Annual Health Summit Reveals Promising Benefits of Wild Blueberries

Scientists around the world are captivated by the power of Wild Blueberries. Research into this potent little blue fruit, grown wild in Maine and Canada, has already yielded important results in areas of disease and healthy aging. In August, fourteen of these renowned scientists from laboratories, universities, research centers, and hospitals from around the U.S. and Canada gathered in Bar Harbor, Maine for the 11th annual Wild Blueberry Research Summit to review and present compelling new research in the fields of neuroscience, aging, cardiovascular disease, cancer, eye health and other health-related areas. The resulting research has the potential to contribute to the Wild Blueberry’s fascinating role in brain health, cellular activity, and healthy aging.
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Health Headline

Wild Blueberry Research Summit — Continuing
Nutrition Research

The Bar Harbor Group

Focusing on the promise of Wild Blueberries and their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.

Since 1998, leading U.S. and Canadian researchers who are active in the fields of neuroscience, aging, cardiovascular disease, cancer, eye health and other health-related areas have met annually in Bar Harbor, Maine, at the Wild Blueberry Research Summit. The scientists, known collectively as “The Bar Harbor Group,” meet to share their research findings and to explore opportunities for future collaboration. In the years since the Summit began, research interest in Wild Blueberries has grown steadily. Focus on the fruit’s antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects remains strong, while new areas of investigation are opening up, including childhood obesity and the impact of children’s diets in the prevention of disease as well as longevity.

Members of the Bar Harbor Group include:

James A. Joseph, Ph.D.
Neuroscience Laboratory
USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging
Boston, MA

Barbara Shukitt-Hale, Ph.D.
Neuroscience Laboratory
USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging
Boston, MA

Ronald Prior, Ph.D.
USDA-ARS
Arkansas Children’s Nutrition Center

Mary Ellen Camire, Ph.D.
Dept. of Food Science and Human Nutrition
University of Maine, Orono

Dan Nadeau, M.D.
HealthReach Diabetes, Endocrine & Nutrition Center of Exeter Hospital

Susan B. Davis, M.S., R.D.
Nutrition Advisor
Wild Blueberry Association of North America

Dorothy Klimis-Zakas, Ph.D.
Professor of Clinical Nutrition
University of Maine, Orono

Don Ingram, Ph.D.
Nutritional Neuroscience and Aging Laboratory, Pennington Biomedical Research Center
Louisiana State University

Amy Howell, Ph.D.
Marucci Center for Blueberry Cranberry Research
Rutgers University

Willy Kalt, Ph.D.
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Nova Scotia

Jane MacDonald, M.S.
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Nova Scotia

Mary Ann Lila, Ph.D.
Fruit and Vegetable Science Institute
North Carolina State University, Plants for Human Health Institute

Marva Sweeney-Nixon, Ph.D.
Dept. of Biology
University of Prince Edward Island

Mark Smith, Ph.D.
Institute of Pathology
Case Western Reserve University

Rui Hai Liu, M.D., Ph.D.
Department of Food Science
Cornell University

Steven Pratt, M.D., FACS
Scripps Memorial Hospital

Robert Krikorian, Ph.D.
University of Cinncinati School of Medicine