July 2017

June 23, 2017

NRI Grooms Next Gen Scientists

When Grant Canipe graduated from Northwest Cabarrus in 2009, he joked that he was leaving Concord and never coming back.
But in an interesting twist, he did come back and is now working as a scientist at the UNC Nutrition Research Institute in the Cheatham and Cognition Laboratory.
“This Research Campus is so fantastic. It’s a great place,” Canipe said. “It’s amazing science we can do here, and interesting that I ended up coming back home.”
After graduating from Northwest, Canipe attended Appalachian State University where he was a pre-med major. While there, he did some research in exercise psychology in the school’s Human Performance Laboratory. He said he really liked the psychology of things and learning about brain development.
But then he decided he didn’t want to attend medical school, so he started looking for grad schools.
It was then he stumbled across Dr. Carol Cheatham and her laboratory in Kannapolis. Cheatham’s research focuses on how nutrition can improve children’s brain function. Specifically, her team studies the importance of nutrients for the development of memory and attention abilities.
Canipe became a graduate student in her lab and is now a doctoral candidate in developmental psychology.

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NRI Summer Tours

Mark your calendars, because Summer Nourishment Tours are underway at the NRI. Find out where scientific discovery takes place by touring the UNC Nutrition Research Institute in Kannapolis. Points of interest include one of only a few whole-room calorimeters in the US, body composition lab, and a research laboratory. Our research in nutrigenomics is serving individuals in our communities, across our nation and throughout the world.

All tours begin at 11:00 AM. Guests should arrive a few minutes early. Tour Dates:

  • July 13 – FULL
  • July 27
  • August 17
  • August 31

Tours limited to 16 people and will run approximately one hour in length.
Register Now
Map & Directions

Female Tea Drinkers See Epigenetic Changes in Cancer and Hormone Genes

That morning or midday beverage may have a greater effect on our genes than previously thought, especially if you happen to be female and consume tea on a regular basis. New evidence from a group of investigators at Uppsala University shows that tea consumption in women leads to epigenetic changes in genes that are known to interact with cancer and estrogen metabolism. Findings from the new study were published recently in Human Molecular Genetics in an article entitled “Tea and Coffee Consumption in Relation to DNA Methylation in Four European Cohorts.”
“Both coffee and tea have been suggested to play an important role in modulating disease-risk in humans by suppressing tumour progression, decreasing inflammation and influencing estrogen metabolism,” the authors wrote. “These mechanisms may be mediated by changes in DNA methylation.”

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UNC-CH Nutrition Research Institute Graduate Student Housing Opens

June 6, 2017 • The Nutrition Research Institute (NRI) offers unique learning and work experiences for graduate students in the fields of nutrigenomics and metabolomics. Our research relies, in fact, on the work these students do. But until recently the institute has been short on student housing, creating hardship for those who wished to study and work here. That has changed with the opening of five newly refurbished houses a short walk from the institute and the rest of the North Carolina Research Campus, offering both short- and long-term student housing options.
Finding suitable housing for its visiting students has been an ongoing project since the NRI opened in 2008. But last year, a group of five houses, which previously served as homes for Cannon Mills workers, came up for sale together. UNC Chapel Hill, UNC General Administration, and the state of North Carolina worked with the seller to obtain and rehab the houses to provide modern comforts and accessibility.
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