A Grand Challenge for Nutrigenomics

The low hanging fruit in genetics research has mostly been harvested, and now the work of studying genes as part of systems biology is well underway. Metabolism and nutrition seem to be an ideal complex system in which to apply the knowledge and methods of genetics and genomics. Diet is perhaps the most important environmental factor we are exposed to. Nutritional factors are thought to be the cause of 30–60% of cancers (similar in magnitude to smoking; Doll, 1992), diabetes is a nutritional/meta-bolic disorder, we are all familiar with the cholesterol–cardiovascular disease relationship , and obesity is a pressing nutritional problem, with a majority of Americans overweight and expanding rapidly (Ogden et al., 2007). If genetic scientists are looking for a complex system to step up to and address, what better choice? Hence, the developing discipline of nutrigenomics. The first challenge for scientists entering this young discipline is to develop the fundamental knowledge base needed to start to address this complex system. Nutrition scientists are learning genetics, genetic scientists are mastering the complexities of metabolism, and bioinformatics scientists are learning the " languages " of both genetics and nutrition. This is the nature of any hybrid discipline in its early stages. Once such a cohort of multidisciplinary experts exists, nutrigenomics will be poised to address its grand challenge. Before practical applications of nutrig-enomics can arise (such as individualized nutrition recommendations or interventions designed to modify disease risks), the discipline must enhance understanding of bidirectional nutrient–gene interactions to the point where there are overarching and integrated frameworks for thinking about how these interactions work. For example, advances in genetic science accelerated greatly once a catalog of the underlying basic mechanisms controlling gene expression was assembled. The grand challenge for nutrigenomics is to assemble such a catalog for nutrient–gene interactions, then use these data to develop an integrated framework for how the complex system works, and then test these hypotheses. The approach to answering this grand challenge is incremental. Nutrigenomics is being applied to agriculture (enhanced plants and animal food sources) and to human health. For the purposes of this discussion, the application to individual differences in metabolism (individualized nutrition) is used to highlight how the field could proceed to address this challenge. The underlying mechanisms responsible for individual variation in metabolism and therefore, in the responses to and requirements for nutrients, are not yet fully known. The likely involvement of genetic …