MSK researchers identify key player in childhood food allergies: Thetis cells

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

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Dr. Chrysothemis Brown

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Credit: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

A decade ago, a clinical trial in the U.K. famously showed that children who were exposed to peanuts in the early months of life had reduced risk of developing a peanut allergy compared with children who avoided peanuts.

Now, researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) have a likely answer as to why that’s the case: Thetis cells.

This recently discovered class of immune cells, which were first described by MSK researchers in 2022, plays an essential and previously unknown role in suppressing inflammatory responses to food, according to findings published May 15 in Science, one of the world’s premier scientific journals.

Moreover, the study, which was conducted in mouse models, points to a critical window in the early months of life for training the immune system not to overreact to food allergens — what scientists call “oral tolerance.”

The study also opens the door to new therapeutic possibilities, the researchers say.

“This is a great example of how clinical studies can reveal clues to fundamental mechanisms in biology,” says physician-scientist Chrysothemis Brown, MD, PhD, the study’s senior author. “These new understandings can pave the way for new treatment strategies for food allergies, which are desperately needed.”

The research was led by co-first authors from the Brown Lab: pediatric hematologist-oncologist Vanja Cabric, MD, and research assistant Yollanda Franco Parisotto, PhD.

Thetis Cells Train the Immune System To Tolerate Helpful Outsiders

Thetis cells are a type of antigen-presenting cell, whose job is to present foreign substances (antigens) to other immune cells. Antigen-presenting cells must educate the immune system. These cells provide signals that tell the immune system to attack foreign bacteria and viruses — or instruct it to tolerate harmless proteins in the foods we eat.

Previous research led by Dr. Brown and immunologist Alexander Rudensky, PhD, Chair of the Immunology Program at MSK’s Sloan Kettering Institute, identified a window in early life where a “developmental wave” of Thetis cells within the gut creates an opportunity for developing immune tolerance.

“We previously showed that Thetis cells train the immune system not to attack the helpful bacteria in the digestive system. So we wondered whether these cells might also be important for preventing inflammatory responses to food, and whether the increased abundance of the cells during early life would result in increased protection against food allergy,” says Dr. Brown, whose lab is in MSK’s Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program (HOPP).

The new study found that Thetis cells not only help to broker peace accords with “good” bacteria, but also with proteins in foods that can act as allergens — such the Ara h proteins found in peanuts (though they weren’t specifically tested in the study) or the ovalbumin found in eggs.

Thetis cells got their name because they share traits with two different types of antigen-presenting cells: medullary thymic epithelial cells and dendritic cells — just as Thetis in Greek mythology had shape-shifting attributes.

A Key Role for Gut-Draining Lymph Nodes

The research team used a variety of genetically engineered mouse models to investigate oral tolerance. They attached a fluorescent dye to ovalbumin — a protein found in eggs and a common allergen — in order to visualize which cells in the gut interacted with it.

And this showed that a subset of Thetis cells — the same ones that regulated tolerance to healthy gut bacteria — took up the protein. This allowed Thetis cells to program another type of immune cell called regulatory T cells to suppress the immune response to the egg protein, essentially telling the body it was safe.

“This process is often studied in adult models, but by examining what happens when mice first encounter food proteins at the time of weaning, we could see which specific cells were critical to generating tolerance to food during early life,” Dr. Cabric says.

Although Thetis cells could also induce tolerance throughout life, there was a significant difference in the immune response when the egg protein was introduced later.

“The number of regulatory T cells that are generated during this developmental wave in young mice was about eightfold higher than in adult mice,” Dr. Parisotto says. “And once established, this tolerance is long-lasting.”

One might imagine this as a tug-of-war between the gas pedal of the immune system and the brakes, Dr. Brown adds. When food allergens are introduced early on, it enables the body to put the brakes on the immune response much more strongly. But after this developmental wave, when far fewer Thetis cells are present, the brakes aren’t always sufficient to overcome the effects of other antigen-presenting cells that act as the gas pedal — pushing the immune system to mount inflammatory responses to foreign proteins.

New Understandings Suggest New Treatment Strategies

This new mechanistic understanding of food tolerance opens new therapeutic possibilities, Dr. Brown says.

