As an epidemiologist, Zhongzheng “Jason” Niu (he/him) uses a life course framework to study the cardiometabolic health risk and biological aging process in association with environmental exposures such as air pollution and heatwave.
His ongoing research examines how air pollution and heatwave, along with other environmental contaminations, are associated with mothers’ cardiometabolic risk during pregnancy.
Trained in preventive medicine and epidemiology, he has devoted his research to shifting the population distribution of cardiometabolic health to the better end. With the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease hypothesis, he is particularly interested in studying health effects during critical time windows when susceptibility to environmental insults is heightened, such as in the uterus, during infancy and childhood, and during pregnancy for the mothers.
Research Assistant
Alex Kyriakakis
Alex Kyriakakis is a fourth year undergraduate student pursuing a B.S in Human Biology. She is interested in the intersection of social justice, education, and science. At USC, Alex has been involved with Med-ucate where she helped develop a health education course curriculum for high school students in Liberia. In addition, she has tutored biology for local middle school students through Joint Educational Project. In her free time, Alex enjoys reading, running, and trying new restaurants.