Archive for February, 2011

4th International Symposium on the Delivery of Functionality in Complex Food Systems

The University of Guelph’s Department of Food Science will be hosting an international meeting on the delivery of functionality in complex food systems. This meeting will bring together world-class experts from various disciplines (from physical science to biology) and sectors (from industry, academia and government). This meeting will be the fourth and latest instalment of a series of symposia discussing the latest and ongoing trends in food structural research.

The conference will be held on August 21-24, 2011, Guelph, Ontario, Canada, www.uoguelph.ca/foodscience/content/delivery-functionality-complex-food-systems

Important dates for your calendar:

January 20, 2011 Registration opens
April 30, 2011 Deadline for the submission of abstracts
June 01, 2011 Notification about assignation of oral/poster presentations
June 15, 2011 Deadline for early-bird registration

Invited speakers include:

Professor Raffaele Mezzenga, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zürich, Switzerland
Professor Nissim Garti, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Professor Eric van der Linden, Wageningen University, The Netherlands
Dr. Eckhard Flöter, Unilever Research and Development Vlaardingen, The Netherlands
Professor David Julian McClements, University of Massachussetts Amherst, United States of America
Professor Derick Rousseau, Ryerson University, Canada
Professor Rickey Yada, University of Guelph, Canada
Professor Amanda Wright, University of Guelph, Canada
Professor Gopinath Paliyath, University of Guelph, Canada
Dr. Job Ubbink, Food Concept & Physical Design
Professor Eyal Shimoni, Technion, Israel

Work presented at the conference will be published in a themed issue of Food & Function, a non-profit journal published by the Royal Society of Chemistry. Submissions can be made online here . The deadline for submissions for the themed issue is 31 August 2011.

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

Food & Function Issue 2 Now Online!

Food & Function Volume 2, Issue 2 is now online; read it here.

Estimation of dietary intake of melanoidins from coffee and bread The front cover features work from Vincenzo Fogliano and Francisco J. Morales which estimates the dietary intake of melanoidins from coffee and bread.  Melanoidins are widely distributed in the human diet and are defined as polymeric high molecular weight, brown-coloured Maillard reaction end-products, containing nitrogen.  There is emerging evidence of their positive physiological properties, but no previous estimation of their intake.

Estimation of dietary intake of melanoidins from coffee and bread
Vincenzo Fogliano and Francisco J. Morales
Food Funct., 2011, 2, 117-123
DOI: 10.1039/C0FO00156B

(−)-Epigallocatechin-3-gallate increases the expression of genes related to fat oxidation in the skeletal muscle of high fat-fed mice The inside front cover features a paper from Joshua D. Lambert and co-workers showing that a major polyphenol in green tea enhances the expression of genes related to fat oxidation in mice.  This is a mechanism by which green tea is able to modulate body weight and the article was highlighted on the Food & Function blog in January.

(−)-Epigallocatechin-3-gallate increases the expression of genes related to fat oxidation in the skeletal muscle of high fat-fed mice
Sudathip Sae-tan, Kimberly A. Grove, Mary J. Kennett and Joshua D. Lambert
Food Funct., 2011, 2, 111-116
DOI: 10.1039/C0FO00155D

All Food & Function articles are free to access; read these cover articles at the website and blog any comments below.

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

Investigating the effect of food on the gene expression of intestinal cells

A team from The Netherlands have validated a set of normalization genes for quantitative RT-PCR in differentiated Caco-2 cells and used them to detect changes in gene expression upon exposure to apple, tomato, broccoli and mushroom.

Normalization genes for quantitative RT-PCR in differentiated Caco-2 cells used for food exposure studiesFruit and vegetables are considered a healthy food choice and many potential health promoting compounds have been identified.  However, fruit and vegetables are complex products with a wide variety of compounds; therefore, a tool is required which analyses the potential bioactivity of whole foods or food products rather than the mechanisms of a single bioactive compound.  This paper describes the development of such a tool by Robert Vreeburg and co-workers from the Wageningen University and Research centre.

Intestinal cells are exposed to food we consume and it has been shown that their functions can be modulated by food compounds. Furthermore, in vitro cell lines (such as the human, colon derived Caco-2 culture) can mimic these responses.  The most versatile readout for detecting responses of cells is to measure changes in mRNA abundance; this gives a snapshot of the gene expression of a cell.  Changes in mRNA are detected using a technique called quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) which requires a set of normalisation genes whose expression will not change upon exposure to food.

This study identifies a set of reference genes suitable for RT-qPCR use in food exposure studies with the intestinal-like Caco-2 cell line.  The reference genes are validated by exposing the Caco-2 cell line to homogenates of apple, tomato, broccoli and mushroom.  These food homogenates provoked gene expression changes in the cell line thus showing that natural food homogenates can exert effects in Caco-2 cells, and that the stability in expression of the reference genes is not due to a lack of response of the Caco-2 cells.

Interested in knowing more?  Read the full text for free here.

Normalization genes for quantitative RT-PCR in differentiated Caco-2 cells used for food exposure studies
Robert A. M. Vreeburg, Shanna Bastiaan-Net and Jurriaan J. Mes
Food Funct., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C0FO00068J

Sumbit your work to Food & Function online!

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)