Opportunities and Cnallenges in Nutrigenetics/Nutrigenomics: Building Industry-Academia Partnerships

摘要

Science belongs to society, a public trust that can leverage a wide range of partnerships to achieve shared goals and contribute to the public good. In the context of this article, the word 'partnership' is used to characterize a relationship based onshared ethical values, a passion for scientific excellence, and a dedication to training the next generation of nutrition scientists. More specifically, the word partnership is used to denote a relationship built on trust and mutual benefit rather thanthe legalities of research collaborations and contracts. The challenge is to build such partnerships in an increasingly skeptical world that is hypervigilant in terms of bias, conflict of interest, and private sector funding [1-3]. While not claiming tobe the optimal model, DuPont and Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) may rightfully claim to have nurtured a long-standing and productive partnership centered on the molecular nutrition of omega-3 fatty acids, a partnership that is described herein.