News© Institutional Communication, 05/05/2010
The University of Navarra research group on obesity has been ranked second in the world in number of publications
A study conducted by Thomson Reuters, the publishing house of the ISI Web of Knowledge, has analyzed 172,795 teams of scientists throughout the world
The research group on obesity of the University of Navarra
Photo: Manuel Castells
The publishing house analyzed 197 projects by the research group, between 1999 and 2009, which fulfilled the company’s impact index requirements. The articles in question were published in journals such as The Lancet, Trends in Immunology and American Journal of Nutrition, with impact factors of 25.8, 15.5 and 6.74 respectively. 35 of these publications had more than 35 citations each.
The ranking of the top 20 institutions, authors, nations and journals (in areas as diverse as obesity, chronic lung diseases, osteoporosis, diabetes and climate change) was also conducted based on the number of citations and citations per article.
Thomson Reuters, which is in charge of the ISI Web of Knowledge web site, collects and indexes the publications with the highest impact index in the world (evaluated by the number of citations from each article used by other researchers). This information is considered the reference point for evaluating the prestige of scientific publications.
Obesity: genetic origin?
The projects by the research group directed by Professor Martinez cover the problem of obesity from different angles. One of the projects studies obesity based on the role of certain diets, the energy composition of different meals and their implication in weight gain –part of the SUN (University of Navarra Follow-Up) Study-. They have also studied their relation with certain oxidative processes. “In this case,” explained the Chairman of Nutrition of the University of Navarra, “the findings indicate that obesity is not only produced by excess calories, but also by the processes of energy efficiency in which mitochondria mediate.”
The team of scientists has also analyzed the genetic origin of the condition: “We have focused on the role of certain molecules in oxidative stress; on the influence of adrenoceptors, transcription factors, inflammatory mediators and new proteins in fat stability and as genetic predictors of obesity.
As for the most current progress, Alfredo Martínez says that Nutrigenomics –the study of diseases associated with nutrition and its influence on the expression of certain genes-, personalized nutrition and new technologies such as epigenomics and proteomics “will allow us to better understand metabolism and the best way of fighting against obesity.” The University of Navarra, with precisely this in mind, plans on creating a research center on Nutrition and its consequences for public health. The University will also host the IV Congress of the International Society of Nutrigenetics / Nutrigenomics ISNN in November.
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