The relationships between food, nutrition science, and health outcomes have been intensively analyzed over the past century. Genomic variation among individuals and populations is a new factor that enriches and challenges our understanding of these complex relationships. Hence, the rapidly emerging intersection of nutritional science and genomics - nutrigenomics - was the focus of a special issue of OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology in December 2008 (Part 1). The OMICS Nutrigenomics Special Issue (Part 2) February 2009 is now available free online at liebertpub/omi

"Together, these two issues expand the scope and depth of critical scholarship in nutrigenomics, in keeping with an integrated multidisciplinary analysis across the bioscience, omics technology, social, ethical, intellectual property and policy dimensions," write Guest Editors Vural Ozdemir, MD, PhD, and Béatrice Godard, PhD, from the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Montreal, Canada.

"Nutrition impacts people on a daily basis in both health and disease, as well as in prevention and treatment of certain multifactorial diseases. Nutrigenomics thus offers a significant promise for public health genomics and development of customized nutritional interventions guided by human genomic variation. Importantly, nutrigenomics may also suggest further omics biotechnology applications for investigations of host-environment interactions such as in environmental health and ecology (ecogenomics) and agriculture (agrigenomics). Hence, nutrigenomics is a timely and valuable field of inquiry for omics science and integrative biology," says Eugene Kolker, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of OMICS and Chief Data Officer at Seattle Children's Hospital and Head, Bioinformatics and High-throughput Data Analysis Lab at Seattle Children's Research Institute.

This special nutrigenomics issue of OMICS presents articles on the following themes and findings: Genome-environment interactions and prospective technology assessment in omics science and innovations

Three weeks of nutritional intervention with virgin olive oil, at doses common in the Mediterranean diet, may alter the expression of genes related to atherosclerosis development and progression

Study of the biophysical, biochemical and metabolic changes during weight loss, maintenance and regain

Qualitative research in the form of focus groups reports on the knowledge and attitudes of consumers and health care professionals regarding nutritional genomics

Risk assessment and communication frameworks and socio-ethical standards on genotype-phenotype associations in nutrigenomics, and measures to bridge the gap between omics science and society

Ethical, legal and social issues (ELSIs) associated with commercialization and patenting in nutrigenomics

Taste is a nutritional gatekeeper for the body influencing which foodstuff is ingested or rejected

Present state of the knowledge on genetic variation in taste, and how such variation might influence food intake behaviors is discussed ###

OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology (impact factor 3.013*) is an authoritative peer-reviewed multidisciplinary journal published bimonthly that covers genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics advances in an integrated manner. The Journal explores innovations in the era of post-genomic biology and medicine and focuses on the integration of OMICS fields and technologies, data analyses and modeling, and applications of high-throughput approaches to study complex biological problems. A complete table of contents and free sample issue may be viewed online at liebertpub/omi

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. (liebertpub), is a privately held, fully integrated innovative publisher known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many cutting edge areas of science and biomedical research, including Journal of Computational Biology, ASSAY and Drug Development, and Zebrafish. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 60 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available at liebertpub

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Source: Vicki Cohn
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News