In 1826, French foodie Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin wrote, “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.” Today, we encounter a version of the phrase almost daily in cooking podcasts and health food commercials. Nearly 200 years of studies have shown that Brillat-Savarin was onto something. What we eat does influence who we are. But despite what you might hear from diet coaches and nutrition gurus, scientists still don’t understand exactly how.
That’s what Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Assistant Professor Semir Beyaz is working to uncover. Beyaz and his team are trying to figure out how diet and nutrition affect us at the molecular level, from our gut microbes to the proteins and sugars that help control cellular development. The hope is that this will lead to new “recipes” for treating and preventing diseases like cancer. That could include a combination of new medicines and diet recommendations.
Press play to hear about this research from Beyaz himself as the CSHL Cancer Center member serves up a fascinating talk on the science of diet and nutrition at Industry bar in Huntington, NY. (For any foodies in the area, he also name-drops some of his favorite restaurants around town.) Want to see an event like this live and uncut? CSHL’s Cocktails & Chromosomes series returns to Industry on January 25. And we’ll be back all throughout 2024 on the last Thursday of every month. Register now to catch next year’s first installments of Cocktails & Chromosomes.