Agilent & Consortium To Study Fats In Healthy People

The new international joint effort between Agilent and NUS aims to develop the world’s first integrated systems biology database for different races and ethnicities.

AsianScientist (Mar. 18, 2014) – Agilent Technologies Inc. joins a new international research consortium, led by the National University of Singapore (NUS), that aims to develop the world’s first lipid database for healthy persons of different racial and ethnic groups.

Using the database, scientists and researchers hope to better understand the healthy and unhealthy “fat” levels in people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds. This knowledge will pave the way for medical professionals to leverage such key information as diagnostic markers for their patients in future.

The Lipidomic Natural Variation (L-NAVA) consortium, founded by the Singapore Lipidomics Incubator (SLING) at NUS, includes South Korea’s Graduate School of Analytical Science and Technology (GRAST) at Chungnam National University; Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, a medical research institute located in Melbourne, Australia; and Agilent.

“Understanding natural variations is a major aim of SLING,” said Associate Professor Markus Wenk, Director of SLING. “This network allows us to extend, and hopefully connect, our studies on lipids with others that address variability at the level of genes, proteins and sugars. Doing this in healthy individuals will provide a broad, foundational basis relevant for a better understanding of onset of diseases.”

SLING recently concluded a study of 360 healthy subjects from three major ethnic groups – Chinese, Indians and Malays – in Singapore. Through that study, SLING was able to identify the upper and lower limits of the normal fat levels for healthy people in the three different groups.

Using methodology created by SLING, the teams at GRAST and Baker IDI will undertake similar studies in their domestic markets and the results will be compiled into a database. The lipid information (L-NAVA) will be integrated with glycomic (G-NAVA) and proteomic (P-NAVA) studies, to provide insight in natural variation within glycans and proteins as well.

———

Source: Agilent; Photo: mchelen/Flickr/CC.
Disclaimer: This article does not necessarily reflect the views of AsianScientist or its staff.

Asian Scientist Magazine is an award-winning science and technology magazine that highlights R&D news stories from Asia to a global audience. The magazine is published by Singapore-headquartered Wildtype Media Group.

Related Stories from Asian Scientist