The Nutrition Society Silver Medal has been assigned annually since 1991 for scientific excellence in the field of nutrition, and is awarded to a member of the Society who is within 15 years of higher degree graduation. The 2020 awardee is Dr Vimal Karani, University of Reading.
Dr Karani has been awarded the Silver Medal 2020 for his research on GeNuIne (Gene-Nutrient Interactions) Collaboration: Towards implementing multi-ethnic population-based nutrigenetic studies of obesity in lower middle-income countries. It explains that whilst Nutrigenetics has highlighted the complexity of gene-nutrient interactions, it also offers opportunities to re-evaluate criteria used to set dietary guidelines and the contribution of genetic variation to optimal nutrition for individuals from different ethnic groups.
Dr Vimal Karani is an Associate Professor in Nutrigenetics & Nutrigenomics. He joined the University of Reading after his post-doctoral training at the MRC Epidemiology Unit (Cambridge, UK) and University College London (London, UK). He has also received advanced training in Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK. He has published extensively in areas related to nutrigenetics and non-communicable diseases and presently has more than 75 peer reviewed publications (including those in premier biomedical journals: Nature Genetics, Lancet, BMJ, PLoS Medicine and PLoS Genetics) and book chapters.
His primary research interests focus on the investigation of gene-nutrient interactions on metabolic- and cardiovascular disease- related outcomes using combined approaches from genetic epidemiology, statistical genetics and molecular biology. He has initiated a large-scale collaborative project called GeNuIne (Gene-Nutrient Interactions) Collaboration that aims to develop a personalised nutrition program based on the evidence from nutrigenetics, nutrigenomics, gut microbial profiling and dietary intervention studies using cohorts from various ethnic groups. Many congratulations to Dr Karani.
Dr Karani will be presenting his research on 7 December 2020 at the online Awards Event. Registration will open on 30 November 2020.