Obesity: from molecular biology to intervention

Although we live in an advanced society with access to a wide variety of foods, our lifestyle habits are globally unhealthy. This fact impacts both the child population and the adult population, where obesity and overweight is one of the most serious public health problems of the 21st century.

The main strategy of this project is to identify biomarkers that allow the development of new tools for the diagnosis and control of obesity that translate molecular information into nutritional intervention models, either through personalized diets, in the form of new foods, new reformulations, supplements, etc. The project is completely aligned with the objectives pursued by the aforementioned Basque Health Plan 2013-2020, and such coincidence highlights the need for it. All this justifies the development and promotion of new strategies for the prevention of what has already been described as a pandemic.

The main objective of the OBINTER project is the selection of molecular parameters thanks to the combination of advanced omic and computational techniques, in order to establish a metabolic profile characteristic of the obese population, and design new intervention tools to address their treatment and prevention through a personalized nutritional strategy.

Expected impact

- Positive impact on the health of the population, since it will allow an improvement in the quality of life, leading to sustainable aging and a decrease in chronic pathologies.

- Knowledge of the impact of the intake of different foods will allow the food industry to adapt its products for the prevention and treatment of obesity and to design novel formulas and supplements for this purpose.

- The identification of therapeutic targets and biomarkers could be of great interest to biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies for the development of products for diagnostic, prognostic and/or treatment and prevention purposes.

- Positive impact on the reduction of healthcare costs and on the development of personalized medicine and molecular or precision medicine.

- Facilitate the control and monitoring of the population by health authorities, for the prevention of obesity and for the detection of other possible metabolic disorders and will provide sufficient knowledge to develop personalized dietary guidelines.

Vicomtech has been responsible for the development of lifestyle and activity capture technology, as well as providing the intervention through the use of mobile applications and wearable devices. This is the main user interface of the set of innovative tools, technologies and research conducted in the OBINTER project.