Aim:

To establish a network of people interested in the development of plants and plant natural products to enhance health.

Who Attends?

This cluster will be of interest to agri-biotech companies developing plant derived products beneficial to health and those with an interest in enhancing nutrition through diet and plant derived natural products.  It will also interest those agencies concerned with giving dietary advice.

Rationale:

Compounds derived from plants have been shown to enhance human health.  Advances in plant science means that we can now produce plants with enhanced levels of these beneficial components.  This will lead to new products entering the market. 

In this cluster we will work with industrial and academic partners to discuss how these new technologies can be used to generate novel foods to benefit health.

Areas of particular interest will be cardio vascular disease, cancer, alzheimers and mental decline in the elderly and folate supplementation.

Skills Base:

• Nutrition
• Mathematical Biology
• Cancer Research
• Plant biochemistry
• Plant Molecular Genetics
• Folate Supplementation
• Glucosinolates
• Polyphenol Research
• Fatty Acid Research
• Expertise in running nutritional/clinical trials

Activities:

Meetings will be held regularly and will be focussed on how potential novel foods will address specific chronic diseases.

Next Meeting proposed 7 Sept 2010.

Meeting/Event Proceedings:

Cluster Meeting/Event proceedings will be available on the secure FHN Members' only area of the website: fhnetwork.wikispaces.com