Zhongzheng (Jason) Niu
PhD
Research Topics
Maternal and child health; cardiometabolic health; life course; epigenetics; environmental epidemiology; mixture; susceptible window of exposure; DOHaD; vulnerable population; refugee health; telomere; biological aging; early life; endocrine-disrupting chemicals
Summary
Dr. Jason Niu joined the Department in July 2024. His overall research objective is to advance understanding of cardiovascular health development from a life course perspective, so that primordial and primary prevention can be informed and healthy lifespan can be extended. His research program involves various population cohorts that together cover the whole lifespan from birth to death. His ongoing NIH-funded R01 project aims to understand how telomere length (an aging biomarker) trajectory from birth to young adulthood could be shaped by physical growth and environmental pollution, and further consequence on subclinical atherosclerosis development. He is also the PI of the Buffalo Environmental and Social Stressors Study on Kids (BEST-Kids), which is an ongoing pediatric observational cohort that aims to understand how early life stressors exposure could impact cardiometabolic health. His other research projects involves integrating exposomics, epigenetics, and metabolomics to decipher longitudinal systemic vascular health development in midlife.
He teaches Life Course Health Development and Statistical Approaches Applied to Epidemiology II.
Education and Training
- Postdoc training, University of Southern California, 2021-2024
- PhD, epidemiology, University at Buffalo
- M.Sc., epidemiology and biostatistics, Sun Yat-sen University
- M.B.B.S (U.S. MD equivalent), Kunming Medical University
Awards and Honors
- Scholarship, Life Course Translational Research Network funded by Maternal & Child Health Bureau, Human Resources and Services Administration
- Fellowship, Presidential Sustainability Solution, University of Southern California
- Travel Award, International Society for Environmental Epidemiology--North American Chapter
- Trudy Bush Fellowship for Cardiovascular Disease Research in Women's Health, American Heart Association
- Saxon Graham Dissertation Award, Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health, University at Buffalo
- Induction into the Gamma Lambda Chapter of the Delta Omega National Honorary Society in Public Health
- Robert O'Shea Student Travel Award, Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health, University at Buffalo