Minghua Tang
Colorado State University-Fort Collins, CO·Public Health & Epidemiology
Rapid weight and fat gain in the first two years of life is one of the main drivers of obesity and metabolic syndrome later in childhood and adulthood. This window includes the complementary feeding period, when infants start eating foods beyond breastmilk or formula.
- Fields
Public Health & Epidemiology
Medicine & Clinical Research
Microbiology & Immunology
- Topics
infant nutrition
complementary feeding
gut microbiota
- Grants
- 3 known grants, through May 2030
What they work on
- Determine how meat-, dairy- and plant-based complementary diets affect infant growth from 5 to 12 months in a 300-infant randomized controlled feeding trial with longitudinal growth and body composition measures.
- Test how protein-rich foods shape gut microbiota development and blood markers such as IGF-1, a growth hormone, and insulin, and whether microbial changes relate to infant growth.
- Map how complementary feeding changes fecal metabolites from diet, microbes and host, and how these metabolites relate to growth and body composition in trial infants.
- Test whether fecal metabolites cause diet-driven differences in growth by transferring infant samples into germ-free mice, which lack their own gut microbes.
- Identify independent and combined effects of infant sleep, measured by actigraphy and sleep diaries, and gut microbiota, measured by 16S rRNA sequencing and metabolomics, on rapid weight and fat gain.
More about the research
During this time, the body and the gut microbiota, the community of bacteria living in the intestine, change rapidly. Current dietary guidance for infants and toddlers is limited. The lab's projects connect what babies eat and how they sleep with their gut microbes, the small molecules those microbes produce, and patterns of infant growth.
Why it matters
Early rapid weight gain sets children on a path toward obesity, yet there are few effective ways to prevent it and little evidence-based feeding guidance for infants. This work could support evidence-based dietary recommendations for complementary feeding. It may also point to beneficial gut bacteria, protective metabolites, and sleep-based interventions that help parents and pediatricians reduce later obesity risk.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
The role of fecal metabolites in growth and risk of overweight during complimentary feeding
NIH · Aug 2026 – May 2030
The roles of sleep patterns and gut microbiota in rapid weight and fat gain early in life
NIH · Jul 2026 – Mar 2030
Dietary influence on infant growth and the gut microbiota
NIH · Feb 2021 – Jan 2027
Closest labs
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Jigna Dharod
University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC·Public Health & Epidemiology
Test whether the SMile intervention, combining cash or breast-pump incentives with peer-counselor home visits, raises breastfeeding self-efficacy and exclusive breastfeeding for six months among 120 Hispanic WIC mothers in a randomized trial.
Murali Temburni
Delaware State University, DE·Neuroscience
Test how the type and amount of dietary fat changes gut microbial community composition in male and female chickens across ages, using 16S rRNA sequencing and shotgun metagenomics.
The school
Colorado State University-Fort Collins: 23 labs on PI Pages, $466M a year on research, 276 research doctorates a year.
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