Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH) is a 336-bed, Magnet-recognized facility in Little Rock operating the state’s only Level I pediatric trauma center; the state's only burn center; the state's only Level IV neonatal intensive care unit; the state's only pediatric intensive care unit; the state’s only pediatric surgery program with Level 1 verification from the American College of Surgeons (ACS); and the state's only nationally recognized pediatric transport program. Arkansas Children’s is nationally ranked by U.S. News & World Report in seven pediatric subspecialties (2024-2025): Cancer, Cardiology & Heart Surgery, Neonatal Care, Nephrology, Neurology & Neurosurgery, Orthopedics and Pulmonology & Lung Surgery. Arkansas Children’s Northwest (ACNW), the first and only pediatric hospital in the northwest Arkansas region, is a level IV pediatric trauma center. ACNW operates a 24-bed inpatient unit; a surgical unit with five operating rooms; outpatient clinics offering over 20 subspecialties; diagnostic services; imaging capabilities; occupational therapy services; and northwest Arkansas' only pediatric emergency department, equipped with 30 exam rooms. Generous philanthropic and volunteer engagement has sustained Arkansas Children's since it began as an orphanage in 1912, and today ensures the system can deliver on its promise of unprecedented child health. To learn more, visit archildrens.org.