Dr. Christopher Fagundes is a Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Rice University. His research examines how psychosocial adversity, including early life stress, spousal loss, and caregiving burden, becomes biologically embedded in ways that may accelerate diseases of aging. He holds adjunct appointments in the Department of Psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine and the Department of Behavioral Sciences at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, and he chairs Rice University's Institutional Review Board.
His Biobehavioral Mechanisms Explaining Disease (BMED) Laboratory integrates psychological and biological levels of analysis to link psychosocial risk to physical health. Grounded in developmental theories of attachment and interpersonal stress, the lab uses longitudinal observational studies and clinical trials to examine biological mechanisms of risk and resilience, including immune dysregulation, autonomic dysfunction, and mitochondrial bioenergetics. It tests how interpersonal and social determinants of health shape trajectories of aging-related chronic disease across contexts that include cardiovascular disease, stroke, cognitive decline, and Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (AD/ADRD). By identifying targets that are psychologically meaningful and amenable to biological measurement and intervention, the lab develops strategies to improve quality of life and reduce disease vulnerability in older adults. This research has been supported by sustained funding from the National Institutes of Health, including the National Institute on Aging and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
Dr. Fagundes also directs Rice University's Institute of Health Resilience & Innovation (IHRI), which extends this work into community-engaged scholarship and intervention development. IHRI connects investigators across Rice and the Texas Medical Center, with particular emphasis on how social determinants of health influence aging outcomes across diverse populations. It supports transdisciplinary science through research cores, pilot funding, training programs, and community partnerships built on the principle that scientific questions should be informed by the lived experiences and priorities of the people most affected.
Dr. Fagundes is committed to translating rigorous science for broader audiences. He works with public health and community organizations, presents regularly at national and international conferences, and has had his research featured in The New York Times, NPR, Time, and Forbes. He oversees the Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine Research Interest Group and welcomes inquiries from prospective graduate students and postdoctoral fellows interested in psychoneuroimmunology, caregiving, bereavement, attachment, or aging-related chronic disease.