Symposium 1 - Micronutrient genomics
A joint symposium with NuGO and Eurreca

Chair: John Hesketh (UNew, UK) and Sue Fairweather-Tait (UEA, UK)
Tuesday, 1st September 15.00-ca. 19.30

15.00	Michael Fenech (CSIRO Adelaide, AU) Diagnosis and nutritional treatment of genome and epigenome damage on an individual basis
15.30	Sue Fairwaither-Tait (UEA, UK) The Eurreca NoE and genomics based micronutrient recommendations
16.00	Helene McNulty (UU at Coleraine, UK) Folate and related B vitamins: genetic variation and effects on CVD and cognitive function
16.30	Georg Lietz (UNew, UK) An overview of the effect of single nucleotide polymorphisms on carotenoid status in human volunteers
17.00	Break
17.30	John Hesketh (UNew, UK) IMGP: Selenium as an exemplar
18.00	- Discussion (end 19.30)

The current practice of dietary advice acknowledges that the “one size fits all” concept fails but scientifically solid tools to differentiate are mostly absent. On top of this, micronutrients collaborate in their activities (e.g., maintaining overall homeostasis in metabolism, oxidative and inflammatory processes). Furthermore, it is now apparent that not only lower levels of intake are of individual concern, but also, for many essential nutrients, upper limits need to be established because of long term negative health effects (examples are antioxidant vitamins and death rate, folate and colon cancer recurrence). With the advance of systems biology, the possibility to assess the activity on a single micronutrient in its complete biological context becomes feasible. Genetic variation is ever more taken into account in the assessment of sub-population vulnerability. Transcriptome studies are employed to unravel the mechanisms of action. Many researcher collect fragments of information (e.g. relevant SNPs, biological interactions, etc), which are not stored systematically and thus not disseminated optimally.

This symposium, a joint effort between the two Networks of Excellence Eurreca and NuGO, addresses these issues and aims at further pushing this area towards maturity and collaborations.