Dr. Keith Anthony Grimaldi graduated in biochemistry from the University of Liverpool and received his PhD from the University of Cambridge. He worked for several years in Italy for the pharmaceutical company Serono as a Research and Development manager. Subsequently in the UK as a Senior Research Fellow University College London (UCL) his research focussed on neural and cardiac developmental gene expression and then DNA damage and repair in cancer and its treatment. He joined the world’s first personal genetics company Sciona as Chief Scientist, working on working on research & production development. He was Scientific Director of Eurogene (EU eTen project) and is currently Chief Science Officer of DNAFit.com and founder of Eurogenetica Ltd (www.eurogenetica.com - personal genetics services). Other research: involvement with NuGO, Food4Me project, EurHEALTH project, Quantify Life – Feed Yourself (QuaLiFY) project and subsequently on the Quisper Science Advisory Board
Session Description: Precision nutrition is a field that involves personalization of nutrition recommendations based on individual factors such as age, gender, and biochemical data, as well as genetic variation. Nutrigenomics, a component of precision nutrition, is a discipline that focuses on the interplay between genetics (including gene expression and function), nutrition, and health-related outcomes. With advancing science, healthcare professionals are now offering nutrigenomics testing in their clinical practice. In addition, patients are bringing the results of direct-to-consumer nutrigenomics tests to healthcare professionals for interpretation. This uptake presents several challenges related to ethics, scientific validity, analytic validity and clinical utility among others. This session will provide an overview of the current challenges to the uptake of nutrigenomics and precision nutrition in clinical practice, while presenting strategies to help overcome these challenges. Furthermore, this session will provide an overview of research related to cognitive and behavioural outcomes resulting from the practical application of nutrigenomics and precision nutrition. Overall, this session aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the pragmatic aspects of nutrigenomics and precision nutrition.