David C. Christiani

David Christiani, MD, MPH, MS, is the Elkan Blout Professor of Environmental Genetics with the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He earned his MD in 1976 from Tufts University, and an MS and MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health. He did his post-graduate medical training at Boston City Hospital and the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
Professor Christiani’s major research interest lies in the interaction between human genes and the environment. In the emerging field of molecular epidemiology, he studies the impact of humans’ exposure to pollutants on health, as well as the how genetic and acquired susceptibility to these diseases along with environmental exposures can lead to acute and chronic pulmonary and cardiovascular disease. He is also developing new methods for assessing health effects after exposure to pollutants and has is very active in environmental and occupational health studies internationally.
His global work has taken place in Asia, Africa, and North America where Dr. Christiani and his wide network of collaborators are studying of the reproductive effects of exposure to chemicals, in China; arsenic exposure and bladder and skin cancer, in Taiwan and Bangladesh; exposure to indoor combustion products in respiratory disease in Central America; petrochemical exposures, brain tumors, and leukemia in Taiwan; and the molecular epidemiology of esphageal cancer in Africa. Preventing these diseases is an ultimate goal.
Professor Christiani has developed biologic markers useful for examining pollutant-induced diseases such as lung cancer, bladder cancer, skin cancer, and upper-respiratory-tract inflammation. He led a large molecular and genetic analysis of lung cancer, looking at genetic factors that make people susceptibility to lung cancer and help predict the outcome of treatment. He has also led studies of the acute respiratory effects of toxins in the particles produced by coal-burning power plants. This study is also evaluating molecular markers in nasal and lung fluids of exposed and unexposed workers. With collaborators at the Mass. General Hospital, Professor Christiani isl examining the role of genetic susceptibility in acute respiratory failure (ARDS), as well as biomarkers predictive of outcome and survival for this disorder.
Christiani oversees a landmark 40-year-long study of non-smoking relatied chronic respiratory disease in cotton-textile workers in Shanghai, China. This study has determined the rate of loss in lung function among dust and endotoxin-exposed workers and uses molecular biology’s tools to evaluate the relationship between exposure to endotoxins produced by bacteria in cotton and acute and chronic lung disease.
Since 1992, Dr. Christiani has led the NCI-funded Boston Lung Cancer Study which has focused on assessing markers of exposure, susceptibilty, and outcomes in lung cancer. He co-led the Lung Program of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Institute for 20 years. In 2012, President Obama appointed him to a 7 year term on the National Cancer Advisory Board.