Announcing Establishment of the Penn Center for Nutritional Science and Medicine (PenNSAM)
October 24, 2018
To:Penn Medicine Faculty and Staff
From:J. Larry Jameson, MD, PhD
EVP, University of Pennsylvania for the Health System
Dean, Perelman School of Medicine
Jon Epstein, MD
Executive Vice Dean and Chief Scientific Officer
We are excited to announce creation of the Penn Center for Nutritional Science and Medicine (PenNSAM), a partnership between Penn Medicine and CHOP that will position Penn at the forefront of nutritional biology research to prevent and treat disease.
Under the direction of Gary D. Wu, MD, PenNSAM will focus on integrating human clinical metadata, traditional dietary assessments, and standard nutritional biomarkers with data generated using the latest high throughput molecular profiling technologies analyzed through the use of advanced biostatistical and computational algorithms.
This multidisciplinary approach bridges the divide between human subject and wet bench research, enabling investigators to develop model systems designed to more precisely identify and characterize molecular mechanisms that drive the human response to diet and nutrition. Examples of deliverables envisioned from studies supported by PenNSAM include reducing the risk for disease by identifying new biomarkers that can be used to predict human responses to diet and nutrition, optimizing currently available nutritional interventions for hospitalized patients, and development of novel diet-based interventions to treat disease.
Establishment of PenNSAM integrates expertise between the Penn School of Medicine, the Penn School of Nursing, and CHOP. It also expands the joint Penn-CHOP Center for Digestive, Liver and Pancreatic Medicine by building upon the close relationship between the Division of Gastroenterology at Penn and the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition at CHOP. In addition, the Center will also integrate expertise from schools, centers and institutes across Penn’s campus.
Dr. Wu is an international leader in the field of diet, nutrition, and the gut microbiome. He serves on multiple scientific advisory boards in the food industry and is an advisor to the NIH, the National Academy of Sciences, and the USDA. Please join us in congratulating him on the establishment of PenNSAM, which furthers the innovative, multidisciplinary, team-research that distinguishes Penn.