“We’ve shown that there is a window for generating stronger tolerance, which is mediated by Thetis cells,” she says. “What this suggests is that one might develop new strategies to deliver food antigens directly to Thetis cells to promote tolerance, even though they’re rarer outside of this developmental window.”

While the current study did not examine the oral tolerance process in humans, other researchers have shown that Thetis cells in mice and humans are extremely similar.

Along with the increased abundance of Thetis cells during early life, the subset of Thetis cells that induce tolerance — called Thetis cell IV — were very rare outside of gut lymph nodes.

“Not only does this research underscore the consensus within the allergy community about the benefits of early introduction of allergens, but it also explains why, for example, we don’t see a similar tolerance develop when the same antigens are delivered through other routes, like the skin,” Dr. Brown says.

Further, by shedding new light on how Thetis cells work and how they participate in the development of immune responses early in life, Dr. Brown and her lab are getting new insights into how they may influence the immune response to early childhood cancers.

Additional Authors, Funding, and Disclosures

Additional authors of the study include Tyler Park, Blossom Akagbosu, Zihan Zhao, Yun Lo, Gayathri Shibu, Logan Fisher, Yoselin Paucar Iza, and Christina Leslie, all of MSK.

The research was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (DP2AI171116), National Cancer Institute (P30 CA08748), the Mathers Foundation, the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, a Pew Biomedical Scholar Award, a Josie Robertson Investigator Award, the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, the Kristen Ann Carr Fund, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Gilliam Fellowship, and a Kravis WiSE fellowship.

The authors report no competing interests.

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Journal

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.adp0535 

Article Title

A wave of Thetis cells imparts tolerance to food antigens early in life

Article Publication Date

15-May-2025

 

Two HIV vaccine trials show proof of concept for pathway to broadly neutralizing antibodies

North American and African clinical trials led by Scripps Research, IAVI and additional collaborators across the U.S. and Africa mark progress toward an effective HIV vaccine.

Scripps Research Institute

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LA JOLLA, CA and NEW YORK, NY—A decades-long scientific challenge in HIV vaccine development has been finding a way to train the immune system to produce antibodies that can target many variants of the virus. Traditional approaches haven’t worked—largely because HIV mutates rapidly and hides key parts of itself from the immune system.

Now, a new study combining data from two separate phase 1 clinical trials shows that a targeted vaccine strategy can successfully activate early immune responses relevant to HIV, and, in one trial, further advance them—a key step toward a long-sought goal in vaccine development. Conducted by an international team led by scientists at IAVI and Scripps Research, the trials included nearly 80 participants from both North America and Africa, laying essential groundwork for a future HIV vaccine with global potential. The study was published in Science on May 15, 2025.

One of the trials tested a stepwise vaccination strategy, in which a priming dose and a distinct booster dose were given sequentially to guide the immune system through stages of antibody development. That trial demonstrated that administering this combination—a technique known as heterologous boosting—could further advance the immune response in humans. The second trial focused on the priming stage and showed that an initial vaccine dose could successfully activate the desired immune cells in African participants, supporting the use of this approach in regions most affected by HIV. In both trials, the vaccines were delivered using an mRNA-based vaccine platform—similar to the technology used in the COVID-19 vaccines—which enabled faster production and clinical testing, and provided strong immune responses.

“We’ve now shown in humans that we can initiate the desired immune response with one shot and then drive the response further forward with a different second shot. We’ve also shown that the first shot can work well in African populations,” says senior author William Schief, a professor of immunology and microbiology at Scripps Research; vice president for protein design in infectious disease research at Moderna, Inc.; and executive director of vaccine design at IAVI’s Neutralizing Antibody Center. “These trials provide proof of concept for a stepwise approach to elicit custom-tailored responses—not just for our vaccine, but for the vaccine field at large, including non-HIV vaccines.”

“These remarkable results validate the rational vaccine design that underpins this approach,” adds Mark Feinberg, President and CEO of IAVI.  “A vaccine would be a tremendous step forward for global health and could help bring an end to the HIV pandemic. This effort has been made possible by a phenomenal collaboration of scientific research institutions, funders, private sector and government—and is a testament to the power of partnership-driven scientific inquiry.”

