November 2018–

PREVENTOMICS builds a new paradigm in preventive personalised nutrition based on the potential of omics, especially metabolomics, accessible for everyone. The novelty relies on a new integration of genetic, nutritional and psychological factors and the application of state of the art metabolomics technologies and computational modelling of the metabolome, to assess the real incidence of
disease-inducing factors on the organism, translating this information into personalized dietetic advice for the user, levering on ICT technologies. The main outcome from PREVENTOMICS is a novel mFood Platform, a unique-in-its-kind service, interoperable with current existing Apps for monitoring health status and with personalized nutrition software, thus opening the door to the personalization of any type of health treatment where combinations of genetic, biological, nutritional and psychological factors are important. PREVENTOMICS will be validated in 3 different case scenarios, performing relevant interventional studies with healthy and obese volunteers, to demonstrate its potential for personalization of nutrition at the 3 levels of the food value chain (processing and distribution, marketing and consuming), those closest to the end-users/consumers. Maximum impact will be ensured through well-balanced dissemination, standardarisation, communication and by the exploitation of the mFood platform, the menu recommendations, the personalised food elaboration and delivery, the food ingredients for personalised food and the personalised food shopping offer available for personal self-care and for professional services.

To attain its goals, the PREVENTOMICS project has set specific scientific and technological objectives that are summarized below:

  • Biomarkers: Application of state-of-the-art knowledge biomarkers of health. PREVENTOMICS will provide a new way of using consensus biomarkers by combining them with classical clinical biomarkers and using a multivariate approach that exploits the concept of composite biomarker. This approach significantly enhances the phenotypical characterization of the user
  • Data integration: Integration of information derived from omics technologies with other phenotypic information (i.e. biometric and clinical variables), nutrigenetics markers, psychological and behavioural factors and dietary habits.
  • Predictive Model: Generation of a Dynamic Decision Support System (DSS) that produces personalized nutritional recommendations and behavioural advice based on their PREVENTOMICS profile to empower people to make healthier and more sustainable food choices.
  • Turning Knowledge into tools: Development of new personalized marketable products through the integration of PREVENTOMICS DSS into existing dietary applications and tools, thus ensuring the impact on consumers.
  • Promoting healthy diets: PREVENTOMICS will use the Mediterranean diet as a reference standard, and apply the recommendations on dietary reference values suggested by the European Safety Authority (EFSA), thus translating scientific knowledge supported by EFSA into health benefits.

Read all about it at the project’s web site.