Department of Nutrition

Research

About Our Research

The Gillings School is known for having one of the top-ranked nutrition programs in the United States and our faculty are engaged in research on myriad fronts. Our research spans from cell to society, moving from discovery to delivery.

Our primary research areas include Precision Nutrition, Diet, Health and Disease, Fundamentals of Nutrition and Metabolism and Understanding and Changing Diet Related Behavior.

Natalia Krupenko — Researchers at the Gillings School, including assistant professor Natalia Krupenko, PhD, have identified a molecule that activates and increases the function of the p53 tumor-suppressor protein, which could lead to more novel and targeted approaches to cancer treatment.

Click on one of the primary research areas below to learn more. Faculty members engaged in each research area are listed under the sub-topics. Those who are potentially seeking new doctoral students for fall 2023 are indicated by an (*). This list may change throughout the admissions cycle.

Text reads: Precision Nutrition

Text reads Diet, Health and Disease

Text reads Fundamentals of Nutrition and Metabolism

Text reads Understanding and Changing Diet Related Behavior

Precision Nutrition

Studies that focus on heterogeneity in diet-related effects. Large clinical- and population-based studies are often used as they provide inter-individual variation in exposures and outcomes. Data that captures individual-level heterogeneity in processing of nutrients and their differential health effects as captured with genetic, microbial, and metabolome data.

Diet and Big Data

Diet studies using big data, either in terms of big numbers of research participants and/or large numbers of data points (e.g., molecular, genomic, environmental, nutrient)

Faculty members conducting research in this area include:

Faculty members who are potentially seeking new doctoral students for fall 2023 are indicated by an (*).

Nutrigenetics and Nutrigenomics

Studies of genetic variation and genomic processes, particularly in relation to dietary intake

Faculty members conducting research in this area include:

Faculty members who are potentially seeking new doctoral students for fall 2023 are indicated by an (*).

Diet and Microbiome

Studies of the inter-relationships between host dietary intake and microbiota

Faculty members conducting research in this area include:

Faculty members who are potentially seeking new doctoral students for fall 2023 are indicated by an (*).

Diet, Health and Disease

Studies that focus on the connection between dietary intake and health and disease. Studies may focus on direct associations between nutrition-related exposures and health outcomes or they may be focused on methodological strategies and innovations to measure diet-related exposures. A major departmental focus is on obesity and its role in other diseases. Given differential effects of diet exposures at different points in the lifecycle, a major focus is on addressing short- and long-term nutrition-related impacts.

Diet for Health and Disease

Studies that address associations between dietary intake and health outcomes, such as undernutrition, obesity, diabetes, cardiometabolic and cardiovascular diseases.

Faculty members conducting research in this area include:

Faculty members who are potentially seeking new doctoral students for fall 2023 are indicated by an (*).

Lifecycle Nutrition

Studies that examine differential nutrition-related effects across the lifecycle, such as fetal origins of disease, childhood exposures and later health outcomes, intergenerational diet effects, and development of disease over the lifecycle.

Faculty members conducting research in this area include:

Faculty members who are potentially seeking new doctoral students for fall 2023 are indicated by an (*).

Diet Phenotyping

Methodological studies designed to measure diet as an exposure or an outcome. Studies may focus on diet collection methodologies, diet assessment, novel methods for analysis of diet data, diet patterning and diet quality.

Faculty members conducting research in this area include:

Faculty members who are potentially seeking new doctoral students for fall 2023 are indicated by an (*).

Community and Environmental Exposures

Studies that characterize community- and environment-related diet and nutrition exposures. Studies may focus on large-scale environments as captured by GPS, agricultural and sustainable food systems, chemical and toxic pollutant exposures, or detailed characterizations of microenvironments.

Faculty members conducting research in this area include:

Faculty members who are potentially seeking new doctoral students for fall 2023 are indicated by an (*).

Fundamentals of Nutrition and Metabolism

Studies that address general nutrition physiology and metabolism to advance understanding of mechanisms of health and disease. Studies may focus on a single biochemical process or they may integrate across signaling pathways and systems. The vast majority of these studies involve a basic science component.

Nutrition Mechanisms

Basic science studies that use cell, animal, or human models of nutrition-related impacts to understand mechanisms of health and disease. Studies may focus on basic physiological mechanisms, absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion pathways and cover topics ranging from immunology to chronic disease.

Faculty members conducting research in this area include:

Faculty members who are potentially seeking new doctoral students for fall 2023 are indicated by an (*).

Translational and Integrative Nutrition

Studies that address internal signaling of macronutrients, electrolytes, micronutrients and water and functional pathways across multiple systems. Attention to integrative physiological pathways and responses to signals arising from the presence of specific nutrients, metabolites, microbiome derived small molecules, diets and dietary patterns, along with the translational role of these signals.

Faculty members conducting research in this area include:

Faculty members who are potentially seeking new doctoral students for fall 2023 are indicated by an (*).

Understanding and Changing Diet Related Behavior

Studies that focus on the behavioral aspects of diet, nutrition and lifestyles. Studies that develop a better understanding of the placement of behaviors in social and biological context. A significant area of research is in behavioral change and interventions involving novel methodologies for intervention tools, design, and analysis. Broad policy-related science is also a major focus, including societal, community, and local settings as well as novel methodologies for policy evaluation. Many department faculty focus on weight management and obesity-related behaviors.

Behavioral Studies

Studies that further the understanding of diet-and lifestyle-related behaviors, including population-level behaviors as well as individual-level variation in a wide variety of behavior-related factors, including cognitive, social, behavioral, economic, and environmental factors as well as biological and developmental context. Behaviors may focus on discrete types of diet behaviors, overall diet behavior patterns, physical activity or other nutrition-related behaviors.

Faculty members conducting research in this area include:

Faculty members who are potentially seeking new doctoral students for fall 2023 are indicated by an (*).

Behavioral Change and Intervention

Studies that address interventions to change behaviors, ranging from clinical to population settings. Studies may focus on intervention strategies, efficacy and sustainability, behavior change theories, measurement and design, novel data collection and intervention technologies, as well as innovations in randomized control trial design and implementation science. Interventions may focus on a wide variety of behaviors, ranging from micronutrient supplementation, weight control trials, environment-related disease to diabetes or other diseases.

Faculty members conducting research in this area include:

Faculty members who are potentially seeking new doctoral students for fall 2023 are indicated by an (*).

Nutrition Policy

Studies that directly address nutrition policy or have policy-relevant focus. Areas of focus include range from societal-level food systems, pricing, and taxation to community-level food access, to specific settings such as school, day care centers or workplaces. Other areas include novel methodological approaches such as natural and simulated experiments as well as policy and program evaluation. Dissemination of nutrition-related information such as nutrition education, training and evaluation are also included.

Faculty members conducting research in this area include:

Faculty members who are potentially seeking new doctoral students for fall 2023 are indicated by an (*).

Other Nutrition Research Resources

Nutrition Department Faculty Profiles and Research

Nutrition Research Institute (NRI)

UNC Nutrition Obesity Research Center (NORC)

UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention

Carolina Population Center

Global Food Research Program