From MGI Undergraduate Research Assistant to National Leader in Culinary Medicine

Written by Janet Houghtby, Team Lead, MGI Data Collection

When Nate Wood arrived at the University of Michigan as a freshman, he already knew he wanted to become a doctor. But growing up in Muskegon, Michigan, in a family without physicians, he didn’t yet have a clear path—or mentors to help guide him. That changed when he joined the Michigan Genomics Initiative (MGI) as an undergraduate research assistant.

Photo of Dr. Nate Wood

Wood got his start in research through UROP, the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program. While many students chose lab-based bench science, Wood purposefully sought out clinical research. “I knew I wanted to do something more patient-facing,” he recalls.

At just 17 years old, he interviewed with Dr. Chad Brummett, MGI co-director. “I later learned that Chad had some qualms about hiring someone so young,” Wood laughs. “I would, too!” But Brummett took a chance—and became a pivotal mentor. “He modeled what it looks like to be an academic physician: caring for patients, conducting research, training residents, mentoring students, and still leading with integrity and purpose,” says Wood. “I was really impressed with how he balanced all of that while still investing in our growth.”

Over four years, Wood worked closely with the MGI team, including both Chad and Janet Houghtby, Team Lead for MGI Data Collection. “I was there consenting one of the first patients for MGI,” he recalls. “I got a lot of foundational experience talking to patients, coordinating the logistics of research, analyzing data, writing manuscripts, and thinking about things critically that could ultimately go on to have a great impact on patient care.”

His undergraduate studies and research experience with MGI led Wood to medical school at Wayne State University. In addition to building his fund of medical knowledge, Wood also spent his time in medical school beginning to explore his own research interests. He had always loved food, nutrition, and cooking, he says. (As an undergraduate, he was the food critic for The Michigan Daily!) Wood was sure there was a way to combine his passion for food with his calling in medicine.

That’s when Wood discovered the field of “culinary medicine,” in which patients are taught to cook nourishing, accessible, and delicious foods to help prevent and treat diet-related diseases like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, overweight and obesity, and a host of other conditions. Inspired by its potential, he enrolled in culinary school while earning his MD. “I realized I could bring the research skills I learned at MGI into this space that had so much potential to transform lives,” he says. “Teaching people how to cook healthy food is not just a fun extracurricular—it’s a powerful clinical tool.”

“I was there consenting one of the first patients for MGI. I got a lot of foundational experience talking to patients, coordinating the logistics of research, analyzing data, writing manuscripts, and thinking about things critically that could ultimately go on to have a great impact on patient care.”

Nate Wood, MD, MHS, Chef, DipABLM, DABOM
Instructor of Medicine (General Medicine); Director of Culinary Medicine, Yale School of Medicine

Wood first began teaching culinary medicine in the community in Detroit. He then embarked on his first self-directed research project, using evaluation research methods to assess a novel culinary medicine curriculum that he developed and taught to fellow medical students. This experience and passion led Wood to Yale, where he completed his primary care–internal medicine residency and medical education fellowship. For his master’s thesis project, he conducted the first-ever randomized controlled trial of a culinary medicine intervention among medical trainees.

Today, Wood is the inaugural Director of Culinary Medicine at the Yale School of Medicine, where he is charting new territory in the field. He leads curriculum development and trainee education, patient care, evaluation and patient outcomes research, and community outreach endeavors in culinary medicine through the Irving and Alice Brown Teaching Kitchen at Yale New Haven Health. He also serves as an instructor of medicine, faculty advisor for the medical student-led lifestyle medicine and food is medicine interest groups, core faculty member in the Yale Primary Care residency program, and Co-Director of the Weight Management Clinic at the New Haven Primary Care Consortium. He is a frequent speaker on the connection between diet and health, medical education innovations, and culinary medicine. He is currently working on his first book.

But Wood has never forgotten the roots of his academic medicine career. “I attribute so much of my foundation in research to the time I spent with MGI,” he says. “I had brilliant, kind mentors and colleagues who were generous with their time and passionate about the impact of their work. It was a nurturing environment where I could grow not just as a student, but as a future physician and investigator.”

Wood’s career is now defined by the same themes that shaped his early training: mentorship, mission-driven work, and translating research into real-world impact. “What I saw at MGI was research in service of our patients. I am determined to carry that legacy forward.”