Frank B. Hu

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Biography

Dr. Frank Hu is Chair of Department of Nutrition, Fredrick J. Stare Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Hu received his MD from Tongji Medical College in China and MPH and PhD in Epidemiology from University of Illinois at Chicago. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Nutritional Epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Hu’s major research interests include epidemiology and prevention of cardiometabolic diseases through diet and lifestyle; gene-environment interactions; nutritional metabolomics; and nutrition transitions in low- and middle-income countries. Currently, he is Director of Boston Nutrition and Obesity Research Center Epidemiology and Genetics Core and Director of Dietary Biomarker Development Center at Harvard University. He has published a textbook on Obesity Epidemiology (Oxford University Press) and >1400 peer-reviewed papers with an H-index of 290. He served on the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Committee on Preventing the Global Epidemic of Cardiovascular Disease, the Obesity Guideline Expert Panel, American Heart Association Nutrition Committee, and the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, USDA/HHS. He has served on the editorial boards of Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, Diabetes Care, and Clinical Chemistry. Dr. Hu was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2015.

Dr. Frank Hu’s research has focused on diet/lifestyle, metabolic, and genetic determinants of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease (CVD). His major research interests include epidemiology and prevention of cardiometabolic diseases through diet and lifestyle; gene-environment interactions and risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes; nutritional metabolomics in type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease; and obesity, metabolic phenotypes, and cardiovascular disease in low and middle-income countries. Dr. Hu’s group has conducted detailed analyses of many dietary and lifestyle factors and risk of diabetes and CVD, including sugar-sweetened beverages, coffee, red meat, saturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids, iron, and dietary patterns in large prospective cohort studies including the Nurses’ Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-up Study. These findings have contributed to current public health recommendations and policies for the prevention of chronic diseases. His group has also identified novel biomarkers and gene-environment interactions in relation to risk of obesity and diabetes by integrating cutting-edge omics technologies into epidemiological studies. In addition, Dr. Hu has conducted extensive research on nutrition transition, metabolic phenotypes, and cardiovascular disease in low and middle-income countries.

Education and Training

• MD,
  Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science & Technology
• MPH,
  University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health
• PhD,
  University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health

Awards and Honors

• Scientific Award Keynote Speaker, 2022 Annual Scientific Program, 2022
  Chinese American Medical Society (CAMS)
• Boyd Orr Trust Fund Lecturer, The Nutrition Society, UK-Ireland, 2020
• Ancel Keys Memorial Lecturer American Heart Association Scientific Sessions, 2018
• Elected member, National Academy of Medicine , 2015
• Kelly West Award in Outstanding Achievement in Diabetes Epidemiology, American Diabetes Association, 2010
• Established Investigator Award, AHA, 2002
  American Heart Association
• Research Paper Listed as American Heart Association's Top Ten Research Advances for 2001, 2001
  American Heart Association
• Elizabeth Barrett-Connor research Award Finalist in Epidemiology for Young Investigators, AHA, 1998
  71st American Heart Association Scientific Sessions
• Charles A. King Trust Research Fellowship, 1998
  The Medical Foundation, Boston
• Research Paper Listed as American Heart Association's Top Ten Research Advances for 1997, 1997
  American Heart Association

Publications

• Chocolate intake and risk of type 2 diabetes: prospective cohort studies.

  Liu B, Zong G, Zhu L, Hu Y, Manson JE, Wang M, Rimm EB, Hu FB, Sun Q. BMJ 2024 Dec 04

• Dietary plant-to-animal protein ratio and risk of cardiovascular disease in 3 prospective cohorts.

  Glenn AJ, Wang F, Tessier AJ, Manson JE, Rimm EB, Mukamal KJ, Sun Q, Willett WC, Rexrode KM, Jenkins DJ, Hu FB. Am J Clin Nutr 2024

• Changes in fatty acid intake and subsequent risk of all-cause and cause-specific mortality in males and females: a prospective cohort study.

  Liu Y, Gu X, Li Y, Rimm EB, Willett WC, Stampfer MJ, Hu FB, Wang DD. Am J Clin Nutr 2024 Nov 16

• Influence of consuming coffee and other beverages in adolescence on risk of type 2 diabetes in adulthood.

  Alperet DJ, Wang X, Zhu L, Dhana K, Chavarro JE, Haines J, Hu FB, Willett WC, Sun Q. Eur J Epidemiol 2024

• Microbiome-based correction for random errors in nutrient profiles derived from self-reported dietary assessments.

  Wang T, Fu Y, Shuai M, Zheng JS, Zhu L, Chan AT, Sun Q, Hu FB, Weiss ST, Liu YY. Nat Commun 2024 Oct 22