Dr. John Batsis
The UNC Nutrition Research Institute has appointed physician-scientist Dr. John Batsis as medical director of its Clinical Research Core, adding a researcher whose work sits at the intersection of obesity treatment, aging, nutrition, and patient-centered care.
The appointment reflects growing attention across healthcare and academic medicine to how nutrition science, metabolic research, and obesity therapies affect long-term physical function and quality of life — particularly among older adults.
Batsis joins the institute as a dual-appointed associate professor in the UNC School of Medicine and the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. His research focuses on how obesity, muscle loss, chronic disease, and mobility interact as patients age, an area becoming increasingly important as healthcare systems grapple with aging populations and rapid adoption of new weight-loss therapies.
A significant portion of his current work examines how newer obesity medications influence muscle mass, strength, nutrition, and physical function in older adults. Those questions have become more pressing as GLP-1 therapies and other metabolic treatments gain widespread use, raising broader clinical discussions about maintaining mobility and independence alongside weight reduction.
“I chose this field because I saw a major gap between what we measure in healthcare and what matters most to patients,” Batsis said.
He noted that healthcare systems often prioritize traditional clinical indicators such as weight, lab values, and diagnoses while paying less attention to strength, mobility, nutrition, and daily independence — measures that can significantly affect long-term outcomes for aging patients.
At the Nutrition Research Institute, Batsis will oversee the Clinical Research Core, which supports human studies and translational research efforts designed to move scientific discoveries into clinical and real-world applications.
The role places him at the center of one of the fastest-evolving areas in healthcare research, where nutrition science, digital health technologies, personalized medicine, and metabolic therapies are increasingly converging.
Batsis also expressed interest in expanding the use of wearable devices and digital health tools to better measure physical function and improve personalized care strategies. That aligns with broader healthcare trends emphasizing continuous patient monitoring, remote data collection, and more individualized intervention models.
“What excites me most is the opportunity to help strengthen the bridge between nutrition science, clinical research, and patient-centered care,” he said.
The institute said Batsis plans to focus on strengthening interdisciplinary collaboration across UNC and external research partners while supporting studies involving obesity, metabolism, behavioral science, aging, and digital health technologies.
The appointment also reflects growing recognition within academic medicine that participant engagement and patient experience play increasingly important roles in clinical research success.
“Participants are not simply ‘subjects’ in a study; they are partners who make the research possible,” Batsis said, emphasizing the importance of practical study design, clear communication, and trust-building in improving recruitment and retention.
As clinical research becomes more decentralized and patient-focused, institutions have increasingly prioritized participant accessibility and real-world applicability in study design, particularly in fields tied to chronic disease management and preventive health.
Located in Kannapolis, North Carolina, the UNC Nutrition Research Institute focuses on precision nutrition and translational research aimed at understanding how individual biology, lifestyle, and environmental factors affect health outcomes.