"GenoVive is changing the face of personalized health by continuing research efforts with Harvard."

NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 25, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- GenoVive, an innovator in personalized health care solutions, is leading the fight against the emerging "globesity" epidemic through its development of a state of the art weight management program based on each individual's unique metabolism.  "Weight Loss Designed by Science" has been developed to utilize advances in genetics to customize an all natural meal and exercise program to assist individuals in managing their weight and leading a healthier lifestyle.

To further discoveries and to fuel the development of effective dietary intervention for treatment, GenoVive is continuing its collaboration with Dr. Lu Qi, M.D., PhD., Principal Investigator at Harvard School of Public Health.  In this second collaboration, GenoVive will be funding a genome-wide scan in the POUNDS LOST trial, a 2-year intervention trial testing four weight-loss diets to identify all the potential genetic markers determining weight loss in response to diet interventions. 

"One of the ultimate goals of studying gene-diet interaction is to develop personalized diet interventions based on genetic profile that are better tailored to meet the individuals' needs," said Dr. Lu Qi, who serves as Editor-in-Chief for World Journal of Diabetes, Associate Editor for BMC Medical Genetics, and editorial board member for the Journal of Nutrition, the International Journal of Molecular Epidemiology and Genetics, and Frontiers in Nutrigenomics.  "Success in identification of genetic variants from the genome-wide project would significantly improve our understanding on gene-diet interactions in relation to weight loss, which holds great promise for delivering more efficient prevention and treatment of obesity."

In the past 5-6 years, GWA studies have made great strides in unraveling the genetic basis of obesity and other chronic diseases. The success of GWA studies has demonstrated that it is the most powerful and reliable method to discover novel genetic determinants. However, no GWA study has been reported so far on weight loss in response to diet interventions. GenoVive wishes to bridge this gap through this new collaboration with Dr. Qi.  The data collected from this diet intervention trial will be used to create an extremely valuable genomic discovery database.  This database will allow for identification of all potential genetic markers which determine weight loss in response to diet interventions.  In addition, by establishing this GWA database, it will serve as a foundation to promote collaborations amongst researchers with common interest or PIs conducting other clinical trials to further validate any genetic markers that affect weight loss in response to various diet interventions in the future.

"We are privileged to continue our collaboration with Harvard School of Public Health," said Vic Castellon, PharmD., founder and CEO, GenoVive LLC.  "Having the abundant resources from such an esteemed university, and Dr. Qi's prolific research background, will allow us to probe deeper into this emerging field of nutritional science and personalized health to bring the latest discoveries to GenoVive's weight management solutions to Americans and our international partners."

For additional information or questions, contact Paul Clinkscales ([email protected]; (504) 734-3030, http://www.genovive.com).

SOURCE GenoVive LLC