News Release
For Immediate Release — March 10, 2011
Journal of Nutrition Publishes Symposium Proceedings
from UT Obesity Research Center
Proceedings from a symposium organized by the UT Obesity Research Center (UTORC), co-sponsored by the American Society for Nutrition and funded by an award from the USDA-National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), Agriculture and Food Research Initiative, have been published in the March issue of the Journal of Nutrition. Abstracts and full text of the symposium, which focused on systems genetics in nutrition and obesity research, are available online at http://jn.nutrition.org/content/current, and in print, J. Nutr. 2011 141: 512-534.
The symposium was organized and chaired by Dr. Moustaid-Moussa, professor in the Departments of Animal Science and Family and Consumer Sciences, and UTORC co-director. Dr. Brynn Voy, assistant professor in Animal Science and UTORC member, served as co-chair.
According to Drs. Moustaid-Moussa and Voy, systems genetics is a novel approach for identifying the complex genetic architecture of quantitative traits and gene-environment interactions. This is typically achieved via detection of connections from genetic variation through intermediate phenotypes to overlying systems level phenotypes. This symposium, conducted at the Experimental Biology conference held in April 2010 in Anaheim, California, aimed at educating nutrition researchers about the use of systems genetics as a tool for linking genetic variation to nutrient metabolism and energy balance and their overlying effects on health and disease. Basic concepts of systems genetics and the analytical framework used in these studies were presented. Further, the utility of genetic reference populations for gene-environment interaction studies along with specific studies addressing genetic variation in responsiveness to nutrients were discussed. External speakers included Dr. Steven Zeisel of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; Dr. James Fleet of Purdue University and Dr. Timothy Lightfoot of Texas A&M. The published proceedings include a symposium overview and speaker presentations.
Co-led by nutrition researcher Moustaid-Moussa of the Institute of Agriculture and exercise physiologist Dr. David Bassett of UTK, the UT Obesity Research Center is dedicated to developing interdisciplinary approaches for the prevention and treatment of overweight and obesity that will decrease obesity-related complications, and help people achieve long-term maintenance of a healthy weight.
The main purpose of the center is to foster collaborations and provide a mechanism for developing program projects in obesity research and place University of Tennessee faculty in a better position to be able to compete for external funding.
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Contacts:
Dr. Naima Moustaid-Moussa, 865-974-6255, moustaid@tennessee.edu
Margot Emery, 865-974-7374, memery@tennessee.edu