INFORM January 2024

EDITOR’S LETTER

inform January 2024, Vol. 35 (1) • 7

A great year ahead

Welcome to a new year of INFORM . We are grateful that you renewed your AOCS membership for 2024 and we look for ward to sharing in these pages all the exciting science news and updates that the year brings. Registration for the 2024 AOCS Annual Meeting & Expo opens this month. We hope you will join us from April 28 to May 1 at Palais des congrès de Montréal in Montréal, Québec, Canada. This year, the Annual Meeting will be co-located with the Sustainable Protein Forum. Forum presenters discuss the latest developments in research, policy, and industry that impact sustainable proteins and explore multidisciplinary solutions that will revolutionize

complex, integrated systems for future food production. Your AM registration will include access to the Forum, so take advantage of gaps in your schedule to attend and be inspired. Learn more about both programs by visiting annualmeeting.aocs.org. This month our cover story focuses on food for medical pur poses. The western world has conducted several studies that indicate prescribing a specific

“Your AM registration will include access to the Forum, so take advantage of gaps in your schedule to attend and be inspired.”

diet to sufferers of chronic dis ease reduces their symptoms and improves health outcomes. Small groups of diabetes and heart disease sufferers showed hopeful signs that better health outcomes are possible when providers have input into what the patient eats. In China, the government healthcare system has been using food as medi cine for decades. Our story describes the policies that estab lished the practice and how China uses food as medicine today. Our other feature articles relate to interesting science in keeping with the issue’s theme, Health & Nutrition. The first feature describes one research team’s ambition to bet ter understand the physical properties of whey protein phos pholipid concentrates. The group sees potential to one day integrate these bioactive compounds into food to increase its nutritional value. In the next feature article, the authors focus on bioengi neering plants to generate more hydroxy fatty acids. By study ing the metabolic pathways of a member of the Brassicaceae family, the researchers identified unconventional pathways

for converting carbon into lipids. They bred plants to promote these pathways and increase the production of fatty acids with a functional group that can lead to a variety of applications. Fungus is the main character in our next feature article. Read about how these microorganisms can produce triacyl glycerols under the right conditions. The article’s author shares his enthusiasm for the future potential of this source of essen tial lipids. We are off to a great start with the contents of this first issue of the year. We hope you enjoy reading it.

Yours in science,