Vaia Lida Chatzi, MD, PhD

Dr. Lida Chatzi is a physician, environmental epidemiologist, and Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences in the Division of Environmental Health at the University of Southern California (USC). She has over 20 years of experience in environmental health research with a strong track record of productivity in multidisciplinary, translational science. Her work focuses on the effects of environmental chemical exposures on human health by integrating data from epidemiologic cohorts and experimental models.
Dr. Chatzi serves as Director of the USC Center for Translational Research on Environmental Health (USC-R-TEN), Director of the NIEHS-funded Southern California Superfund Research Program for PFAS Assessment, Remediation, and Prevention (ShARP), and Deputy Director of the NIEHS-funded P30 Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center (SCEHSC). Through these leadership roles, she directs teams focused on bench-to-population science, community-engaged, solution-oriented research, and transdisciplinary career development.
Her research program is dedicated to understanding how environmental pollutants—particularly endocrine-disrupting chemicals such as PFAS—influence metabolic health outcomes across the life course. Her studies examine links between chemical exposures and obesity, type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance, liver disease, and cancer.
Dr. Chatzi leads several large, multi-center studies in Southern California and has established transatlantic collaborations to leverage intellectual resources and population cohorts in both the U.S. and Europe. She is principal investigator on multiple NIH/NIEHS and EU-funded research initiatives aimed at advancing precision environmental health through integrative exposomics and multi-omics approaches.

• Department of Public Health, University of Sheffield, UK: Marie Curie Fellowship, 2003
   – 2003
• Harvard Medical School: Fulbright Scholarship, 2014
   – 2014
• Centre for Environmental Research, Spain: Erasmus Fellowship, 2012
   – 2012

• Faculty of Medicine, University of Thessaloniki — MD — 11/2000 — Medicine
• Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete, Greece — PhD — 07/2005 — Epidemiology
• Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology, , Barcelona, Spain — Post-doctoral Training — 12/2006 — Birth Cohort Researh
• Venizelio General Hospital, Heraklion, Greece — Residency in Family Medicine — 02/2008 — Family Medicine

• Translational Research Program on PFAS and Metabolic Diseases: A Solution Oriented Framework
  NIH · R35ES035051 · Apr 10, 2026 – Mar 31, 2034 · Role: Principal Investigator
• PFAS and liver cancer: linking epidemiological evidence with mechanistic studies
  NIH · R01CA300355 · Apr 1, 2026 – Mar 31, 2031 · Role: Co-Principal Investigator
• Southern California Superfund Research and Training Program for PFAS Assessment, Remediation, and Prevention (ShARP)
  NIH · P42ES036506 · Apr 24, 2025 – Jan 31, 2030 · Role: Principal Investigator
• PFAS and bone health over the life course in Hispanic/Latinos: emerging risk factors and underlying mechanisms
  NIH · R01ES036253 · Jan 3, 2025 – Dec 31, 2029 · Role: Principal Investigator
• Pediatric Autoimmune Consortium for Exposome Research (PACER)
  NIH · R21AR084040 · Sep 22, 2023 – Aug 31, 2025 · Role: Co-Principal Investigator
• Longitudinal integration of environmental exposures, omics, and childhood NAFLD (LEON) Study
  NIH · U01HG013288 · Sep 12, 2023 – May 31, 2028 · Role: Principal Investigator
• Hepatotoxic effects of perfluoroalkyl substances: a new epidemiological approach for studying environmental fatty liver disease
  NIH · R01ES030691 · May 1, 2020 – Apr 30, 2024 · Role: Principal Investigator
• Effects of DDE exposure on adipose tissue function, weight loss and metabolic improvement after bariatric surgery: A new paradigm for study of lipophilic chemicals
  NIH · R01ES030364 · Feb 1, 2020 – Nov 30, 2024 · Role: Principal Investigator
• Environmental Chemical Exposures and Longitudinal Changes of Glucose Metabolism, Insulin Sensitivity and B Cell Function in Youth
  NIH · R01ES029944 · Aug 15, 2019 – May 31, 2025 · Role: Principal Investigator
• Developmental origins of child liver injury: Effects of prenatal environmental exposures
  NIH/NIEHS · R21 ES0293281 · May 1, 2019 – Apr 30, 2021 · Role: PI
• Developmental origins of child liver injury: Effects of prenatal environmental exposures
  NIH · R21ES029681 · May 1, 2019 – Apr 30, 2021 · Role: Principal Investigator
• The adipose exposome effects on the plasma metabolome, body composition and metabolic outcomes after bariatric surgery
  NIH · R21ES028903 · Jul 15, 2018 – Jun 30, 2021 · Role: MPI
• LIFECYCLE – Early Life Stressors and Lifecycle Health
  European Commission · Jan 1, 2017 – Dec 31, 2020 · Role: Task Leader
• Lifecourse Approach to Developmental Repercussions of Environmental Agents on Metabolic and Respiratory health (LA DREAMERs)
  NIH · UG3OD023287 · Sep 21, 2016 – Aug 31, 2018 · Role: Co-Investigator
• Environmental Exposures, Host Factors and Human Disease
  NIH · P30ES007048 · Apr 1, 1996 – Apr 30, 2031 · Role: Co-Investigator

• environmental epidemiology; birth cohort research; childhood obesity; endocrine disrupting chemicals

• Goran, Michael
• Peters, Anne
• Goodrich, Jesse
• McConnell, Rob
• Farzan, Shohreh
• Eckel, Sandrah