Broadly neutralizing antibodies, or bnAbs, are a rare type of immune defense that can recognize and block a wide range of HIV variants. Unlike standard antibodies, which often only recognize a specific variant of the virus, bnAbs target parts of HIV that stay the same even as the virus mutates. Scientists have long viewed bnAbs as the immune system’s best shot at preventing HIV infection.

The first step in helping the body produce bnAbs is through what’s known as a priming vaccine—an initial dose designed to activate rare, naïve B cells with the potential to eventually produce bnAbs. This approach is called germline targeting. B cells are a type of white blood cell that play a central role in the immune system by making antibodies that recognize and fight off viruses and other threats. Later vaccine doses, known as boosters, guide those cells through a process of maturation toward producing HIV-targeting antibodies. Even though these trials weren’t intended to generate bnAbs themselves, they demonstrated that the vaccine strategy to deliver a series of different shots to guide the immune system to produce bnAbs has great promise.

Targeting the right cells at the right time

This work builds on two key lines of earlier research emerging from Schief’s lab: results published in 2022 from the IAVI G001 clinical trial, which showed how a protein-based vaccine could successfully activate the rare immune cells needed to initiate bnAb development, and a series of four preclinical studies published in 2024 that demonstrated how a multi-step vaccination strategy could guide the immune system toward producing protective antibodies.

The new study analyzed data from two distinct phase 1 clinical trials: the IAVI G002 trial, conducted in North America, and the IAVI G003 trial, conducted specifically in South Africa and Rwanda—countries that are among the most affected by HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. G002 enrolled 60 participants, while G003 enrolled 18. Both trials used germline targeting.

In G002, participants received either the priming vaccine alone or the priming vaccine followed by a slightly different booster—the latter being the heterologous boosting strategy. This two-step process is designed to guide the immune response further along the path toward bnAb development by generating VRC01-class antibodies—early immune defenses with key features of bnAbs. Named after a well-studied bnAb that neutralizes a wide range of HIV variants, VRC01-class antibodies block HIV from binding to a host cell’s entry receptor by targeting a region of HIV that rarely changes, despite the virus’s rapid mutation. Thus, these antibodies are considered among the most promising leads in HIV vaccine development.

All 17 participants in G002 who received both the priming vaccine and the booster developed VRC01-class responses, and more than 80% of them showed “elite” responses—meaning their immune cells acquired multiple helpful mutations linked to bnAb development. Participants who received only the priming vaccine also generated VRC01-class responses, but their antibody responses were generally less mature. Notably, giving just one priming dose before the booster was more effective than giving two priming doses before the boost.

“What really surprised us was the quality of the immune response we saw after just two shots—one prime and one heterologous boost,” says Schief. “We didn’t anticipate it would be that favorable.”

In G003, participants received two doses of the priming vaccine, but no booster. The vaccine successfully triggered VRC01-class responses in 94% of participants, showing similarly high levels of antibody mutation and diversity as seen in G002. Although one participant didn’t respond due to a gene variant that made the vaccine less effective, all other participants showed activation of the target naïve B cells.

“These incredibly exciting results underscore the importance and capability of global partnerships to drive cutting-edge science,” says Julien Nyombayire, executive director of the Center for Family Health Research in Kigali, Rwanda, and one of the lead principal investigators of G003. “It was essential to conduct this evaluation in African populations to ensure that our results reflect the safety and immunologic data from high-burden communities who would deeply benefit from an HIV vaccine.”

“By and large, the immune responses were quite similar in Africa and North America,” adds Schief. “That’s encouraging for a vaccine intended for global use.”

Besides the occurrence of skin reactions, the vaccine regimen was generally well tolerated. In G002, 18% of participants experienced skin reactions such as itching and urticaria (hives), and 10% developed chronic urticaria—defined as symptoms lasting six weeks or longer. These events were typically mild or moderate, often managed with antihistamines, and all ultimately resolved. In G003, there were no cases of urticaria, though two participants (11%) experienced mild, short-lived itching managed with antihistamines.

