Differences in the response of people to dietary components provides the basis for personalised nutrition strategies to preserve or increase health. The fellow below uses gene expression analysis to understand why some respond better to omega-3. Such knowledge is important for optimal dietary advice to prevent cardiovascular disease and understand the mechanism of action of the fatty acids.
Viviana Sandoval
Country of origin: Chile
Host: Stine M. Ulven
Group: Personalized nutrition and prevention of cardiometabolic diseases. Division of Clinical Nutrition, Department of Nutrition.
Thematic area: Personalized nutrition
Project title: Triglyceride responses to omega-3 fatty acid supplementation – a proof-of-concept human trial for precision nutrition.
My project
An unhealthy diet is one of the most critical risk factors for the global burden of diseases. In Norway and globally, cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the leading causes of death. About 80% of the premature risk of CVD can be prevented by lifestyle, including a healthy diet. The omega-3 fatty acids shown CVD-reducing effects are thought to be mainly mediated by lowering serum TG levels after omega-3 fatty supplementation. However, exist a large inter-individual variation in the magnitude of these changes in plasma. Therefore, there is an urgent need to understand why some individuals respond better to omega-3 supplementation than others and move forward with personalized advice for the intake of omega-3 fatty acids.
This project's overall goal is better to understand why some respond better to intervention than others using "omics" technologies. We aim to identify unique molecular signatures to explain the personalized response to omega-3 fatty acids.