Professor Chiappelli was born and raised in Western Europe. He obtained his bachelor's (1975), master's (1981) and Ph.D. degrees (1986) at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). Having completed his post-doctoral training at UCLA, he obtained his first NIH 5-year grant and established his laboratory in human fundamental and clinical psychoneuroimmunology at the West Los Angeles Veterans Administration in 1992. In 1994, he was recruited by the UCLA School of Dentistry, which he has served continuously in the tenured faculty track for the last two decades. Professor Chiappelli also served as Special Assistant to the Vice-Provost for Graduate Education at UCLA. Professor Chiappelli, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Fulbright Alumnus, was conferred an honorary doctorate for his contribution to the establishment of the novel science of comparative effectiveness research in the health sciences in general, and in endodontics in particular, in 2013. Professor Chiappelli also contributes to the graduate health sciences program at the California State University, Northridge (CSUN).