Nutrigenomics -- developing personalized diets for disease prevention

[Guest guest]

Nutrigenomics -- developing personalized diets for disease prevention

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-12/mali-npd122908.php

The emerging field of nutrigenomics, which aims to identify the

genetic factors that influence the body's response to diet and

studies how the bioactive constituents of food affect gene

expression, is explored in a series of provocative, interdisciplinary

reports and analyses in the December 2008 Special Issue (Volume 12,

number 4) of OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology, a peer-reviewed

journal published by Ann Liebert, Inc. (www.liebertpub.com). The

issue is available free online at www.liebertpub.com/omi

This compendium of papers describing the innovative new area of study

encompassed by nutrigenomics research is Part 1 of a two-part series.

Part 2 will be published in Spring 2009.

Nutrigenomic's bidirectional approach to investigating how the

genetic traits of an individual or population interact with their

diet offers many possibilities for targeted clinical interventions

and preventive medicine. These may include modifying either diet or

the biochemical response to food exposure to prevent disease in

individuals shown to be susceptible to the consequences of

unfavorable dietary/genomic interactions. In the future,

nutrigenomics may potentially help guide the development of

customized diets based on an individual's genetic make-up.

" In contrast to previous applications of genomics technologies where

the goal is to distinguish existing disease from absence of disease,

nutrigenomics aims to discern nuanced differences in predisease

states such that personalized dietary interventions can be designed

to prevent or modify future disease susceptibility, " write Guest

Editors Béatrice Godard, PhD, and Vural Ozdemir, MD, PhD, from the

Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Montreal,

Québec, Canada.

" Nutrigenomics opens new and amazing frontiers in 21st century

biomedical and clinical research, " says Eugene Kolker, PhD, Executive

Editor of OMICS and Chief Data Officer at Seattle Children's

Hospital, Seattle, Washington.