Professor, Cancer Biology - GIDP | Professor, Innovations in Aging - GIDP | Member of the Graduate Faculty | Professor, BIO5 Institute | Professor, Nutritional Sciences
Specifically, Dr. Chilton’s work examines how genetic and epigenetic variations interact with human diets especially the modern Western diet) to drive inflammation and inflammatory disorders including cardiovascular disease and cancer) as well as psychiatric/developmental disorders ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, and depression) These precision- individualized- and population-based research approaches provide a wide range of opportunities to benefit humans that include: 1) providing a long-sought pathogenetic mechanism that underscores the different biologic behavior of inflammatory diseases in different racial/ethnic populations; 2) discovering new biomarkers of disease aggressiveness for early diagnostic and therapeutic intervention; 3) revealing new therapeutic strategies to affect disease aggressiveness using precision gene-based dietary, wellness and/or pharmacologic interventions; and 4) creating therapeutic foods and supplements that optimize immune system and brain development for different populations around the world. Dr. Chilton has won numerous awards for this work, including the Alumni Achievement Award at Western Carolina University, the Denham Harmon Outstanding Research Achievement Award from the American College for Advancement of Medicine and the 2016 Established Investigator Award at Wake Forest School of Medicine.