Organization studies genes to develop healthier food

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Gateway for Nutrigenomics is studying genes in an effort to develop food systems that will help people make better health choices.

"Our main goal is to maintain and optimize human health. Our other goal is to develop dietary interventions to help maintain optimal human health," said Janos Zempleni, an assistant professor of nutritional science and director of the Nebraska Gateway for Nutrigenomics, a UNL-based research program that studies genetics to determine why some people and ethnic groups are hit harder by certain diseases.

Using DNA analysis, the group is trying to figure out how genes can affect health and how people can eat in a particular way to improve their specific health.

"This idea or concept is that genetic makeup is 99.9 percent identical," Zempleni said. "That 0.1 percent can affect things like nutrient metabolism or cause a predisposition of certain diseases."

Using that concept, Zempleni said, the Nebraska Gateway for Nutrigenomics can identify certain risk factors, risk genes or changes in genes that can premeditate certain individuals at risk for diseases such as cancer.

"For example, in my lab, we look at changes in vitamins, changes in histones to the proteins to regulate changes," he said. "We found that biotin, which binds to histones, really decreases the risk for cancer."

A diverse group of scientists are involved in the Nebraska Gateway for Nutrigenomics.

For instance, Zempleni said, there are scientists who work with plants, as well as those who work in the biochemistry department and animal science department.

"It's really a multidisciplined approach," said Vicki Schlegel, a food scientist and associate professor of food science and technology.

Zempleni said clusters of groups have been collaborating on similar projects for a couple of years before the Nebraska Gateway for Nutrigenomics was funded.

Schlegel said her job "is to study how nutraceutical regulation in plants modulate metabolism to maintain health in cells."

She said her department studies Nebraska-based crops and their health-related properties.

Schlegel said it was important to study how genes affect human health because there are ethnic groups that are predisposed to certain diseases.

Her department has found that sorghum, a type of grass, lowers bad cholesterol and increases good cholesterol.

That can be used to help those people with a gene that predisposes them to high cholesterol, she said.

"We can develop food systems based on DNA, so they can prevent those risks," Schlegel said.