LIPGENE is an ambitious five-year research effort to tackle a wide range of medical, dietary, consumer and agricultural issues associated with obesity.
It will involve a consortium of 25 research laboratories across Europe, with the overall project directed by the Institute of Molecular Medicine and Department of Clinical Medicine at Trinity College, Dublin.
Its focus is on a condition known as "metabolic syndrome", a collection of conditions that help cause or are associated with obesity. An estimated 31 million EU citizens will suffer from metabolic syndrome and related complications by 2010.
Trinity's Prof Michael Gibney and Dr Helen Roche have devised an interdisciplinary research programme that tackles metabolic syndrome from many angles, from genetic studies and plant biotechnology to engineered foods and animal husbandry.
LIPGENE's key research areas include:
• Revealing the link between diet and genes - this will involve a genomic analysis of how an individual's genes respond to what we eat and which genes may play a role in the development of metabolic syndrome
• Engineering food to make it healthier - marine fish oils are particularly healthy for humans, but fish actually acquire these oils by eating algae. Plant biotechnologists hope to transfer the algal genes responsible for these oils into the linseed plant giving fish oil benefits without the fish.
• A healthier diet from healthier cows - dairy fats are a key cause of high cholesterol. Researchers will attempt to reduce saturated fats in milk in several ways, by varying the cow's diet to reduce saturated fats and by altering the "bio-flora" in its stomach, a change that should help alter the fat content.
• Understanding why people eat what they eat - the research approach also includes studies of consumer attitudes to diet and food choices. It will also assess whether people would accept modified foods as a way to alter their dietary fat intake.