We offer a variety of consulting services to businesses interested in developing nutrition-related products or nutrigenomic platforms. Our consulting expertise comes from many years of experience achieved in two of the most prestigious nutrition research hubs (UNC Chapel Hill: Department of Nutrition and Nutrition Research Institute).
We offer consulting services in the following areas (for more information please contact us):
Nutrition research
- Animal and human studies: study design customized for achieving the aims of the study, optimized for cost versus statistical power. We can design the study for you “from A to Z”. In addition we offer data quality check, data interpretation, data mining and statistical assessment of the results. We can also prepare for you a final report (as per your requirements) about the study. According to your objectives, we can also offer solutions for optimizing data gathering within the same study cost (e.g. alternative “omic” solutions can be implemented instead of classic assessment of only few variables, for the same cost).
- Properly conducted human studies require IRB approval: we can work with you to ensure that, within your human study, you have all the steps necessary for protecting your subjects, and that you deal appropriately with protecting their identifiable information. We can also help with structuring your IRB application and the required documents.
- Properly conducted animal studies require IACUC approval: we can work with you on delivering the best IACUC application, and also dealing with potential red flags when it comes to the use of hazardous or controlled substances.
Assay development, setup and optimization
Do you need to either develop a new assay or setup and optimize an existing assay? We can help you with our broad expertise in molecular biology. We can chose for you the best available platforms and guide you step-by-step on how to achieve best results, including troubleshooting. Our expertise covers the following areas:
- DNA assessment: genotyping, copy number variations, sequencing, DNA methylation, and data mining and statistics (including genomics, epigenomics, and bioinformatics).
- RNA assessment: transcript quantitation, sequencing, and data mining and statistics (including transcriptomics).
- Protein assessment: immunolabeling, immunohistochemistry, data analysis.
- Metabolic assessment, including metabolomics (including data mining and statistics).
- Cell culture methods: optimization, transfection, flow-cytometry, etc.
- Marker discovery and assessment (e.g. cell proliferation, apoptosis, differentiation, or approaches aimed to unravel molecular mechanisms).
Commercial development of nutrition products and nutrigenomic platforms
Do you need to formulate a new supplement, functional food, or do you want to design a new platform for nutrigenomic assessment? We can help you to:
- determine whether your product has scientific substantiation.
- design the appropriate study to determine its substantiation.
- providing assistance for finding the right suppliers.
- provide insight on FDA regulatory requirements for your specific product(s).
- grant writing and submission.
- assisting in writing IND, NDI, IRB, and IACUC documentation needed.
- adjust your product accordingly.
- develop nutrigenomic platforms aimed for customized nutrition.
- help developing predictive models using nutrigenomic data.
Are you looking for something else that is not listed above? Just contact us.