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UCD leads €9 million EU funded research into personalised nutrition

UCD is to lead a major international research consortium to investigate if a person’s genetic make-up can help design their ideal nutritional diet.

“The goal is to merge the scientific, sensory and socio-economic aspects and show whether personalised nutrition based on a person’s genes could deliver consumer benefits,” says Professor Mike Gibney, Director of the UCD Institute of Food and Health, who will coordinate the €9 million, Food4Me study.

The four-year study, funded under the EU Framework Programme 7 (FP7), will investigate if an ideal nutritional diet could be designed on a person’s genetics as policymakers advance from a broad model of public health towards a more focused model of personalised nutrition.

The concept of personalised nutrition followed the release of the human genetic blueprint in 2000. So far, the idea has not delivered on its early promise, but many companies have been quick to attempt to exploit the possibilities. Read on...