Functional Food Genomics

摘要

Phase II of the Endowed Chair of Functional Food Science and Nutrigenomics will get underway on December 1, 2008. It is important that Phase II improves and expands upon the direction established during Phase I (December 1, 2003 - November 30, 2008). From an organizational standpoint, this will involve increasing the scope of joint research between the University of Tokyo and participating companies, including other universities and organizations such as public research institutions, and expanding research frameworks to make them part of the same project. We intend to harness omics as research toolboxes to promote genomics on a broader scale. Now more than ever, scientific proof of the effects of functional food is needed so that people will take on board func-rntional foods as an essential part of their everyday diet, thereby ensuring that they take root in society rather than remaining a passing fad. We therefore need to work with all the companies participating in Phase II of the chair to establish functional foods as a new field. We firmly believe that this will develop into a partnership capable of fully contributing to industry in the near future.