Longjian Liu, MD, PhD, MSc, FAHA

Longjian Liu

Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Epidemiology and Biostatistics
267.359.6049
ll85@drexel.edu
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Degrees

MD, Shanxi Medical University (SMU), Taiyuan, China
PhD in Epidemiology, The University of Hong Kong, China
MSc in Epidemiology, The University of London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK
Bachelor’s Degree in Medicine and Medical Doctor in Preventive Medicine, SMU, Taiyua, China

Bio

Dr. Longjian Liu is a tenured Professor of Epidemiology & Biostatistics and the former Interim Chair of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health. He also serves as an adjunct associate professor in medicine at Drexel University College of Medicine. Before joining Drexel, Dr. Liu received training and gained extensive teaching and research experience in medicine, epidemiology, and biostatistics at leading institutions across multiple countries, including China (Shanxi Medical University, Chongqing Medical University, and Beijing Medical University), the United Kingdom (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine), Japan (Shiga University of Medical Science and Kyoto University), and the United States (Geriatrics Fellowship at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock). Dr. Liu has been elected a Fellow of the American Heart Association (FAHA).

At Drexel, Dr. Liu has extensive teaching experience, having instructed more than ten multidisciplinary courses in epidemiology and public health. He teaches undergraduate students majoring in Public Health and graduate students in the Master of Public Health (MPH) and Master of Science in Epidemiology (MSc) programs. Additionally, he has taught selected courses for PhD students, focusing on cardiovascular disease and pharmacoepidemiology. Dr. Liu serves as an academic advisor, co-advisor, and dissertation committee member for PhD students. He has coauthored a textbook and contributed chapters on cardiovascular disease epidemiology in Chronic Disease Epidemiology, Prevention, and Control, a standard reference coordinated by the American Public Health Association (3rd Ed., 2010; 4th Ed., 2016; 5th Ed., 2023). He is also the author of Heart Failure: Epidemiology and Research Methods (Elsevier, 1st Ed., 2017), a textbook designed for MD fellows and public health professionals.

Dr. Liu’s research focuses on the epidemiology of cardiometabolic disorders, vascular- and aging-related neurodegenerative disorders. He has published more than 100 articles in over 50 peer-reviewed journals, including The Lancet Healthy Longevity, International Journal of Epidemiology, International Journal of Stroke, American Journal of Cardiology, Alzheimer’s & Dementia, Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, and Annals of Epidemiology. More than 70 of his articles are indexed in PubMed by the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

The overarching goal of Dr. Liu’s research is to translate epidemiological findings into actionable strategies for disease risk reduction, prevention, and control. His research spans three integrated areas:

1) Global Cardiometabolic Health: Dr. Liu has extensive research experience working with the World Health Organization (WHO)-coordinated Cardiovascular Disease and Alimentary Comparison (CARDIAC) Study, the World Health Surveys (WHS), and Japan’s National Integrated Project for Prospective Observation of Non-communicable Disease and Its Trends in Aged (NIPPON DATA). He serves as the Principal Investigator of the Drexel (U.S.)-SARI (Shanghai, China) Research and Education Project on Climate Change, Energy, Low-Carbon, and Urban Health Technology.

2) Epidemiology of Aging: Dr. Liu's research focuses on biomarkers, lifestyle-drug interactions, and social determinants of health, as well as cardiometabolic and renal dysfunction, and genetic factors (e.g., APOE genes) as predictors of cognitive impairment, Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and AD-related dementias (ADRD). As Principal Investigator, he has led NIH- and other foundation-funded projects examining environmental exposures, drug effects, and their interactions in predicting cardiometabolic disorders and AD/ADRD risk.

3) Disease Risk Prediction and Advancing AI/Machine Learning Techniques: Leveraging big data from large-scale longitudinal cohort studies, national surveillance programs, hospital electronic records, and claims data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Dr. Liu and his team have published several key studies on risk prediction for heart failure and AD/ADRD. His work integrates and advances artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques, including Lasso, Random Forest, and XGBoost.

