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Robert Chapkin - Allen Endowed Chair in Nutrition & Chronic Disease Prevention, Distinguished Professor, University Faculty Fellow, Regents Fellow & AgriLife Senior Faculty Fellow
- Office:
- 111 Cater-Mattil
- Email:
- r-chapkin@tamu.edu
- Phone:
- 979-845-0419
- Resume/CV
- http://chapkinlab.tamu.edu
Undergraduate Education
BSc. in Nutrition and Biochemistry, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, 1981
Graduate Education
MSc. in Nutrition, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, 1983
Ph.D. in Nutrition and Physiological Chemistry, University of California, Davis, California, 1986
Post-doc, Cell Biology, University of California – Davis, 1986-1988
Awards
2016-2023 – NCI Outstanding Investigator Awardee (R35)
2017- Texas A&M University Association of Former Students, Distinguished Achievement Award in Graduate Mentoring
2015-2016 – President Sigma Xi (Texas A&M Chapter)
2014 – Texas A&M University System Distinguished Professor
2013 – American Society for Nutrition (ASN) Osborne and Mendel Award
2011 – Texas A&M University Association of Former Students Distinguished Achievement Award in Research
2010-Present – Texas A&M University System Regents Professor
2009 – Vegetable & Fruit Improvement Center, Texas AgriLife Research Director’s Award
2008 – NASA Space Act Award
2007 – Senior Faculty Fellow, Texas A&M University
2006 – Sigma Xi Distinguished Scientist Award, Texas A&M University Chapter
2001-Present – Texas A&M University Faculty Fellow
2000 – Texas Agricultural Experimentation Station (TAES) Faculty Fellow
1996 – American Society for Nutrition (ASN) Bio Serv Award in Experimental Animal Nutrition
1995 – American Oil Chemists’ Society, Outstanding Paper Presentation
1991-1992 – PEW National Nutrition Program Faculty Scholar
1989-1994 – National Institutes of Health “First Award”
Websites
Position Openings
Mentoring Philosophy
Transparency, honesty and fairness are central tenets of his training and mentoring philosophy. Dr. Chapkin embraces both scientific rigor and transparency in accordance with NIH ethics guidelines. For example, all his trainees are counseled in the four areas deemed important for enhancing rigor and transparency that applies to the full spectrum of research, basic to clinical. Specifically:
- The scientific premise forming the basis of the proposed research.
- Rigorous experimental design and reporting of unbiased scientific results.
- Consideration of relevant biological variables.
- Authentication of key biological and chemical resources.
It is emphasized repeatedly that Dr. Chapkin expects all trainees will achieve robust and unbiased results. All his trainees participate in program-sponsored seminars and an ethics class offered by several of the Departments with interest in Cancer Prevention. In addition, since he is a member of an NCI-funded T32 post-doctoral training program (T32-CA090301, formerly R25-CA090301) in Nutrition, Biostatistics & Bioinformatics (http://www.stat.tamu.edu/train/), his lab members have the opportunity to interact with statistically oriented trainees (Biostatisticians, Statisticians, Engineers, Mathematicians, Computer Scientists, etc.) who are developing new statistical and computational methods that are tailored to the biology of Nutrition and Cancer.
Research Interest
Research in the Chapkin lab focuses on dietary/microbial modulators related to the prevention of cancer and chronic inflammatory diseases. Our central goal is to (1) understand cancer chemoprevention at a fundamental level, and (2) to test pharmaceutical agents in combination with dietary/microbial (countermeasures to the Western diet) to more effectively improve gut health and reduce systemic chronic inflammation. Since diet influences gut microbiota composition and metabolite production, to unravel the interrelationships among gut health and the structure of the gut microbial ecosystem, we are in the process of evaluating (using transgenic mouse, Drosophila models and humans) how the gut microbiome modulates intestinal cells, innate immune cells and tumors.
