Lida Chatzi

Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences. Director for USC Translational Research Center on Environmental Health. Deputy Director of the Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center
University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine. Dr. Chatzi is Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences at the Division of Environmental Health at the University of Southern California. She has more than 20 years of experience in environmental health research and a track record of research productivity in multi-disciplinary translational settings (R01s, R21s and U01) focusing on the influence of environmental chemical exposures on health outcomes by integrating human population data and experimental study designs. She has demonstrated her leadership skills as Director (USC Center for Translational Research on Environmental Health) and Deputy Director [NIEHS-funded P30 Southern California Environmental Health Science Center (SCEHSC)] in centers[NIEHS-χρηματοδοτούμενο P30 Southern California Environmental Health Science Center (SCEHSC)] featuring novel bench to population team science, community engaged solution-based research, and training/career development at all stages. As a physician, epidemiologist and public health researcher, she leads an interdisciplinary program of research focused on advancing our understanding of how exposure to environmental chemicals affect metabolic health. Overall, her investigations have focused on the health effects of environmental toxicants classified as endocrine disruptors, including perfluoroalkyl substances, organochlorine pesticides, phenols, phthalates, and metals, on long-term youth health, especially, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and fatty liver disease. As Director of the USC Center for Translational Exposomics Research (USC-CTER), she is focused on understanding the influence of environmental pollutants on health outcomes by integrating human population-data and multi-omics methods to develop and comprehensive understanding of exposure risk and disease development. Dr. Chatzi currently leads multi-center, multi-disciplinary studies measuring the impact of these chemicals on longitudinal changes in insulin sensitivity, beta-cell function, and fatty liver disease in cohorts in Southern California and on the trajectory of metabolic improvement after bariatric surgery. She has catalyzed and led several transatlantic research initiatives leveraging intellectual resources and cohorts in Europe and the United States. She is the PI in several EU and NIH/NIEHS research grants.