Alexis Wood

Alexis Wood is an Associate Professor at Baylor College of Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics-Nutrition, affiliated with the Children’s Nutrition Research Center (CNRC). Her research focuses on integrating genomic, epigenomic, and metabolomic data to understand how environmental and behavioral factors influence chronic diseases, particularly type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, and obesity. She leads the Alexis (Lekki) Wood Lab, which explores gene-environment interactions, infant cognitive development, and nutritional epidemiology.

Education: BS in Psychology and Philosophy (University of Warwick, 2002), MS and PhD in Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry (King’s College London, 2006–2009), and a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Statistical Genetics and Epidemiology (University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2012).

Research Interests:

• Metabolomic and genomic pathways linking diet to health outcomes
• Infant cognition and obesity risk trajectories
• Statistical methods for multi-omics data analysis
• Public health interventions for obesity prevention

Key Awards: Fellow of the American Heart Association (2017), Scott Grundy Award (2013), and Young Investigator Award (2020). Her work is funded by grants from NIH-NIDDK, USDA, and the American Heart Association.

Grants: Principal Investigator (PI) on studies like ‘Impact of the gut microbiome on insulin homeostasis’ and co-PI on projects analyzing metabolomic biomarkers of avocado intake. Collaborates widely, including with Cedars-Sinai and the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA).

Labs/Teams: Leads the CNRC-based lab, focusing on interdisciplinary approaches to child health, with ongoing projects on infant feeding behaviors and metabolic disease prevention.