Research aimed at tackling diet and lifestyle related disease of obesity -
Sherlock
The Minister for Research and Innovation, Seán Sherlock T.D., today
(Monday) urged the Irish research community to engage fully with the latest
Call under the EU Joint Programming Initiative 'A Healthy Diet for a
Healthy Life'.
Minister Sherlock was calling attention to the Third Call of the initiative
being launched today which involves the study of biomarkers in nutrition
and health. The main objective of the study is to support
interdisciplinary research and innovation approaches for the validation of
the nutritional status of biomarkers.
Minister Sherlock said "The Science Community plays an important role in
helping us tackle the public health challenge of diet and lifestyle related
disease of obesity. I would therefore urge the research community to fulfil
their important role and participate in this important initiative."
Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) has coordinated the launch of the
transnational call in partnership with funding bodies in organisations in
12 other participating countries and Minister Sherlock thanked SFI for
their role in coordinating the call among the Irish researchers.
Minister Sherlock also acknowledged the key role that Horizon 2020 funding
will play in supporting research into what is seen as one of society’s
biggest public health challenges.
The indicative budget of €5.5m will support translational projects for a
period of three years. The submission deadline for proposals is June 10th
2014.
Notes to Editor
The main objective of the Biomarkers in Nutrition and Health (BioNH) call
is to support interdisciplinary research and innovative approaches for the
validation of biomarkers and the investigation of intake/exposure and
nutritional status of biomarkers within this scientific area. This is a key
step in the implementation of the Joint Programming Initiative 'A Healthy
Diet for a Health Life' strategic research agenda. BioNH aims to define and
harmonise the methodology necessary to prove the nutritional effects in the
development of foods.
The intake of foods, food ingredients and food contaminants in a population
is a major challenge and questionnaire technology may lead to biased
results. Dietary patterns may be even more complicated. Exposure biomarkers
covering a board number of foods and food components could provide a more
objective measure of actual intake and status, and will be an important
adjunct to classical dietary data. However, few foods are covered by
validated intake/exposure biomarkers. One of the main applications of
dietary biomarkers is to use them as a reference measurement to assess the
validity and accuracy of dietary assessment methodologies. The most
important dietary biomarkers for this application are:
· Recovery dietary biomarkers: based on the metabolic balance between
intake and excretion over a fixed period of time;
· Predictive dietary biomarkers: to assess the degree of measurement
errors in dietary assessment methods;
· Concentration and replacement dietary biomarkers: For comparison with
estimated dietary intakes and estimated diet-disease risk
association.