NEWS
2011 Winter Meeting Original Communication Winner
Congratulations to Orla Power (WP1), University of Limerick who presented the best Poster Communication entitled A comparison of the insulinotropic and enterogastric response to ingestion of an equiva
Professor Helen Roche
Contact Details
Associate Professor of Nutrigenomics
Conway Institute of Biomolecular & Biomedical Research
School of Public Health & Population Science, Woodview House
Belfield Dublin 4
Tel: +353 (0)1 7166845
Email: helen.roche@ucd.ie
Academic Background
Helen Roche was recently appointed Associate Professor of Nutrigenomics at the Conway Institute, UCD, Ireland. She is also a SFI Principal Investigator within the context of Molecular Nutrition. Prior to that as Wellcome Trust Fellow & Senior Lecturer in Molecular Nutrition at TCD, Dr Roche established the first Nutrigenomics research group in Ireland, at the Institute of Molecular Medicine at TCD. She is also currently involved in the Scientific Advisory Committee for the International Life Sciences Institute, the Nutrition Committee for Food Safety Advisory Board, Ireland
Nutrigenomics uses state-of-the-art 'omoics' technologies to gain a greater understanding of the molecular effects of nutrition on health. This approach is a very innovative and at the cutting edge of translational nutrition research.
Prof Roche is joint coordinator of LIPGENE, managing the Human Nutrition / Nutrigenomic component of the programme. A specific objective of LIGPENE was to determine the effect of genetic background and dietary fatty acid intake on insulin sensitivity within the context of the Metabolic Syndrome This programme compliments other projects including, NuGO The European Nutrigenomics Organisation Framework 6 Network of Excellence which has collaborated with LIPGENE within the context of Nutrigenetics (linking similar genetic studies) and defining 'Transcriptomic signatures'.
Prof Roche and the Nutrigenomics Groups also run several national research projects lead at UCD including a SFI Principal Investigator Programme entitled 'The role of macrophage accumulation in adipose tissue in the development of obesity induced insulin resistance - insights into mechanisms and nutrient based therapies using a nutrigenomics approach'. Also a Functional Food / Nutritional Systems Biology Project funded by the Department of Agriculture and Food, Food Institutional Research Programme. The core objective of each research project is to determine different aspect of the interactions between nutrient stressors and inflammation within the context of obesity, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes mellitus using very diverse experimental approaches, see http://www.ucd.ie/conway.