Epigenomics – how food affects gene expression

Epigenomics – a scientific field that explores the ways in which the diet of your predecessors can influence your own genetic expression, is likely to grow in importance in food selection, a food futures workshop has found.

Other ‘omics’ such as genomics, proteomics, metabolomics and nutrigenomics would also gain increasing attention, according to the 40 academic, NGOs and business representatives that attended Lonza’s Nutrition 2030 two-day brainstorm.

The attendees were asked to ‘think from scratch’ and came away having discussed issues including:

  • Expected stricter rules for health related claims on nutritional products
  • Need for broad industrial-academic partnerships
  • The young as a dynamic market segment that cannot be forgotten amid constant
  • focus on the aging population, women and babies
  • Influence of food on immune, brain and gut health
  • Efforts to fight malnutrition via fortification and diet optimization
  • GMO nutrients and GMP land use
  • Waste as a resource for food production
  • The influence of diagnostics and testing on nutrition and food production
  • Biotech and agrotech as important innovation drivers to secure food supplies

.

“This workshop provided a very useful and enthusiastic gathering of some of the best and brightest minds in the nutrition industry for two days of ‘thinking from scratch’,” Lonza chief executive officer, Stefan Borgas, said in a statement.

“This initiative brought together a diverse global mix of interesting people, organizations and companies in an open and relaxed atmosphere that resulted in lively discussions. The willingness of everybody to participate led to productive ideas that will contribute to the growth of our industry in the near future.”

Lonza said a network was being established, “to further joint cooperation on selected nutrition topics that require the brainpower of combined organisations.”

“To this end, an e-newsgroup is taking shape that will serve as a platform to discuss critical topics, and provide the forum to exchange news, ideas and announcements.”