Nutrigenomics

Teacher Professional Development for Year 12 and 13 Biology and Science teachers presented by LENScience in conjunction with the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, Department of Nutrition and Nutrigenomics New Zealand.

This professional development seminar:

• introduces teachers to the science of nutrigenomics
• discusses related ethics issues
• outlines the potential to use this context in teaching
• presents assessment tasks and resources to support the use of this context in Year 12 and 13 Biology / Science.

Presenters: Professor Lynn Ferguson | Dr Matthew Barnett | Jacquie Bay | Michal Denny

Nutrigenomics is the study of the response of humans to food and food components using genomics, proteomics and metabolomics approaches. The goal of nutrigenomics is to develop foods that can be matched to individual human genotypes to benefit the health of those individuals and enhance normal physiological processes. Nutrigenomics offers many topical and relevant context and examples for teaching in Year 12 and 13 Biology.

Nutrigenomics in the Classroom. PowerPoint from the professional development workshop.

A background paper for students to use as an introduction to this context.

A workshop for Year 12-13 Auckland students was held in Term 2 of 2010. For more information on this see Nutrigenomics Student workshop.

Useful Web Links

Nutrigenomics

• Preventing DNA damage (video from CSIRO)
• Nutrition and the Epigenome a description of how nutrients can affect gene expression.

Research papers about nutrigenomics freely available online:

• Zeisel, S. H., Freake, H. C., Bauman, D. E., Bier, D. M., Burrin, D. G., German, J. B., et al. (2005). The Nutritional Phenotype in the Age of Metabolomics. J Nutr., 135(7), 1613–1616.
• Mead, M. N. (2007). Nutrigenomics: The Genome–Food Interface. Environ Health Perspect, 115(12), A582–A589.
• Laursen, L. (2010). Interdisciplinary research: Big science at the table. [10.1038/468S2a. Nature, 468(7327), S2-S4].
• Frood, A. (2010). Technology: A flavour of the future. [10.1038/468S21a. Nature, 468(7327), S21-S22.]

The Folate Debate

• Folate, folic acid and fortification (New Zealand Food Safety Authority)
• Folic acid: why school students need to know about it (Science in School)
• Folate and folic acid (Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations)
• Micronutrient Information Centre, Linus Pauling Institute
• Science Daily Research news & articles in Science, Health, Environment and Technology
• New Zealand Medical Journal - search for folate or folic acid
• Ministry of Health Nutrition Surveys

Research papers about the folate freely available online:

• Kim, Y.-I. (2004). Will mandatory folic acid fortification prevent or promote cancer? Am J Clin Nutr, 80(5), 1123-1128.
• Johnston, R. B. J. (2008). Will Increasing Folic Acid in Fortified Grain Products Further Reduce Neural Tube Defects without Causing Harm?: Consideration of the Evidence. Pediatric Research, 63(1), 2-8
  

Assessment Tasks

Assessment tasks for the following Achievement Standards are available by clicking on the links below. They are in Adobe pdf format. IF you would like the tasks in Microsoft Word format please email LENScience.

• AS90769 Research an interaction between Humans and an Aspect of Biology (Level 2)
• AS90714 Research a contemporary biological issue (Level 3)