Food intake is determined by the interplay of physiological, behavioral and environmental factors. In spite of its multifactorial nature, ingestion has typically been approached from multiple and separate perspectives of different disciplines within the life sciences. However, the limitations of such compartmentalized approaches are highlighted by the recent and rapidly expanding epidemics in obesity and other related eating disorders. There is now widespread recognition that these epidemics have resulted because behavior has not adapted to recently evolved environmental and nutritional challenges.

The Ingestive Behavior Research Center (IBRC) at Purdue University addresses the need for integrative, cross-disciplinary approaches to the study of ingestion and its disorders by offering unique interdisciplinary training and research opportunities for predoctoral students and postdoctoral fellows interested in specializing in basic or applied research on ingestive behavior and its disorders. Several laboratories with long-standing independent research programs focused on ingestion have coordinated to create an exceptional research and training program. The IBRC program's approaches emphasize thorough analyses of feeding behavior in humans and laboratory animal models across the lifespan from the neonatal period through adulthood and aging. These behavioral analyses are combined with equally rigorous assessments of the genetic, physiological, nutritional, neural, developmental and environmental determinants of feeding and its related disturbances. IBRC students and faculty participate in common activities that include seminars, journal clubs, research collaborations, shared facilities, participation in university-wide interdisciplinary initiatives, and a core curriculum for graduate training.