School of Nutrition and Dietetics

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Research group

Spanish

Impact of Food Components on Health - ICAS

Academic Unit: School of Nutrition and Dietetics

Colombian Ministry of Science

A

Call

894 GrupLAC

OECD

Area

Medical and health sciences

Subarea

Health sciences

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Strategic Focus

The ICAS Group works on the generation and transmission of knowledge and makes technological developments on the biological effect of nutritional, non-nutrient and antinutritional components of different food matrices, to contribute preventing and/or controlling chronic diseases such as cancer, obesity, diabetes. This group is committed to basic and applied research that integrates health sciences, food sciences and bioeconomy within the framework of the global (SDGs), national and Antioquia research agendas. The above is done through research projects, specialized advice, consultancies, continuing education, training of students and postdoctoral professionals and dissemination of knowledge in national and international media.

Research Lines and/or Areas

Functional foods and bioingredients
Immunonutrition
Experimental nutrition and bioactivity

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Group Coordinator

Maria Elena Maldonado Celis

PhD in Life and Health Sciences, University of Strasbourg (France).
Master’s degree in Basic Biomedical Sciences, immunology emphasis, Universidad de Antioquia.
Specialist en Biochemistry, Universidad de Antioquia
Bachelor’s degree in Biology Universidad Simón Bolívar (Venezuela)

Coordinator's Email

maria.maldonado@udea.edu.co

Research Group Email

grupoicas@udea.edu.co

Scientific Cooperation

Collaborative Relationships

Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Medellín Campus)
Universidad del Quindio (Armenia)
Instituto Tecnológico Metropolitano (Medellín)
Universidad Industrial de Santander (Santander)
Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro (México)

Universidad de Murcia (España)
Agrosavia (Antioquia Campus)
Deshidratados D’Lara (Dehydrated D’Lara).
National Cancer Research Network of the National Cancer Institute.
Chronic Disease Surveillance Network of the Americas (AMNET by its Spanish acronym).

Highlighted Projects

Natural and synthetic compounds for cancer chemoprevention (2018 – 2023)
Repository for the surveillance of risk factors for chronic diseases in Colombia, the Caribbean and the Americas (2019 – 2022).
Anti-diabetic potential of enzymatically obtained structured lipids from grape oil in an experimental model of obesity/glucose intolerance (2018 – 2020)
Evaluation of the cytotoxic and pro-apoptotic activity of a juice made with agraz lyophilisate (Vaccinium meridionale Swartz) in an in vitro model of colon cancer progression (2020 – 2022).

Key Research Findings

Chemopreventive activity of Colombian tropical fruits (mango, long curuba, uchuva, agraz or mortiño, passion fruit) against colorectal carcinogenesis (2014 – 2022)
Anti-diabetic and lipid-lowering activity of grape oil (2018 – 2021)
Development of food prototypes with antioxidant activity, probiotic attributed to sacha inchi seeds, fructooligosaccharides, red fruits, yellow fruits and Colombian tropical fruits, agraz and guava (2013 – 2021)
Determination of heavy metal content in some fishery resources of the Atrato River delta which is in the Gulf of Urabá: Colombian Caribbean (2013 – 2018).

Services and/or Products Portfolio

Advice and performance of in vitro assays to evaluate cytotoxicity, antiproliferation, immunological biomarkers, antioxidants, cell death, metabolic.
Advice and performance of in vitro and in vivo assessments of colon cancer, and intervention to evaluate the effect of functional foods or bioactive compounds in chemoprevention of cancer, obesity, diabetes.
Quantitative analysis of primary and secondary metabolites by food matrix spectrophotometry.
Advice and training specialized in bioactive compounds, nutritional chemoprevention of cancer, food and health science, functional foods, in vitro and in vivo experimentation models.
Consultancy and formulation of research projects.
Training in the object of study of the research group.