Human Nutrition & Epidemiology

Report

From September 11-21, 2001, 24 Ph.D. fellows participated in the Ph.D. Study Tour to Italy, Switzerland and Germany. Prof. Dr. E. Schouten and Dr. J.M. Geleijnse joined the group on behalf of the staff. Below you find a summary of the Ph.D. Study Tour. If you are interested in receiving the full report, please contact us.

Nestlé Research Centre

Nestlé, world’s biggest food company, has its head quarters in Switzerland. The role of the Nestlé Research Centre is to provide a scientific base behind products and processes, as well as to drive innovation into the PTC's and R&D centers. At Nestlé functional genomics, including the DNA microarray technology, are becoming a hot item. Functional genomics can be used to assess the biological and metabolic properties of (dietary) compounds and foods. The aging population is one reason why Nestlé is interested in bone health, which the company mainly studies at the cellular and molecular level. This is also the case with respect to its research on prebiotics and probiotics.

Novartis Nutrition Research AG

One of the brands of Novartis is Wander, which focuses on the Swiss market. Wander produces among others Ovomaltine, a drink based on barley, cacao, eggs, and milk. Novartis aims at developing functional foods. In order to successfully launch functional foods on the market, the chemical and physical properties of the product have to be known, its ingredients have to be generally recognised as safe, measurable and its effect should be known. Legal labelling of the product is also necessary for a successful launch. Novartis launched the product group "Aviva" on the market in 1999, which was not a real success story. The consumers did not buy Aviva, probably because they did not yet understand its concept yet. Moreover, the product was both marketed in pharmacies and supermarkets, which might not have been a clear concept to the consumers.

World Health Organisation

The main objective of the WHO is the attainment of the highest possible level of health by all peoples. The mission of UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, clearly illustrates this: "preventing the transmission, providing care and transport, reducing the vulnerability of individuals and communities to HIV/AIDS and alleviating the impact of the epidemic".
A necessary condition for improvement of health is that health workers have sufficient knowledge. Therefore, the knowledge on nutrition and the prevention of obesity and health status of primary healthcare workers is studied in Chile.
WHO also aims at better addressing the problems in the field of growth monitoring and wishes to implement a new growth chart. In order to reach this target, WHO investigates which growth charts of children are used around the world, which problems are encountered during its use, which actions are undertaken when children have growth problems and on which references those growth charts are based (e.g. height-for-weight and height-for-age).

University of Lausanne, Institute of Physiology

Research is mostly focussed on energy metabolism and regulation from molecular level to whole body level. A recent study investigated the global satellite positioning system (GPS). By collecting data on speed and positional data, GPS calculates total mechanical energy. It appears to be a promising tool for gait analysis, since it is highly accurate compared to accelerometer analysis and it can be used to analyse walking outside the laboratory. Among others, the Institute has a metabolic chamber, HPLC apparatus and a bodpod (to assess body composition) at its disposal.

Joint Research Centre

The JRC is the European Commission's research centre to provide customer-driven scientific and technical support for the conception, development, implementation and monitoring of EU policies. Four of its eight institutes are located in Ispra. In the GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms) detection lab, GMOs are detected by PCR and checked whether they are authorised, after which they are quantified by real-time PCR. The mission of the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM) is to play a leading role in the independent evaluation of the relevance and reliability of tests for specific purposes (i.e. validation) through research on advanced methods and new test development and validation. Among others, several in vitro cellular models are at its disposal.

Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research

The Institute mainly focuses on cardiovascular diseases, the central nervous system and cancer. In the Laboratory of General Epidemiology, large case-control studies are conducted. These data are used to associate lifestyle and environmental factors (e.g. diet) with disease occurrence.

University of Milan, Department of Pharmacological Sciences

A main item is the relationship between diet, pharmacology and pathophysiology. Topics include antioxidants and long-chained polyunsaturated fatty acids metabolism involved in brain maturation and diseases and lactation. In the field of cardiovascular diseases, clinical trials are conducted, but atherosclerosis is also investigated at the molecular and cellular level; attention is paid to the role and mechanisms of action of tissue factor and PAI-1 in coagulation and fibrinolysis, and to modification of its synthesis and mRNA expression by e.g. growth factors and triglycerides rich lipoproteins. Moreover, both invasive and non-invasive techniques for the detection of progression and regression of arterial lesions are used and investigated. (e.g. carotid intima-media thickness) Epidemiological studies are also performed, such as a large population-based study on genetic susceptibility and cardiovascular diseases, and a voluntary participation program involving general practitioners. Besides, attention is paid to pharmaco-economics, whose importance may grow due to the dramatically increase of costs of health care due to aging. Laboratory facilities include diffusion imaging (magnetic nuclear resonance) and mass spectrometry.

Hoffmann-La Roche

Roche has been active in the discovery, development, manufacture and marketing of novel healthcare solutions for more than 100 years. Its global mission today is to create exceptional added value in healthcare. Among others, Roche searches for compounds that prevent that prevent and treat osteoporosis. The compounds have to be part of the traditional diet, have to be pure and safe, and have to regulate key genes. A candidate is the phyto-estrogen genistein. More fundamental research is also conducted, e.g. on the enzyme 15,15’-dioxygenase, which produces retinal by cleaving b -carotene from the diet. The amount of b -carotene 15,15’-dioxygenase was found to be dependent on the age of the cells and expressed in a variety of tissues. Apart from production and research, Roche pays attention to the work environment, as illustrated by the new research building.

University of Hohenheim, Institute of Biochemistry and Nutrition

At the Institute, research is conducted and education on clinical nutrition is given. Studies are conducted at the cellular as well as at the individual level, for which cell cultures, animal models and human intervention studies are used. Both in cell cultures and in rats, the effect of oxidative cell injury by light that induces formation of Reactive Oxygen Species on tumor growth and curation is studied. Cell-cell communication is studied by Live Cell Imaging, a technique to visualise intracellular signalling by Ca2+. In another study, the influence of vitamin A on metaplasia in lung epithelium was examined by inspection of lung epithelium of healthy persons, people with vitamin A deficiency (metaplastic endothelium) and lung epithelium exposed to benzo(a) pyrene that lowers vitamin A levels on metaplasia. Vitamin A appears to be essential for ’normal’ epithelial and endothelial tissue.
Clinical trials are also conducted, such as on the effect of high intravenous doses of ascorbic acid in burned patients. Administrating 7.5 g of vitamin C daily had a positive effect without side effects. Moreover, no accumulation was seen in healthy subjects.

Milupa GmbH& Co/Numico

Numico Research has its headquarters in Wageningen, the Netherlands, but has also facilities in Friedrichsdorf. Here, apart from being a production site of infant formulas, new infant formulas are developed and studied. Both during and after production, its quality is controlled and its ingredients are assessed, according to the Numico food safety standards.