[Nutrition genomics]

The importance of nutrition for human health and its influence on the onset and course of many diseases are nowadays considered as proven. Only the recent development of molecular biology and biochemical methods allows the elucidation of the molecular mechanisms of diet constituent actions and their subsequent effect on homeostatic mechanisms in health and disease states. The availability of the draft human genome sequence as well as the genome sequences of model organisms, combined with the functional and integrative genomics approaches of systems biology, bring about the possibility to identify alleles and haplotypes responsible for specific reaction to the dietary challenge in susceptible individuals. Such complex interactions are studied within the newly conceived field, the nutrition genomics (nutrigenomics). Using the tools of highly parallel analyses of transcriptome, proteome and metabolome, the nutrition genomics pursues its ultimate goal, i.e. the individualized diet, respecting not only quantitative and qualitative nutritional needs and the actual health status, but also the genetic predispositions of an individual. This approach should lead to prevention of the onset of such diseases as obesity, hypertension or type 2 diabetes, or enhance the efficiency of their therapy.