Nutrigenomics: A Systems Approach to Cardiometabolic Disease and Personal Nutrition

Abstract

Nutritional genomics or nutrigenomics is the study of how dietary molecules interact with the genetic architecture of a species governing the metabolic pathways contributing to the health of a population. The study of nutrigenomics contributes to our understanding of how diet and lifestyle effects the distribution of diseases under the influence of diet-genetic interactions. Nutrigenomic investigations combine’s insights generated from the meta-analysis of population-based studies, genome-wide association studies (GWAS), gene expression assays, lipidomics, metabolomics, metagenomics and proteomics to examine how the combination of genetic polymorphisms, diet, age, sex, ethnicity and lifestyle contribute to health and influence disease. Nutrigenomics at its core is a systems approach to the study of metabolic heterogeneity. Under certain conditions, the human genome displays a level of plasticity that is just now being understood. Recent advances in digital health that combines the power of big data analytics, cognitive computing and molecular diagnostics into an integrated platform have set the stage for a more comprehensive understanding of how to model the complex interactions influencing the genetic architectures contributing to human disease.