Compared with other Moderna mRNA vaccines—such as those for COVID-19—the regimen used in G002 showed a higher incidence of urticaria. The researchers will investigate these reactions to inform future mitigation strategies. Moderna also partnered in both trials, providing the mRNA vaccines and crucial support for the preclinical development and regulatory filings.

Schief notes that a follow-up study is planned in South Africa to evaluate the same prime-boost approach tested in G002, but at a lower dose, building on the elite responses seen in the boosted group.

“We also now have a better idea of what kinds of immune cells we need to target to keep moving the response forward,” he says.

 

In addition to Schief and Nyombayire, authors of the study, “Vaccination with mRNA-encoded nanoparticles drives early maturation of HIV bnAb precursors in humans,” include Yumiko Adachi, Nushin Alavi, Sonya Amirzehni, Sabyasachi Baboo, Christopher A. Cottrell, Jolene Diedrich, Claudia Flynn, Erik Georgeson, Grace Gibson, Alessia Liguori, Katherine McKenney, Oleksandr Kalyuzhniy, Michael Kubitz, Elise Landais, Jeong Hyun Lee, Danny Lu, Gabriel Ozorowski, James C. Paulson, Nicole Phelps, Swastik Phulera, Torben Schiffner, Troy Sincomb, Ryan Tingle, Andrew B. Ward, Jordan R. Willis, John R. Yates III and Xiaoya Zhou of Scripps Research; Sarah F. Andrews, Jalen Jean-Baptiste, Alison Benner, Jennifer A. Bohl, Rhianna Bronson, Suprabhath Gajjala, Richard A. Koup, D. Collins Owuor, Sharon A. Owuor, Madhu Prabhakaran, Mukundhan Ramaswami, Zahra Rikhtegaran-Tehrani and Weiwei Wu of the National Institutes of Health’s Vaccine Research Center; John N. Kimotho, Michael Muteti, Michelle Muthui, Eunice W. Nduati, Diana V. Nyabundi, Wilfrida A Ogonda and Yiakon Sein of the Wellcome Trust Research Programme; Praveen Alamuri, Kiara Benson, Devin J. Hunt, Allison Kennedy, Nahid R. Keshavarzi, Vincent Muturi-Kioi, Dominick Laddy, Dagna S. Laufer, Mabela Matsoso, Linda M. Murungi, Ansuya Naidoo, Jennifer Santos, Melissa Schroeter, Marisa Shields, Devin Sok, Kristen Syvertsen and Johan Vekemans of IAVI; Erica Beatman, Allan C. deCamp, Michael Duff, Drienna Holman, Ollivier Hyrien, Gabrielle Lemire, Ju Yeong Kim, Soo-Young Kim, Kellie J. MacPhee, M. Juliana McElrath, Janine Maenza, Adrienne E. Shapiro and Amanda Tsai of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center; Hongmei Gao, Kelli Greene, David Montefiori, Caleb Kibet, Georgia Tomaras and Nicole L. Yates of Duke University; Martin M. Corcoran, Gunilla B. Karlsson Hedestam and Isabel Regadas of Karolinska Institutet; Omu Anzala, Ruth Chirchir, Daniel Muema and Joel Musando of KAVI; Baoyu Ding, Chunla He, Sunny Himansu, Brett Leav, Li-An Lin, Caroline Reuter and Walter L. Straus of Moderna Inc.; David M. Brown of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health; Adrian B. McDermott of Sanofi; Pholo Maenetje and Edward Vinodh of the Rustenburg Research Centre; Rosine Ingabire, Etienne Karita of the Center for Family Health Research; Srilatha Edupuganti of Emory University; Barbara S. Taylor of The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio; and David Diemert of The George Washington University.

