Human Health

Precision nutritional genomics and human health

As an adjunct member of the Beijing Human Health and Food Nutrition Innovative Center, we are interested in discovering the relationship between natural genetic variations between different human population and the different efficiency of nutrition intake. Particularly, we want to identify genetic markers and coding mutations that influences nutrient intake such as vitamins, folic Acid for a pregnant woman which may influence fetus development. The Center has supported a project to study the genetic connection between the cleft and nutrient intake of vitamins. We found several mutation sites that are specific to Asians which may cause a higher rate of cleft birth defects. The goal is to use these nutrient-related variations to construct predict models to evaluate the risk for a new-born baby.