Epidemiology and Community Health Branch

The Laboratory of Heart Disease Phenomics focuses on defining clinical and biological heart disease phenotypes, their determinants, and associated outcomes in populations with the goal of advancing treatment and prevention.

The Laboratory of Genomic Instability and Cardiopulmonary Outcomes conducts multidisciplinary epidemiologic studies aimed at explaining the biological mechanisms by which exposures influence cardiopulmonary disease risk and progression in humans, with focus on genomic instability, investigates whether the impact of exposures on cardiopulmonary outcomes differ across racial/ethnic groups and by geographic location, and assesses how atmospheric conditions characteristic of climate change affect cardiopulmonary outcomes in humans.

The Minority Health and Health Disparities Laboratory focuses on health and health care disparities among racial and ethnic minority populations. The three main areas of lab research are: (1) Tobacco use behavior and its relation to other substance use, unhealthy behaviors, migration-related social determinants, chronic stress, and mental health among Latinos of different national heritages; (2) Differential risk of lung cancer in racial and ethnic minority populations, as shown by metabolic biomarkers of nicotine and tobacco-specific carcinogens; and (3) Relationships of migration- and environment-related social determinants of health with chronic diseases, such as diabetes. The Minority Health and Health Disparities Laboratory is led by Dr. Eliseo Pérez-Stable, who is also the director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities.