BIOTECHNOLOGY AND POTENTIAL NUTRITIONAL IMPLICATIONS FOR CHILDREN

Biotechnology has the potential to affect children's short-term and lo ng-term health. Benefits from biotechnology potentially will be derive d primarily from gene therapy, which will correct metabolic abnormalit ies that affect the nutritional status of the child, from transgenic a nimal models developed to study the molecular basis of children's nutr ition, and from the development of foods and food products that will h ave general and specific health benefits. Cow's milk and infant formul a potentially could be modified made to more closely resemble human mi lk. Achievement of these rewards of biotechnology for children demands a diligent search for nutritional knowledge and for insight into nutr ient-nutrient and nutrient-gene interactions.