This month's Research Grand Rounds features Floyd H. (Ski) Chilton, Ph.D., who is a Professor of Nutritional Sciences, Cancer Biology, and the Bio5 Institute. Dr. Chilton will discuss "Gene by diet interactions in fatty acid metabolism as a basis for disparities in inflammatory and cardiometabolic diseases."

Dr. Chilton, Professor of Nutritional Sciences, Cancer Biology, and the Bio5 Institute, leads a interdisciplinary research team and several multi-institutional collaborations focused on personalized and precision nutrition to translate his work in basic biochemistry and genetics in order to improve human and population health.  His research, supported by the NIH for over three decades, reveals striking interactions between the modern western diet and ancestry related genetic variation, suggesting that they act in concert to promote cardiometabolic and inflammatory diseases.  Further, his recent papers, leverage cutting edge multi-omic, bioinformatic, and data science approaches to suggest that the relative exclusion of non-European ancestry participants from major clinical trials may have obscured population-specific benefits of omega 3 fatty acid supplementation, perpetuating health inequities. 

His talk will focus on the integration of observational evidence and clinical trials with biochemical and molecular analyses to better understand gene by diet interactions in fatty acid metabolism that may contribute to important health disparities.

Research Grand Rounds are sponsored by the Georgetown-Howard Universities Center for Clinical and Translational Science (GHUCCTS) and MedStar Health Research Institute to bring together our diverse clinical and research communities to share research that spans disciplines and stages of translation to improve individual and community health.

For more information, please contact research@medstar.net or visit our Research Grand Rounds tab on our Seminars and Workshops page.