Content
Research & Statistics
Recent reports indicate that the incidence of specific diseases characterized by inflammation is increasing. This is pronounced in countries with "western diets". Similarly, dietary supplement use is also increasing, often faster than scientific evidence identifies the mechanisms by which such supplements may or may not work. The potential link between these trends suggests that people are aware of these changes, but that much remains to be learned about which dietary supplements are beneficial and how they should be used. The data below are a snapshot of some of the recent trends.
About the Center for Botanical Lipids
Wake Forest University Health Sciences has established the Center for Botanical Lipids. This central objective for this new research Center is to determine the role of fatty acid based dietary supplements in the prevention and treatment of chronic human diseases associated with inflammation. This will include investigations into the molecular mechanisms of action, the safety, and the efficacy of Botanical Lipid dietary supplements. Nearly 20% of Americans use dietary supplements, many of them botanicals, but scientific evidence for their safe and effective use in the prevention or treatment of human diseases has lagged behind the use of the products.
This new research initiative is funded by grants from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) and the Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS), which are components of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The Wake Forest Center for Botanical Lipids is one of five such dietary supplement research centers funded through the NIH (see News and Announcements). The focus of these centers is to conduct research to establish evidence regarding the safety, effectiveness, and mechanisms of action of botanicals. Each Center specializes on a different set of botanicals and human diseases.
The Center for Botanical Lipids will utilize state of the art biochemical and clinical testing to determine the mechanism(s) of action of several promising lipid-based botanicals. The goal of this research is to identify potential new fatty acid based strategies to prevent or treat human diseases with inflammatory components. The botanicals under study include flaxseed oil, borage seed oil, and echium seed oil, all sources of specific fatty acids of interest. The Center will carry out four main research projects and operate core support laboratories.
The Wake Forest Center for Botanical Lipids operates on two campuses. The Wake Forest University Health Sciences home for the Center for Botanical Lipids is the new Biotechnology Research Facility 1 (BRF1) in the Piedmont Triad Research Park located in downtown Winston-Salem, NC (..read more). The new building was dedicated May 16, 2006, in a ceremony featuring a keynote address by Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni, Director of the National Institutes of Health, who also spoke at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine Graduation. BRF1 also houses the Lipid Sciences Research Program, a 50-year research effort at the medical school from which the Center for Botanical Lipids has grown. BRF1 is the sixth addition to the Piedmont Triad Research Park, a planned 240-acre Research Campus. The projects of Dr. Floyd (Ski) Chilton, Dr. Larry Rudel and Dr. John Parks are housed in BRF1, bringing together faculty from Departments of Physiology/Pharmacology with the Department of Pathology/Lipid Sciences. The second campus site is at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, a Teaching Affiliate of the Harvard Medical School. That campus is the site of the asthma project lead by Jonathan Arm, M.D, who is a member of the Inflammation and Allergic Disease Research Section of the Division of Rheumatology, Immunology and Allergy at the Brigham and Women's Hospital.
Q. What is an inflammatory disease?
A. Inflammatory diseases-- diseases where the body's own defense system turns against itself-- are growing in record numbers in the US and other western countries. Chronic inflammation is suspected or known to be a principle trigger for over 30 conditions and diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, allergies, diabetes, cancer and Alzheimer's.
The Role of Omega 3 Fatty Acids on Vascular Biology, Vascular Inflammation, Hypertension, Dyslipidem
November 16th
Floyd (Ski) Chilton, PhD presented "The Role of Omega 3 Fatty Acids on Vascular Biology, Vascular Inflammation, Hypertension, Dyslipidemia, and Cardiovascular Disease" at the 11th Annual Hypertension Symposium in Nashville, TN.
Internal Steering Committee
Floyd H. (Ski) Chilton, Ph.D.
Professor of Physiology and Pharmacology
Director, Wake Forest Center for Botanical Lipids
Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Lawrence L. Rudel, Ph.D.
Professor of Pathology (Director of Lipid Sciences), and Biochemistry
Wake Forest University School of Medicine
John S. Parks, Ph.D.
Professor of Pathology (Lipid Sciences)
Director of Molecular and Cellular Pathobiology PhD Program
Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Jonathan P. Arm, M.D.
Professor of Rheumatology, Immunology and Allergy
Associate Director of Allergy and Immunology Training Program
Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard University, Boston
James E. Smith, Ph.D.
Professor and Chairman of Physiology and Pharmacology
Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Robert Wykle, Ph.D.
Professor of Biochemistry
Wake Forest University School of Medicine
External Advisory Committee
External Advisory Board Meeting: L-R, Arthur Spector, Larry Rudel, John Parks, Curt Furberg, Ski Chilton, Bradley Undem, Jonathan Arm, Michael Aschner
Curt Furberg, M.D.
Senior Advisor to the Dean and Professor Public Health Sciences
Wake Forest University Health Sciences
William Harris, Ph.D., F.A.H.A.
Professor of Medicine,
University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine
Director of Nutrition and Metabolic Diseases Research at the
South Dakota Health Research Foundation, Sioux Falls
Arthur A. Spector, M.D.
University of Iowa Foundation Distinguished Professor
of Biochemistry and Medicine
University of Iowa
Bradley Undem, Ph.D.
Professor of Medicine
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Asthma and Allergy Center
Charles Serhan, Ph.D.
Simon Gelman Professor at Harvard Medical School
Director of the Center for Experimental Therapeutics and Reperfusion Injury at the Brigham and Women's Hospital
Michael Aschner, Ph.D.
Professor of Pediatrics / Professor of Pharmacology
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
About What We Do & Our Goals
Within the next two decades, more than one in three US citizens will suffer from an inflammatory disease such as asthma, arthritis, diabetes, lupus, hay fever, Crohn's disease, eczema and heart disease. For example, more than 20 million Americans have asthma today -- twice as many as in 1980. These disturbing trends have created a new generation of sufferers who are seeking new ways to manage their debilitating diseases. The use of complementary/alternative medicine has dramatically increased in the developed world and especially in Western countries such as the United States. It is estimated that as much as 60% of the U.S. population has used or currently uses complementary/alternative medicine, spending in excess of $50 billion annually. Soy proteins, oat, bran, and psyllium have continued to be the largest-selling compounds, and there are increasing uses in fortified foods and beverages. However, polyunsaturated fatty acids have emerged as the leading group of functional additives expanding 30% annually through 2004.
The Center for Botanical Lipids brings together a group of outstanding investigators in three internationally recognized lipid groups to study the effects of dietary polyunsaturated fatty acids on human diseases that are driven by inflammation. Specifically, the lipid research groups in atherosclerosis and inflammation represent two well-established areas of research focus at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Similarly, the lipid group at Brigham and Women's Hospital, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School has been at the forefront in the area of lipid mediators of inflammation.
It is the Center's goal to carry out state of the art research in the area of botanical dietary fatty acids and human disease as well as to be an important resource for those who are interested in learning more about dietary fatty acids and those who are involved in research in this important area. We are very grateful to the National Institutes of Health and in particular the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and the Office of Dietary Supplements, for their generous support of our Center. We hope you will enjoy our site.