Research Interests

  • Global health in Chronic Disease and mHealth
  • Cardiometabolic Disorders and Health Disparities
  • Neurodevelopment and Neurologic Disorders
  • Pharmacoepidemiology
  • Health Failure Epidemiology
  • AI/Machine Learning Enabled Risk Prediction Models

Publications

Selected publications

  1. Longjian Liu, Edward J Gracely, Xiaopeng Zhao, Gediminas P Gliebus, Nathalie S. May, Stella L. Volpe, Jingyi Shi, Rose Ann DiMaria-Ghalili, and Howard J Eisen: Association of Multiple Metabolic and Cardiovascular Markers with Risk of Cognitive Decline and Mortality in Those with Alzheimer’s Disease and AD-related Dementia: A Prospective Cohort Study. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 2024;2:16, PMCID: PMC11020085.
  2. Ziming Liu, Longjian Liu, Robert E. Heidel, Xiaopeng Zhao: Explainable AI and transformer models: Unraveling the nutritional influences on Alzheimer's disease mortality. Smart Health, Volume 32, 100478, June 2024.  PubMed PMID: 39087069. PMCID: PMC11290104. 
  3. Alexander Alsup, Emily Nissen, Lucas A. Salas, Annette M. Molinaro, Alexander Reiner, Simin Liu, Tracey Madsen, Longjian Liu, Brock C. Christensen, John K. Wiencke, Karl T. Kelsey, Devin C. Koestler: An Assessment of Compositional Methods for the Analysis of DNA Methylation-based Deconvolution Estimates. Epigenomics (Taylor & Francis, UK), publication online first on Aug02, 2024. PMID: 39093129.
  4. Longjian Liu, Nathalie S May, Priscila Y Sato, Paakhi Srivastava, and Leslie McClure: Association between Cardiovascular Risk and Coronavirus disease 2019: Findings from 2021 National Health Interview Survey. Annal Epidemiology, 2023, 23;82:1-7. PMCID: PMC10033151.
  5. Julianne T Nelson and Longjian Liu: Pharmacoepidemiologic Study of Association between Apparent Treatment Resistant Hypertension, Cardiovascular Disease and Interaction Effect by Sex and Age. World Journal of Cardiology, 2023, 15(5):262-272, PMCID: PMC10237003.
  6. Longjian Liu, Kathleen M. Hayden, Nathalie S. May, Bernhard Haring, Zuolu Liu, Victor W. Henderson, Jiu-Chiuan Chen, Edward J Gracely, Sylvia Wassertheil-Smoller, and Stephen R. Rapp: Association Between Blood Pressure Levels and Cognitive Impairment in Older Women: A Prospective Analysis of The Women’s Health Initiative Memory Study. The Lancet Healthy Longevity, Jan 2022, PMCID: PMC8804967.
  7. Longjian Liu, Stella L. Volpe, Jennifer A Ross, Elisabeth J Van Bockstaele, and Howard J Eisen: Dietary Sugar Intake and Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease in Older Women. 2021 June, Nutritional Neuroscience. PubMed PMID 34328409.
  8. Longjian Liu, Joao Lima, Wendy S Post, and Moyses Szklo: Association of obesity and metabolic syndrome with risk of heart failure and its subtypes in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. International Journal of Cardiology, June 2021, PubMed PMID: 34089770.
  9. Longjian Liu, Liviu Klein; Charles Eaton; Gurusher Panjrath; Lisa Warsinger Martin; Claudia U. Chae; Philip Greenland; Donald M Lloyd-Jones; Jean Wactawski-Wende; and JoAnn E. Manson: Menopausal Hormone Therapy and Risks of First Hospitalized Heart Failure and Its Subtypes During the Intervention and Extended Postintervention Follow-up of the Women’s Health Initiative Randomized Trials. Journal Cardiac Failure, 2020 26(1)2-12. PubMed PMID: 3156806.
  10. Longjian Liu, Julianne Nelson, Craig J. Newschaffer, and Patrick L. Remington, Ross C. Brownson, and Mark V. Wegner: Chapter 16: Cardiovascular Disease in APHA coordinated textbook: Chronic Disease Epidemiology, Prevention, and Control, 5th edition, American Public Health Association Press, Oct 2023.

See Dr. Lui's full list of publications on PubMed