Professor Amelia Marti joins the Royal National Academy of Pharmacy

Amelia Marti del Moral, Professor of Physiology at the University of Navarra, has been sworn in as a corresponding member of the Royal National Academy of Pharmacy. During the solemn act of admission, the professor of the School of Pharmacy and Nutrition gave the lecture entitled "Advances in personalized nutrition in obesity".

Deputy Director of department at Food Science and Physiology, Professor Marti has extensive research and scientific experience in the field of nutrition and obesity at knowledge dissemination . She is the author of the monographs Obesity. Oxidative Stress and Dietary Antioxidants y Telomeres, Diet and Human Disease.

She is also co-principal investigator of group of the CIBER de Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutrición of the high school de Salud Carlos III and director of GENOI (group de Estudio Navarro de la Obesidad Infantil).

Throughout her degree program she has been vice-dean of the School of Pharmacy and Nutrition of the University, board member of food of the high school Official Pharmacists of Navarra and has worked in the committee Scientific of the Vocalía de Alimentación committee General de Colegios Farmacéuticos and in the Agencia Española de Consumo, Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutrición (AECOSAN). Since February she has been a member of issue of the Academy of Pharmacy of the Kingdom of Aragon.

She has received awards such as the Silver Medal of the British Nutrition Society (2007), the award of the Ibero-American Academy of Pharmacy (2007), or the award for the best European thesis in obesity (2016), among others.

Lifestyle and genetic factors key to personalized nutrition

"Obesity is the most prevalent nutritional disorder in our society and is associated with a high rate of cardiovascular disease attributable to modifiable factors such as poor diet and lack of physical exercise," said Professor Marti. She also commented that the study of the interaction between lifestyle and genetic factors is a basic pillar for personalized nutrition for obesity: "Numerous genetic variants associated with obesity have been identified, although there is growing evidence that healthy per diem expenses patterns can mitigate the adverse effects of these variants. On the other hand, our group has pioneered the search for omic markers that help stratify subjects or even predict response in interventions aimed at weight loss in obese subjects."

During the presentation these two aspects were addressed along with the influence of lifestyle on telomere length in both pediatric and adult populations. "Telomeres are non-coding regions of DNA located at the end of chromosomes whose function is to protect the genetic material. With age, telomeres shorten, but a healthy lifestyle can slow the rate of telomere shortening (per diem expenses subject Mediterranean), while excess weight, the inflammatory index of per diem expenses, or the consumption of ultra-processed foods increases the risk of short telomere." Thus, Amelia Martí proposed to improve the pathophysiological knowledge of obesity and its comorbidities, and to establish new biomarkers as the necessary way to advance in personalized dietary strategies as proposed by Precision Nutrition (Medicine).