Yu Chen, MPH, PhD

I am a chronic disease epidemiologist with extensive experience leading large-scale epidemiologic studies involving multidisciplinary collaboration. My research interests focus on chronic disease epidemiology, particularly the roles of environmental exposures, immune and inflammatory markers, infectious and microbial factors, and lifestyle factors in the development of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and dementia.

I joined the NYU Women’s Health Study (NYUWHS) team of investigators in 2006.  I am the current PI of the cohort, an NCI-funded prospective cohort study of more than 14,000 women. I am leading the overall management of the study activities, including methodologies, data collection, field work, analysis, cancer ascertainment, and development of ancillary projects and grants. 

For more than 20 years, I have been involved in the Health Effects of Arsenic Longitudinal Study (HEALS) in Bangladesh. With funding from NIEHS, I have conducted a series of studies examining associations between arsenic exposure and EKG abnormalities, intima-media thickness, blood pressure, inflammatory markers, diabetes-related outcomes, proteinuria, hematuria, and cardiovascular disease (CVD) incidence and mortality. I have also investigated interactions between arsenic exposure and selenium levels, sunlight exposure, cigarette smoking, genetic factors, and, most recently, the gut microbiome in relation to risks of skin lesions and CVD.

I currently lead multiple NIH-funded projects spanning environmental exposures, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and aging. I am the PI of R01ES035219, which examines the effects of environmental mixture exposures on coronary heart disease risk. I also lead the NCI-funded NYU Women’s Health Study (NYUWHS) and was recently awarded U01CA290680 to continue cohort follow-up and investigate circulating autoantibodies in relation to breast cancer risk, overseeing all study operations and biospecimen resources.

Building on this cohort, I received an Alzheimer’s disease-focused administrative supplement to ascertain Alzheimer’s disease (AD) cases in NYUWHS and secured support from two Cure Alzheimer’s Fund grants to study circulating autoantibodies and viral antibodies in relation to AD risk. This work led to two newly funded NIH grants in 2026 (R01AG091450 and R01AG092496), focusing on immune markers and dementia risk.

In addition, I am a multiple PI on the NHLBI-funded UH3HL169656, which is establishing the Multi-ethnic Observational Study in American Asian and Pacific Islander Communities (MOSAAIC), and co-lead an ancillary award (R01HL178710) to measure coronary artery calcium within this cohort.

I have also conducted projects through national and international consortia, including the Asia Cohort Consortium and the National Cancer Institute Cohort Consortium. In 2025, I served as Chair of the Steering Committee for the NCI Cohort Consortium.

I am a member of the Vilcek Leadership Advisory Committee (V-LAC), representing the fields of epidemiology, biostatistics, and population health in the PhD Program at the Vilcek Institute of Graduate Biomedical Sciences. I direct the Epidemiology Journal Club and give lectures on epidemiology methods for graduate students at NYU School of Medicine.

I received my PhD with distinction in epidemiology from Columbia University in 2005. As of May 2026, I have authored 277 journal articles, with an h-index of 83 and i10-index of 225.