Research Program. Precision Nutrition and
Cardiometabolic Health
Cardiometabolic Nutrition Group
Group leader: Prof. Alfredo Martínez Hernández
Objectives: observational, cross-sectional and longitudinal studies have evidenced that obesity rates and associated complications such as type 2 diabetes, dyslipidemia, liver steatosis and cardiovascular events are continuously rising as a health burden with increasing costs. In this context, subjects elicit variable responses to the dietary intake depending on phenotypical and genotypical factors whose understanding is helping to provide Precision Nutrition management.
Nutriomics offer a huge prospect to feature and assess the variety in the reactions to diverse nutritional therapies as well as for medical applications. Research on candidate genes together with Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS) and meta-analyses of GWAS have characterized a number of polymorphisms associated with cardiometabolic and liver related adverse features, while nutrigenetics is involved in the recognition of genediet interactions, putatively explaining phenotypical differences accompanying food and dietary consumption.
In addition to discover differences associated to the genetic make-up, transcriptomic strategies measuring mRNAs levels have found that the energy intake plus nutrient contents and quality could affect the expression of genes involved in fuel intermediate metabolism, insulin signalling, lipid turnover, and inflammation in different organs and cells such as liver and adipose tissue . Further studies have revealed the occurrence of epigenetic processes (mainly DNA methylation, covalent histone modifications and miRNAs) that may modulate gene functions and participate in nutrition-related diseases and personalized differences.
The investigation of newer metabolomic biomarkers is essential to progress in the evaluation of patient’s metabolic dysfunctions and unhealthy conditions, which will enable to better define health and disease statuses and discriminate responders from non-responders to a given nutritional prescription. Also, metagenomics researches have demonstrated that lifestyle factors such as diet or physical activity can impact intestinal microbiota composition, with possible influence in body weight homeostasis/maintenance, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular or liver diseases. Integration in the near future of omics data into Precision Nutrition will allow the implementation of personalised nutritional treatments to prevent and manage chronic diseases and to monitor the individual’s response to novel therapeutical interventions.
Prof. Alfredo Martínez Hernández
Scientific Committee Programs Director, Director of the Precision Nutrition and Cardiometabolic Health Program and Group leader of the Cardiometabolic Nutrition Group at IMDEA Food
Prof J.Alfredo Martínez holds a PhD Nutrition being also PharmD and MD. He is coIP and has been involved in several landmark intervention trials such as DIOGENES, SEAFOODplus, NUGENOB, FOOD4ME and PREDIMED whose results have been published in the most relevant medical and nutritional journals including NEJM, Lancet, Nature, BMJ, AJCN, Obesity, IJO, JCEM, Diabetology, Trends in Immunology, TIPS, IJO, Cell Metabolism Circulation, etc producing so far more than 20.000 citations. Prof. Martínez has supervised more than seventy PhD students and published more than 600 peer review papers in the areas of Obesity and Nutrition, including precision nutritional omics (H Factor > 60); He has en president of FESNAD and is currently president of ISNN as well as president elect of the International Union of Nutritional Sciences (IUNS) and has been recipient of several important awards including ipocrates and Dupont prizes. During his scientific career, Prof. J. Alfredo Martínez has enjoyed training or invited stays at Nothingham, Berkeley, MIT, Harvard, Oxford and King College London as well as being reviewer for different EU Committees and Spanish Organizations such as AECOSAN.
Email: josealfredo.martinez@imdea.org
Phone: +34 91 727 81 00, ext. 211
Members
Amanda Cuevas
Postdoctoral researcher
She was graduated in Biology and master’s degree in Food, Nutrition and Metabolism. From 2017 to 2021 she carried out her PhD project focusing on gut microbiota and obesity and defending on December 2021 (Extraordinary Award Thesis). Her investigations dealt with gut microbiota differences between subject with obesity and normal weight, host interactions between gut microbiota and genetic background, the effects of dietary components on gut microbiota compositions, the study of changes in gut microbiome composition and functions after a weight loss intervention and searching metagenomic biomarkers to personalize the prescription of weight loss diets according to gut microbiota composition. Her investigations has obtained more than 400 cites.
Moreover, she did a predoctoral stay in Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel) where she participated in projects on modulation of gut microbiota. She was working as postdoctoral researcher in Navarrabiomed-Miguel Servet Foundation trying to apply metagenomic approaches for uncultured microorganisms involved in undiagnosed infections. She joined IMDEA Food Institute in April 2022 as postdoctoral researcher in Precision Nutrition and Cardiometabolic Health group lead by Prof. Alfredo Martínez. Currently, se holds a postdoctoral Sara Borrell grant.