This work was supported by funding from the Gates Foundation Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery (CAVIMC INV-007368, CAVIMC INV-036842, CCVIMC INV-007371, VISC INV-008017, INV-032929, CAVD network INV-002916, VxPDC INV-008352, INV-007375, NAC INV-007522, INV-008813, INV-007385 and INV-005175); IAVI (IAVI 167627819, IAVI A0803); the IAVI Neutralizing Antibody Center; the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) (UM1 Al100663 and UM1 AI144462); the Intramural Research Program of NIAID; the Swedish Research Council (2017-00968); Moderna, Inc.; the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) (AID-5 OAA-A-16-00032 and IAVI A11257); and the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

About Scripps Research

Scripps Research is an independent, nonprofit biomedical research institute ranked one of the most influential in the world for its impact on innovation by Nature Index. We are advancing human health through profound discoveries that address pressing medical concerns around the globe. Our drug discovery and development division, Calibr-Skaggs, works hand-in-hand with scientists across disciplines to bring new medicines to patients as quickly and efficiently as possible, while teams at Scripps Research Translational Institute harness genomics, digital medicine and cutting-edge informatics to understand individual health and render more effective healthcare. Scripps Research also trains the next generation of leading scientists at our Skaggs Graduate School, consistently named among the top 10 US programs for chemistry and biological sciences. Learn more at www.scripps.edu.

About IAVI

IAVI is a non-profit scientific research organization dedicated to addressing global, unmet health challenges including HIV, tuberculosis and a range of emerging infectious diseases. Its mission is to translate scientific discoveries into affordable, globally accessible public health tools. Read more at iavi.org.

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Journal

Science

 

Proof of concept for Amsterdam UMC-led HIV vaccination

First in-human assessment of germline-targeting strategy with a trimer displays positive results

Amsterdam University Medical Center

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Worldwide, an estimated 40 million people live with HIV. Two-thirds of this group on the African continent. In 2023, more than 600,000 people died from HIV-related causes and 1.32 million were infected. There is no vaccine against the world's second most deadly infection, after TB. However, researchers from Amsterdam UMC have set an important first step in reaching that goal. The results of their phase one trial are published today in Science.

"In short, for a preventative HIV-vaccine to work it should induce broadly neutralising antibodies against all the diverse strains of the virus. We've seen that those who have been infected with HIV have been able to develop these antibodies but it's incredibly challenging to trigger the body to produce these antibodies with a vaccination," says Tom Caniels, postdoctoral researcher at Amsterdam UMC and first author of the study.

Together with partners from Rockefeller University, and ten other American partners, the Amsterdam-based research team set out to trigger this response by developing a vaccine that uses specifically engineered immunogens, known as germline-targeting.

After developing this in the lab, the team built a vaccine that gave participants a dose of the Env trimer GT1.1. A priming immunogen that should trigger the body's antibody response. 47 participants in the trial received either a high dose, a low dose or a placebo.

"Across the participants we saw an immune response that indicates that we're on the right track. We saw that we can target the cells that we need to target with atomic precision. The next step is to further stimulate these cells to secrete broadly neutralizing antibodies," says Rogier Sanders, Professor of Virology at Amsterdam UMC and last author of the study.

If the team can reach their next goal it would continue their work to ultimately create a vaccine for HIV. Something that Sanders and his team have been working on since the turn of the millennium.

Global Context

This finding comes at a time when many studies, funded by the American National Institute of Health, like this one are facing uncertain futures. Constance Schultsz, Professor of Global Health and Head of Amsterdam UMC’s Global Health department believes that findings like this one should be celebrated:

“This positive outcome is an important step and is the result of the combined ingenuity and perseverance of international researchers over many years. It is a success we absolutely need to celebrate in a time in which global health, particularly in relation to HIV, is affected in many ways. We should make sure and work together that the follow-up studies on this vaccine can move on as planned considering their potential global impact, if proven successful,” she says.

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Journal

Science

Method of Research

Randomized controlled/clinical trial

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Precise targeting of HIV broadly neutralizing antibody precursors in humans

Article Publication Date

15-May-2025

 

Dental and vision services among veterans in Medicare Advantage vs traditional Medicare

JAMA Network

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About The Study: Although Medicare Advantage (MA) plans offer and directly market supplemental benefits for dental and vision services, veterans enrolled in MA used these services with the same frequency as veterans in traditional Medicare (TM). Moreover, MA plans spent only modestly more on dental services and vision services for veterans than TM, including for emergency dental services. After accounting for private insurance plans used by TM enrollees and out-of-pocket spending, total spending on dental services was no different for veterans in MA vs TM. 

Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, José F. Figueroa, MD, MPH, email jfigueroa@hsph.harvard.edu.

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/

(doi:10.1001/jama.2025.7753)

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

#  #  #

Media advisory: This study is being presented at the 2025 Society of General Internal Medicine Annual Meeting.

Embed this link to provide your readers free access to the full-text article This link will be live at the embargo time https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/10.1001/jama.2025.7753?guestAccessKey=38b53780-a007-4be7-b17a-a43c9139270b&utm_source=for_the_media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_content=tfl&utm_term=051525

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Journal

JAMA

 

Study suggests loss of lung capacity begins between the ages of 20 and 25

Research based on eight cohorts from Europe and Australia, provides new guidelines for assessing and monitoring lung health throughout life

Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal)

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A study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a centre supported by ”la Caixa” Foundation, in collaboration with the Clínic-IDIBAPS, has shown for the first time, how lung capacity evolves from childhood to old age. The findings, published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, provide a new basic framework for assessing lung health.

Until now, it was thought that lung function increased until it peaked at around 20–25 years of age, after which it stabilised. It was also thought that in later adulthood, lung function begins to decline as the lungs age. However, this model was based on studies that did not cover the whole life course.

In contrast, the current study used an “accelerated cohort design”, meaning data from several cohort studies were combined to cover the desired age range. “We included more than 30,000 individuals aged 4 to 82 years from eight population-based cohort studies in Europe and Australia,” explains Judith Garcia-Aymerich, first author of the study and co-director of the ISGlobal programme on Environment and Health over the Life Course. Lung function and lung capacity parameters were assessed using forced spirometry, a test in which the patient exhales all the air as quickly as possible after taking a deep breath. Data on active smoking and asthma diagnosis were also collected.

Two growth phases and an early decline

The study showed that lung function develops in two distinct phases: a first phase of rapid growth during childhood and a second phase of slower growth until peak lung function is reached. Lung function was assessed using two parameters: forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), which measures the amount of air expelled in the first second of a forced breath after a deep inhalation; and forced vital capacity (FVC), which is the maximum amount of air a person can breathe out without a time limit after a deep inhalation. 

In women, FEV1 peaks around the age of 20, while in men it peaks around the age of 23. Surprisingly, the study found no evidence of a stable phase following this peak. "Previous models suggested a plateau phase until the age of 40, but our data show that lung function starts to decline much earlier than previously thought, immediately after the peak," explains Garcia-Aymerich.

Factors affecting lung function

The analysis shows that both persistent asthma and smoking affect lung function, but in a different way than previously thought. People with persistent asthma reach an earlier FEV1 peak and have lower levels throughout life, while smoking is associated with a more rapid decline in lung function from the age of 35.

Public health and clinical implications

These findings highlight the importance of promoting respiratory health and conducting early monitoring of lung function early in life using spirometry. "Early detection of low lung function may allow interventions to prevent chronic respiratory diseases in adulthood," concludes Rosa Faner, researcher at the University of Barcelona and at Clínic-IDIBAPS, and last author of the study.

 

Reference

Garcia-Aymerich, J., de las Heras, M., Carsin, A.-E., Accordini, S., Agustí, A., Bui, D., C Dharmage, S., W Dodd, J., Eze, I., Gehring, U., Gislason, T., Granell, R., Imboden, M., Íñiguez, C., Jeong, A., Koch, S., H Koppelman, G., Leynaert, B., Melén, E., … Faner, R. (n.d.). General Population-Based Lung Function Trajectories Over The Life Course. An Accelerated Cohort Study. The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, 2025.

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Journal

The Lancet Respiratory Medicine

DOI

10.1016/S2213-2600 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

COI Statement

JG-A, MdlH, A-EC, SA, DB, UG, TG, RG, MI, CI, AJ, SK, BL, NP-H, LS-M, MT, DV, JMV, MdV, EHW, GW, and DJ declare no competing interests. IE was unreachable at the time of final submission and therefore their declaration is unknown.

