Delisha Stewart, PhD

Assistant Professor of Nutrition

Dr. Delisha Stewart is an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Nutrition Research Institute. Dr. Stewart has experience using genomics, metabolomics and high-throughput molecular bioassays to investigate mechanisms involved in cancer and inflammation. Dr. Stewart’s primary research includes a portfolio of studies aimed at understanding the impact of nutrition (i.e., macronutrient content) on weight gain, and breast cancer endpoints, like treatment response. She uses both in vitro and in vivo model systems of genetic diversity to gain insights into health disparities associated with cancer endpoints. Since 2012, she has also worked with the Sumner Lab to provide oversight for cancer and immunology studies conducted by NIH-funded metabolomics cores. Dr. Stewart earned a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Delaware, UNC-Chapel Hill and at RTI International.
 
To learn more about Dr. Stewart’s research click here, and for more on her journey click here.
 

In the News

Embracing Life’s Detours: Faculty Focus with Delisha Stewart, PhD

On her journey to the UNC Nutrition Research Institute (NRI), Delisha Stewart, PhD, did not shy away from detours. In fact, she jokingly refers to herself as “the scientific nomad.” The key to life, she believes, is not being afraid to stray from the expected path...

New Grant to Study Nutrition and Chemotherapeutic Response

May 30, 2018 – Delisha Stewart, PhD, Assistant Professor of Nutrition at the UNC Nutrition Research Institute, has been awarded a two year grant to study the impact of diet on chemotherapeutic treatment resistance in obesity-driven, aggressive breast cancer.  This award builds from the research Dr. Stewart has conducted over the last ten years.

NRI Included in UNC Creativity Hubs Inaugural Award to Study Obesity

May 14, 2018 – Five NRI faculty members are among a team of UNC researchers receiving an award to study one of the world’s most pressing issues: the obesity epidemic. The cross-disciplinary team, known as the Heterogeneity in Obesity Creativity Hub, will leverage the strengths of Carolina’s schools of medical and health sciences, affiliated research centers and institutes, and prowess in big data management to take a novel approach to assess the underlying causes of obesity to unlock new, targeted ways to treat the disease.

Catawba scholar helps with research at UNC’s Nutrition Institute

August 25, 2015 • Noyce Scholar Brinsley Stewart of Boonville plans to be a math teacher after she graduates from Catawba College in May 2016, but her internship experience this summer at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Nutrition Research Institute in Kannapolis gave her some keen insights into just how important math and applied statistics can be in the world of research.
Stewart, a rising senior, interned under the tutelage of Dr. Philip May, a 1969 Catawba alumnus. May is a research professor for UNC at the Nutrition Research Institute, where he continues his National Institute of Health-funded research on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders.