Our goal is to identify novel opportunities for modifying human nutrition to develop protective agents to reduce the risk of a variety of chronic diseases.
Our research program embraces three strategic approaches:
Our goal is to identify novel opportunities for modifying human nutrition to develop protective agents that will reduce the risk of a variety of chronic and degenerative diseases, and prolong the period of wellness in our lives.
1. Fundamental studies of the molecular mechanisms of the signaling pathways that underlie disease development and prevention.
2. Study of dietary plants to capitalize on the extraordinary variety of their own chemoprotectors, and the mechanisms that plants have developed for protection against adverse environments.
3. Translation of information obtained from plants and molecular mechanisms to the clinic to achieve preservation of long-term health.
The promotion of health and prevention of disease must become the central focus of medicine.
An aging population that is growing in size, successes in the treatment of infections, and the surprising decline in mortality from cardiovascular disease and stroke in the last 50 years —largely resulting from preventive measures — have all contributed to dramatic shifts in clinical medicine from care for acute to chronic degenerative and neoplastic illnesses. In only one generation, diagnoses of chronic illness will double, and advances in treatment cannot alone avert this unsustainable burden on our society.
Current societal costs of chronic illnesses are already staggering. Seven of ten deaths in the United States are from chronic diseases, and consume 98% of Medicare expenditures. Although prevention and treatment during early stages of disease development are easier and cheaper, vast sums of money continue to be allotted to treating later stages of cancer and other chronic illnesses while prevention/ protection have remained largely neglected.
It is imperative to develop imaginative new strategies to reduce the risk, delay the onset, and slow the progression of chronic degenerative and neoplastic diseases. Whereas total life expectancy at birth has doubled in the last century, maximal life span has remained constant (near 114 years). Thus the goal of preventive/protective medicine is to increase the period of “wellness.” in our lifespan.
Four life-long and continuous pathological processes cause cancer and other chronic diseases: oxidative stress (largely of endogenous origin); injury by DNA-damaging agents (originating largely from food and the environment); inflammation; and radiation (principally solar ultraviolet).
Our studies of the fundamental signaling mechanisms of disease generation and prevention have benefitted enormously from the wealth of knowledge provided by plants with their extraordinary variety of protective (phyto)chemical components. The protective mechanisms developed by plants – through longer evolutionary processes – are relevant to protection of mammalian cells, and their elucidation is a major component of our Chemoprotection Program.
None.
We are a research organization.
