Michael Fenech

Director of the Genome Health Foundation in South Australia and formerly of the CSIRO Human Nutrition Research Program. Originator of the cytokinesis-block micronucleus (CBMN) assay, now used worldwide as a standardized measure of chromosomal damage in human cells. Four decades of argument that nutritional adequacy should be defined in terms of genome integrity, not only in terms of preventing acute deficiency.

A 2024 paper in the European Journal of Nutrition documents that the combination of low serum magnesium and high plasma homocysteine amplifies DNA damage in circulating lymphocytes, and that both parameters lie within the ranges currently considered clinically acceptable.

Why he matters here

Fenech provides the empirical instrument for the argument this resource develops in All Medicine Is Preventive: that current recommended intakes are dimensioned for the prevention of acute deficiency and not for the preservation of the biological machinery over decades. His work translates the Triage Theory of Bruce Ames into a measurable phenotype.