LIPGENE: An EU project to tackle the metabolic syndrome

LIPGENE is a new 5-year sixth framework EU project involving researchers from 14 EU countries. It will contribute to a reduction in the economic and social burden of the metabolic syndrome through research that will optimise the health impacts of dietary fat change. LIPGENE aims to: account for variation in genotype response to fatty acid modification; enable greater availability of food products that can enhance human health; enhance consumer awareness, and motivate adoption of dietary approaches to disease prevention. A truly integrated programme, LIPGENE incorporates human nutrition, animal nutrition, plant biotechnology, and economic and social/consumer sciences. The human nutrition packages will utilise data from an existing prospective study (SUVIMAX) to identify genotype and dietary interactions as risk factors for the metabolic syndrome. A multi-centre intervention will examine the effects of dietary fat on various risk factors for the metabolic syndrome, while molecular investigations will be supported by mechanistic and functional studies. The British Nutrition Foundation, as dissemination partners for this EU programme, is initiating a wide-reaching programme to disseminate information about the project and its findings. Further details, including lists of upcoming project-related events, are available at www.lipgene.tcd.ie and www.nutrition.org.uk/lipgene.