Personalized Nutrition (sponsored by Omega Quant)
9:00am – 10:30am / Wednesday February 16th
This session will be live-streamed.
As genetic testing, wearable health tracking devices and the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology have become mainstream, interest in personalized nutrition has skyrocketed. This session attempts to uncover how this trend relates to omega-3s by examining the science of how omega-3 effectiveness is impacted by genetics, hearing a success story on a company that built a personalized food business and learning from an early-stage case study in our own space.
Genetic Risk Prediction for the Effects of EPA/DHA Omega-3 Supplementation
Marie-Claude Vohl, PhD
Professor-School of Nutrition
Université Laval
Genetics influence how individuals respond to food, and specific nutrition recommendations based on genetic profiles have advanced significantly in recent years. This presentation covers an explanation of the most important known gene polymorphisms that drive biological responses to omega-3 fatty acids. Dr. Vohl will give her perspective on the potential and current applications and explain how best practices in nutrigenomics will help health professionals provide precision nutrition advice.
The Prides and Pitfalls of Building a Personalized Nutrition Business
Joshua Anthony, PhD
Founder and CEO
Nlumn
Joshua Anthony is the founder and CEO of Nlumn, a consulting business advising companies on how to commercialize personalized nutrition. He is formerly the Founding Chief Science Officer of Habit LLC, a personalized nutrition service that created custom nutrition plans based on a series of personalized tests. Dr. Anthony will share his learnings on who the personalized nutrition consumer is and how to engage them, building on his “lessons learned” while designing the testing platform and nutrition recommendation engine that powered Habit.
Case Study: The Omega-3 Index Optimization Project
Kristina Harris Jackson, PhD
Assistant Professor, University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine
Director of Research, Omega Quant
The Omega-3 Index is an established diagnostic tool for tracking the connection between EPA and DHA levels in the blood and positive health outcomes, and research has shown that a higher Omega-3 Index is considered an “optimal” nutritional status. However, how to get to “optimal” is different for each person. Over the last 18 months, OmegaQuant's Dr. Kristina Harris Jackson has been gathering data on a small group of people who participated in the Omega-3 Index Optimization Project, which included regular Omega-3 Index testing and basic nutrition guidance based on their test results. This small study exemplifies the interpersonal differences in results, where people eating similar foods and taking omega-3 supplements had varying Omega-3 Index scores. Dr. Jackson will discuss these results in more detail and dig into the implications of these learnings.
Speakers
