Molecular Biologist
USDA Agricultural Research Service, Precision Nutrition, Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) at Tufts University
Dr. Chao-Qiang Lai, PhD, is a USDA-ARS Research Molecular Biologist and Geneticist in the Precision Nutrition & Healthy Aging directive at the HNRCA. He has been working in research for over 24 years and has published more than 175 articles and selected papers.
Dr. Lai focuses on the relationship between nutrition, genetics, and healthy aging, in particular, epigenomics, gene-by-diet interactions, and risk prediction and prevention of heart and metabolic diseases. Among his numerous accomplishments, Dr. Lai demonstrated that the epigenetic variation independent of genetic code that affects gene expression accounted for much more variation of after-meal circulating fat responses to a high-fat meal than the genome, suggesting that diet and lifestyle play crucial roles in the prevention of heart disease, which primarily affects middle-aged and older adults. He also found that greater consumption of saturated fats was associated with greater weight gain in individuals who carry specific genetic or epigenetic variants. In collaboration with Dr. Hongwei Si from Tennessee State University, Dr. Lai's research has shown that supplementing the diet with epicatechin can increase lifespan and decrease muscle loss. His work has also demonstrated that curcumin can extend lifespans and resistance to heat-stress in Drosophila and mice.
His recent research (1) revealed that specific epigenetic changes indicate higher vitamin B12 intake is associated with reduced insulin resistance among older adults; (2) developed prediction models for metabolic diseases that incorporate genome wide and epigenome wide data, along with gene–diet interactions, using machine learning techniques.
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=837aJYQAAAAJ&hl=en