Research Area
Biochemical Mechanisms of Marine and Plant Species-Derived Bioactive Agents: Role in Immune Modulation and Chemoprevention.
Publications
- Mullens, DA, Ivanov, I, Hullar, MAJ, Randolph, TW, Lampe, JW, Chapkin, RS et al.. Personalized Nutrition Using Microbial Metabolite Phenotype to Stratify Participants and Non-Invasive Host Exfoliomics Reveal the Effects of Flaxseed Lignan Supplementation in a Placebo-Controlled Crossover Trial. Nutrients. 2022;14 (12):. doi: 10.3390/nu14122377. PubMed PMID:35745107 .
- Osorio, D, Zhong, Y, Li, G, Xu, Q, Yang, Y, Tian, Y et al.. scTenifoldKnk: An efficient virtual knockout tool for gene function predictions via single-cell gene regulatory network perturbation. Patterns (N Y). 2022;3 (3):100434. doi: 10.1016/j.patter.2022.100434. PubMed PMID:35510185 PubMed Central PMC9058914.
- Madison, CA, Kuempel, J, Albrecht, GL, Hillbrick, L, Jayaraman, A, Safe, S et al.. 3,3'-Diindolylmethane and 1,4-dihydroxy-2-naphthoic acid prevent chronic mild stress induced depressive-like behaviors in female mice. J Affect Disord. 2022;309 :201-210. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2022.04.106. PubMed PMID:35461819 .
- Turner, ND, Chapkin, RS. Biography of Joanne R Lupton (1944-2020). J Nutr. 2022;152 (4):914-916. doi: 10.1093/jn/nxac022. PubMed PMID:35091750 .
- Zhao, D, Farnell, MB, Kogut, MH, Genovese, KJ, Chapkin, RS, Davidson, LA et al.. From crypts to enteroids: establishment and characterization of avian intestinal organoids. Poult Sci. 2022;101 (3):101642. doi: 10.1016/j.psj.2021.101642. PubMed PMID:35016046 PubMed Central PMC8749297.
- Yang, Y, Osorio, D, Davidson, LA, Han, H, Mullens, DA, Jayaraman, A et al.. Single-cell RNA Sequencing Reveals How the Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor Shapes Cellular Differentiation Potency in the Mouse Colon. Cancer Prev Res (Phila). 2022;15 (1):17-28. doi: 10.1158/1940-6207.CAPR-21-0378. PubMed PMID:34815312 PubMed Central PMC8741728.
- Han, H, Davidson, LA, Fan, YY, Landrock, KK, Jayaraman, A, Safe, SH et al.. Loss of aryl hydrocarbon receptor suppresses the response of colonic epithelial cells to IL22 signaling by upregulating SOCS3. Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol. 2022;322 (1):G93-G106. doi: 10.1152/ajpgi.00074.2021. PubMed PMID:34755534 PubMed Central PMC8714253.
- Han, H, Safe, S, Jayaraman, A, Chapkin, RS. Diet-Host-Microbiota Interactions Shape Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor Ligand Production to Modulate Intestinal Homeostasis. Annu Rev Nutr. 2021;41 :455-478. doi: 10.1146/annurev-nutr-043020-090050. PubMed PMID:34633858 PubMed Central PMC8667662.
- Petrov, ME, Jiao, N, Panchanathan, SS, Reifsnider, E, Coonrod, DV, Liu, L et al.. Protocol of the Snuggle Bug/Acurrucadito Study: a longitudinal study investigating the influences of sleep-wake patterns and gut microbiome development in infancy on rapid weight gain, an early risk factor for obesity. BMC Pediatr. 2021;21 (1):374. doi: 10.1186/s12887-021-02832-8. PubMed PMID:34465311 PubMed Central PMC8405858.
- Chapkin, RS, Davidson, LA, Park, H, Jin, UH, Fan, YY, Cheng, Y et al.. Role of the Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor (AhR) in Mediating the Effects of Coffee in the Colon. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2021;65 (20):e2100539. doi: 10.1002/mnfr.202100539. PubMed PMID:34406707 PubMed Central PMC8530922.
- Han, H, Jayaraman, A, Safe, S, Chapkin, RS. Targeting the aryl hydrocarbon receptor in stem cells to improve the use of food as medicine. Curr Stem Cell Rep. 2020;6 (4):109-118. doi: 10.1007/s40778-020-00184-0. PubMed PMID:34395177 PubMed Central PMC8362759.
- Fuentes, NR, Salinas, ML, Wang, X, Fan, YY, Chapkin, RS. Assessment of Plasma Membrane Fatty Acid Composition and Fluidity Using Imaging Flow Cytometry. Methods Mol Biol. 2021;2262 :251-258. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-1190-6_14. PubMed PMID:33977481 PubMed Central PMC8549482.
- Yoon, G, Davidson, LA, Goldsby, JS, Mullens, DA, Ivanov, I, Donovan, SM et al.. Exfoliated epithelial cell transcriptome reflects both small and large intestinal cell signatures in piglets. Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol. 2021;321 (1):G41-G51. doi: 10.1152/ajpgi.00017.2021. PubMed PMID:33949197 PubMed Central PMC8321797.
- Lee, JH, Fang, C, Li, X, Wu, CS, Noh, JY, Ye, X et al.. GHS-R suppression in adipose tissues protects against obesity and insulin resistance by regulating adipose angiogenesis and fibrosis. Int J Obes (Lond). 2021;45 (7):1565-1575. doi: 10.1038/s41366-021-00820-7. PubMed PMID:33903722 PubMed Central PMC8238886.
- Safe, S, Jayaraman, A, Chapkin, RS, Howard, M, Mohankumar, K, Shrestha, R et al.. Flavonoids: structure-function and mechanisms of action and opportunities for drug development. Toxicol Res. 2021;37 (2):147-162. doi: 10.1007/s43188-020-00080-z. PubMed PMID:33868973 PubMed Central PMC8007671.
- Athinarayanan, S, Fan, YY, Wang, X, Callaway, E, Cai, D, Chalasani, N et al.. Fatty Acid Desaturase 1 Influences Hepatic Lipid Homeostasis by Modulating the PPARα-FGF21 Axis. Hepatol Commun. 2021;5 (3):461-477. doi: 10.1002/hep4.1629. PubMed PMID:33681679 PubMed Central PMC7917273.
- Zhou, F, He, K, Li, Q, Chapkin, RS, Ni, Y. Bayesian biclustering for microbial metagenomic sequencing data via multinomial matrix factorization. Biostatistics. 2021; :. doi: 10.1093/biostatistics/kxab002. PubMed PMID:33634824 .
- Fuentes, NR, Mlih, M, Wang, X, Webster, G, Cortes-Acosta, S, Salinas, ML et al.. Membrane therapy using DHA suppresses epidermal growth factor receptor signaling by disrupting nanocluster formation. J Lipid Res. 2021;62 :100026. doi: 10.1016/j.jlr.2021.100026. PubMed PMID:33515553 PubMed Central PMC7933808.
- Han, H, Davidson, LA, Hensel, M, Yoon, G, Landrock, K, Allred, C et al.. Loss of Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor Promotes Colon Tumorigenesis in ApcS580/+; KrasG12D/+ Mice. Mol Cancer Res. 2021;19 (5):771-783. doi: 10.1158/1541-7786.MCR-20-0789. PubMed PMID:33495399 PubMed Central PMC8137548.
- He, K, Donovan, SM, Ivanov, IV, Goldsby, JS, Davidson, LA, Chapkin, RS et al.. Assessing the Multivariate Relationship between the Human Infant Intestinal Exfoliated Cell Transcriptome (Exfoliome) and Microbiome in Response to Diet. Microorganisms. 2020;8 (12):. doi: 10.3390/microorganisms8122032. PubMed PMID:33353204 PubMed Central PMC7766018.