Email: amanda.cuevas@imdea.org
Phone: +34 91 727 81 00
Victor de la O Pascual
Postdoctoral Researcher | Precision Nutrition and Cardiometabolic Health
Víctor de la O Pascual is a postdoctoral researcher who obtained his Dietetics and Nutrition Degree from the University of Navarra in Pamplona in 2017. During the last five years, he has actively contributed to the field of preventive medicine and public health as part of the School of Medicine at the University of Navarra in Pamplona, working under the guidance of Prof. Miguel Ángel Martínez-González. His research during this period has been dedicated to the investigation of the impact of dietary patterns rich in protein and protein/amino acid sources on cardiometabolic health. In 2022, Víctor successfully completed advanced studies and earned a doctoral degree in Applied Biomedicine, specializing in Preventive Medicine, Public Health and Biostatistics in the University of Navarra. His doctoral research was conducted under the supervision of Prof. Miguel Ruiz-Canela, chair of the department. Currently, Víctor’s primary research focus revolves around the cutting-edge fields of biostatistics, Big Data analytics, and the development of machine learning models within the realm of precision nutrition and medicine. He is a key member of the Precision Nutrition and Cardiometabolic Health program at IMDEA Food, where he works closely with Professor J. Alfredo Martínez. His contributions are instrumental in harnessing data-driven insights and applying them effectively to enhance our understanding of precision nutrition and medicine. Throughout his career, Víctor has made significant contributions to several research projects, with a particular specialization in Big Data analysis derived from randomized clinical trials in nutrition and chronic diseases. His work encompasses the analysis of models exploring conditions such as cardiovascular disorders and cognitive decline. Additionally, he has also played a pivotal role in clinical trials investigating cooking habits and their influence on type 2 diabetes. Lastly, he has successfully applied advanced statistical models to analyse large observational studies, with a focus on both adult and pediatric cohorts.
Email: victor.delao@alimentacion.imdea.org
Phone: +34 91 727 81 00
Edwin Fernández Cruz
Postdoctoral researcher | Precision Nutrition and Cardiometabolic Health Programme
Edwin Fernández received his doctorate in 2018 from the University of Seville, specializing in the analysis of bioactive compounds. Between 2019 and 2022, he carried out research work related to the design of clinical trials of nutritional intervention at the Food, Nutrition and Health Platform of the La Paz University Hospital in Madrid. In addition, he has carried out numerous teaching collaborations with the International University of La Rioja (UNIR), being director and academic coordinator of an Official Master's Degree and with the CUNIMAD higher education center. Between 2022 and 2023 he acquired a position as Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences of the Alcala de Henares University. Currently, he works in the Precision Nutrition and Cardiometabolic Health group, led by Dr. Alfredo Martínez, on projects related to the characterization of biomarkers of dietary intake.
Email: edwin.fernandez@alimentacion.imdea.org
Phone: +34 91 727 81 00
Andrea Higuera Gómez
Predoctoral Researcher
Graduated in Human Nutrition and Dietetics at Universidad Complutense of Madrid. Master in Nutrigenomics and Personalized Nutrition at the Universidad de las Islas Baleares. She obtained University Expert in Sports Nutrition from the Universidad Isabel I and the International Institute of Physical Exercise and Health Sciences. She is a doctoral student in the Food Sciences Program of the Universidad Autónoma of Madrid with a research contract at IMDEA Food in the Precision Nutrition and Cardiometabolic Health group. She has experience in nutrition and dietetics consultation since 2015. She has collaborated in different work projects related to nutrigenomics and personalized nutrition focused on improving the patient's nutrition and health. She has also received a 2-year scholarship from the Agencia Española de Protección de la Salud en el Deporte (AEPSAD) at the Centro de Alto Rendimiento de Madrid (CAR Madrid) in the Department of Endocrinology and Nutrition. At the same time, she has tutored the practices of the Human Nutrition and Dietetics degrees to students from the Complutense University of Madrid and the University of Navarra. Currently, she combines her work in the nutrition practice with the METAINFLAMACIÓN project at Hospital Universitario Puerta de Hierro and her doctoral thesis in the NUTRiMDEA personalized and precision nutrition project.
Email: andrea.higuera@alimentacion.imdea.org
Phone: +34 91 727 81 00
Students
- Angel Villamor
- Javier Blanco
- George Agreey
- Nathalia Caroline de Oliveira Melo
most relevant publications |
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main research grants |
Principal Investigator: Juan Antonio Vargas Núñez Investigator: Jose Alfredo Martínez Hernández -------------------------------------------------- Principal Investigator:Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) Investigator: Jose Alfredo Martínez Hernández |
