Reminder: Symposium on Diet and Gene Interactions: Equal Partners in Health?

[Nancy Gaston]

Please pardon any cross postings of this reminder.

Symposium on Diet and Gene Interactions: Equal Partners in Health?

December 6, 2000 in Washington, DC

Co-Sponsored by the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion and The Center for Genetics, Nutrition and Health (a non-profit, scientific and educational organization)

For registration and additional information, go to www.cnpp.usda.gov. (Note new website address.  You may now access the CNPP website at either www.cnpp.usda.gov or www.usda.gov/cnpp) 

The USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion is pleased to announce the upcoming day-long symposium on "Diet and Gene Interactions: Equal Partners in Health?" to be held Wednesday, December 6, 2000, in the Department of Agricuture's Jefferson Auditorium at 14th and independence Ave., SW, Washington, DC.  

USDA Secretary Dan Glickman and USDA Under Secretary Shirley Watkins will open the symposium followed by Conference Chairs Rajen S. Anand of the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion and Artemis P. Simopoulos of The Center for Genetics, Nutrition and Health.

The goals and objectives of the symposium are to discuss the relationship between diet and genes, specifically the role of genetic variation and dietary response in the susceptibility to chronic diseases and in determining nutritional requirements.

Genetic factors contribute to virtually every human disease by conferring susceptibility or resistance, affecting the severity or progression of disease, and interacting with environmental factors that modify disease course and expression.  Much of the current biomedical research in both the public and private sectors is based upon the expectation that understanding the genetic basis of disease will revolutionize diagnosis, treatment and prevention.  Defining and understanding the role of genetic factors in disease will allow the non-genetic, environmental contributions to disease be more clearly identified and understood.  In the past, genetics and nutrition were considered two competing forces * nature versus nurture.

Scientific Speakers Include

Artemis P. Simopoulos, M.D. (USA)  *  Genetic Variation and Nutrition: An Overview
Ronald Krauss, M.D. (USA)  *  Genetic Variation and Dietary Response: Its Implications for Cardiovascular Disease
Steven Hunt, Ph.D. (USA)  *  Dietary Sodium, Genetic Variation, and High Blood Pressure
Anne M. Molloy, Ph.D. (Ireland)  *  The Role of Genetic Variation in Establishing Nutritional Requirements: Folate, A Case in Point
Robert F. Murray, Jr., M.D. (USA)  *  Methodology: State of the Art, Present and Future
Donald B. Jump, Ph.D. (USA)  *  Nutrients and Gene Expression
Dennis A. Savaiano, Ph.D. (USA)  *  Dietary Management of Lactose Intolerance: Environmental Adaptation to Genetic Variation
Bruce A. Watkins, Ph.D. (USA)  *  Overview of the Center for Enhancing Foods to Protect Health at Purdue University
Frank Booth, Ph.D. (USA)  *  Physical Activity and Gene Expression