 

School dinners may encourage picky teenagers to eat better, says new study

University of Bristol

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Having school dinners rather than packed lunches could encourage picky eating 13-year-olds to eat a wider variety of foods, according to a new University of Bristol-led study.  The findings are published in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics today [15 May].

The research showed when children who were picky eaters as preschoolers got to choose their own food (school dinners) at lunchtime, they were less picky in what they ate, compared with a packed lunch. To the research team’s knowledge, this is the first time that lunchtime food behaviours in picky children have been studied outside of the home, and away from family influence.  

In the study, picky children were less likely than their non-picky peers to have meat or fish sandwich fillings, and more likely to have fillings such as marmite, peanut butter or cheese spread. They were also less likely to eat fruit or salad in packed lunches. However, when picky children ate school dinners, they did not avoid meat, fish or fruit. They ate a wider variety of foods and made more similar choices to those of their peers.

Researchers looked at questionnaire data from more than 5,300 children in the longitudinal Children of the 90s study. They analysed data from multiple pre-school ages and again at age 13 years, to understand how picky eating behaviour changes over time.

Of the children participating, around half had packed lunch on most days, over a quarter had school dinners on most days and just over a third more had school dinners on some days. A quarter of children admitted to sometimes skipping lunch completely. There was no difference in the frequency of having packed lunches versus school dinners between picky and non-picky eaters.

Picky eating peaks at around 3 years of age, but this study revealed that some of those who were picky as toddlers go on to have similar traits at 13 years old. However, school dinners could help picky children explore more foods and become healthier overall. 

It is well known that picky children consume less fruits and vegetables than others, but the study found that almost all children were not eating enough vegetables. Vegetables are crucial for children to get the fibre, vitamins and minerals that they require for healthy development and to avoid long-term health conditions. 

Dr Caroline Taylor, lead researcher and Associate Professor in Nutrition at the University of Bristol, said: “Every child is different, and what works for some won’t work for others. We found that school dinners could be a good option to increase variety in the diets of picky teens, but there are plenty of other things parents can do to encourage a healthy diet. Whether that is enjoying family meals together, modelling a balanced diet yourself, or involving them in meal preparation, it all helps.

“We know that most picky children are eating enough, but they’re sometimes lacking a good balance of foods. It’s important to encourage all children to eat enough nutrient-rich fruits and vegetables to help them grow and develop, whether that’s at home or at school.”

Dr Taylor and her research group now want to use data from the Children of the 90s study to look at adult picky eating habits and how it impacts on health. 

The research was based at the Centre for Academic Child Health, part of Bristol Medical School, and relied on data from the Children of the 90s study, which recruited over 14,500 pregnant women from the Bristol area between 1991 and 1992, and has followed the lives of the women, their partners, and their children ever since.

Paper

‘Do children who were preschool picky eaters eat different foods at school lunch when aged 13 years than their non-picky peers?’ by Kemp et al. in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics [open access]
. . . ENDS

Notes to editors

A copy of the press preview paper is available on request.

Once the embargo lifts the DOI for the paper is: 10.111/jhn.700763

Dr Caroline Taylor has been researching picky eating in children for over 10 years. View her publications to date here.

For further information or to organise an interview with Dr Caroline Taylor, please contact Petra Clifton at petra.clifton@bristol.ac.uk or email alspac-media@bristol.ac.uk.

About Children of the 90s 
Based at the University of Bristol, Children of the 90s, also known as the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), is a long-term health research project that enrolled more than 14,500 pregnant women in 1991 and 1992.  It has been following the health and development of the parents, their children and now their grandchildren in detail ever since. It receives core funding from the Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust and the University of Bristol.

About cohort studies
Cohort studies are a type of longitudinal research that follow the same group of people throughout their lives, charting health and social changes and untangling the reasons behind them. The UK has more birth cohort studies than any other country in the world and they play a pivotal role in measuring the health and wellbeing of society.

Issued by the Children of the 90s (ALSPAC) Bristol Media and PR team
 

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Journal

Journal of Human Nutrition

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Do children who were preschool picky eaters eat different foods at school lunch when aged 13 years than their non-picky peers?

Article Publication Date

15-May-2025