Table 1 Challenges of molecular nutrition research

1

Linking genotype to healthy nutrition

Genomic variation predisposes for diet related diseases and provides opportunities for tailored prevention. Inclusion of diet in genetic research is thus essential and strategies are discussed

2

Quantification of the nutritional phenotype

Methods to quantify the healthy instead of the (pre)disease phenotype in relation to nutrition are introduced and discussed

3

Comparative nutrigenomics

The goal of model systems (yeast, c elegance, mice, ...) in comparative nutrigenomics studies is to identify the modular architecture controlling nutritional processes and identify the players that cause a system to drive away from equilibrium into instabilities and to allow the system to reach a new steady state of metabolic adaptation

4

Nutritional systems biology

Can we systematically study the molecular mechanisms underlying the metabolic adaptation at the cellular, organ and whole organism level and take it onto the level of modeling?

5

Quantification of food intake

New analytical technologies quantify the “food metabolome” and may link the descriptive intake methods (like food frequency questionnaires) to the more exact methods used in nutritional intervention studies

6

Technology and informatics

Nutrition research is now embedded in a variety of technology revolutions. This requires nutrition research specific fine-tuning, standardisation, annotation, databasing and (bio)informatics. An integrated approach is presented