The Eurecat technology centre’s Reus-based Biotechnology Area is running a study with post-menopausal women to better shape future nutritional strategies which help to prevent menopause-associated symptoms and illnesses. The hormonal changes which take place at this stage lead to vulnerability to serious illnesses such as an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, cognitive impairment and osteoporosis.
Specifically, the She Health project conducted by Eurecat includes a study to examine a number of metabolic, hormonal and gut microbiota parameters in 200 post-menopausal women. This will make it possible to draw on algorithms to identify “groups with similar metabolic traits so we can devise and lay the scientific foundations for innovative precision nutrition interventions targeting each of these groups,” says Dr Antoni Caimari, director of Eurecat’s Biotechnology Area.
This study “is part of Eurecat’s commitment to the food transition towards precision nutrition for the purpose of generating knowledge and innovative technologies which allow people to manage their wellbeing with growing self-sufficiency grounded in a preventive approach,” notes Dr Francesc Puiggròs, scientific director in Eurecat’s Biotechnology Area.
In addition to Eurecat’s Nutrition and Health Unit, the study also involves the Omic Sciences Unit, a joint R&D and innovation unit made up of experts from Eurecat and the Rovira i Virgili University (URV) which is conducting the metabolic and intestinal microbiota omics analyses, and the Digital Health Unit, which is engaged in analysing the data to identify groups of metabolically similar women together with the key variables which shape the makeup of each group.
