This is the first time three large Crown Research Institutes (CRIs) and a major university have put together a large multi-disciplinary team for the benefit of New Zealand health and the New Zealand food industry.
We undertake multidisciplinary collaborative research with the aim of developing gene specific foods targeted to preventing, ameliorating, curing diseases. Our initial target is Crohn's disease. One of our focusses is publishing in the peer reviewed scientific literature.
The major aim of this Centre is to determine how foods and food components affect health at the molecular genetic level by using nutritional genomic methods.
These include gene expression (microarrays), genotyping in humans (eg SNPs), metabolomics, epigenetics and proteomics. Chemists extract and fractionate food for biological analysis. This detailed understanding of the molecular mechanisms will ultimately lead to the development of completely new, added-value, export-focused, gene-specific foods that will deliver proven health outcomes to consumers.
New Zealand food industry collaborators will deliver these foods to national and export markets.
Our initial focus is gut health. The four organisations that are working together in Nutrigenomics all have expertise in food, food components and gut health.
An initial target is Crohn’s disease. See http://www.ccsg.org.nz.
Crohn’s disease (CD) mainly affects affluent developed countries, with approximately 500,000 sufferers in the US and a similar number in Europe. The incidence rate is increasing.
Importantly, a recent New Zealand survey showed that a large percentage of CD patients utilise complementary or alternative therapies, with 72% finding dietary adjustment to be useful.