Dr. Robert Tighe is Associate Professor of Medicine, Associate Professor of Environmental Science and Policy and Vice Chief for Research in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care at Duke University. In March 2024, with the support of Dean Mary Klotman, Dr. Tighe initiated a research strategic planning effort in the Duke School of Medicine focused on the impacts of climate change on health. In 2025, he assumed the role of Director of the Duke School of Medicine Climate and Health Research Initiative (CHeRI).
Dr. Tighe is a physician scientist. His research focuses pulmonary basic-translational studies defining mechanisms of susceptibility to environmental lung injury and disease. His three principal research focus areas include: 1) Defining susceptibility factors and candidate pathways to host biological responses to environmental pollutants such as ozone, woodsmoke and silica, 2) Defining protective and detrimental functions of lung macrophage subsets, their cross talk with the lung epithelium, and how they regulate lung injury and repair, and 3) Determining the prognostic and theragnostic efficacy of 3D lung gas exchange imaging in pulmonary fibrosis using hyperpolarized 129Xenon MRI.