Jiu-Chiuan Chen, MD, MPH, ScD

Jiu-Chiuan (JC) Chen is a Professor of Population & Public Health Sciences and Neurology. Dr. Chen is a physician-epidemiologist with formal training in Internal Medicine, Environmental and Occupational Medicine, Epidemiologic Methods (Clinical; Occupational; Environmental), and Environmental Health Sciences. Chen brings extensive knowledge in medicine and toxicology together with sophisticated skills in quantitative methods to study environments and chronic disease epidemiology and elucidate the biological underpinnings of environmental influences on human health, in order to reduce the resulting environmental health disparities especially among the vulnerable populations.

At USC, Chen developed the AirPollBrain Network (Co-PIs: Finch & Chen), with its mission to create a research and education program in environmental neurosciences of brain health during development and aging in urban environments. To study how ambient air pollution exposures affect brain aging including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Dr. Chen’s research team and their collaborators take the team-sciences approach that integrates state-of-the-art knowledge and tools in neurobiology of AD, population & clinical neuroimaging, mouse brain imaging, neuroinformatics and high-dimensional data analyses, brain vascular biology, inhalation exposure assessment and neurotoxicology, clinical neurology and neurosurgery, cognitive neurosciences and neuropsychology, quantitative psychology, epidemiology of AD, spatial statistics, and air pollution epidemiology.

These powerful approaches had been expanded to study how urban environmental adversities shape the neurodevelopmental and behavioral trajectories during vulnerable time periods. Chen’s team also pioneers the emerging field of environmental health disparities in AD and related dementias, investigating how environmental stressors and resilience factors interact to shape the socio-geographic disparities in dementia.

• Environmental Determinants, Maternal Postpartum Depression, and Mental-Emotional-Behavioral Disorders in Urban-Dwelling Children
  NIH · R01ES037475 · Aug 1, 2025 – May 31, 2030 · Role: Co-Principal Investigator
• Urban Air Pollution and Alzheimer's Disease: Risk, Heterogeneity, and Mechanisms
  NIH · P01AG055367 · Jul 1, 2018 – Jun 30, 2024 · Role: Co-Principal Investigator
• Environmental Determinants of Pathological Brain Aging in WHI Memory Studies
  NIH · R01ES025888 · Sep 30, 2016 – Jul 31, 2021 · Role: Principal Investigator
• Alzheimer's Disease & Related Dementias: Geography, Environments, and Mechanisms
  NIH · RF1AG054068 · Sep 1, 2016 – Mar 31, 2021 · Role: Principal Investigator
• Regional Neurotoxicity & Early Biomarkers of Air Pollution Effects on Brain Aging
  NIH · R21AG051113 · Sep 1, 2015 – Apr 30, 2018 · Role: Co-Principal Investigator
• Neurodevelopment in Urban Environments: Role of Exposure to Ambient Air Pollution
  NIH · R21ES022369 · Aug 2, 2013 – Jul 31, 2017 · Role: Principal Investigator
• Environmental Determinants of Cognitive Aging in the WHI Memory Study
  NIH · R01AG033078 · Mar 15, 2011 – Feb 28, 2017 · Role: Principal Investigator
• Environmental Determinants of Sleep Disturbance: Role of Ambient Air Pollution
  NIH · R21HL089422 · Sep 21, 2007 – Jul 31, 2009 · Role: Principal Investigator

• Environmental neurosciences of brain development and aging
• Biological underpinnings of social disparities in brain health
• Study design and epidemiologic methods (environmental; occupational; clinical)
• Translational EHS in human studies and animal model systems
• Statistical approaches to analyzing longitudinal, large-scale multidimensional cohort data

• Peters, Anne
• Habre, Rima
• McConnell, Rob
• Garcia, Erika
• Eckel, Sandrah
• Herting, Megan