Chunyu Liu, PhD
Professor
Boston University School of Public Health
Biostatistics

PhD, Boston University
PhD, University of Maine
MA, Boston University



Dr. Chunyu Liu earned her PhD in Biostatistics with a specialization in statistical genetics from the Department of Biostatistics at Boston University. She embarked on her professional journey at Biogen Idec Inc. in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she served as a statistical geneticist. Additionally, she made significant contributions to the Population Sciences Branch & Framingham Heart Study (FHS), NHLBI, located in Framingham, Massachusetts.
Throughout her career, Dr. Liu has been actively engaged in diverse projects assessing risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Her notable portfolio includes leadership roles as the Principal Investigator (PI) for three R01 grants and an R21 grant since 2018. Moreover, she serves as a subcontract PI for two R21 grants and has secured funding from the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund. In collaborative endeavors, she plays a pivotal role as the lead biostatistician in several R01 grants, contributing to over 135 peer-reviewed manuscripts. Dr. Liu often holds significant authorship positions in these publications, including as the first, second, or last author in more than 40 papers.
Dr. Liu's contributions span significant collaborative research endeavors, where she has held key roles as the lead statistician and co-convener in multiple working groups within the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genetic Epidemiology (CHARGE). Currently, she serves as a co-convener of the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) working group, leading efforts to develop analytical methods for mtDNA sequence variations.
Furthermore, Dr. Liu shares her expertise as a member of the NIH’s Genetics of Health and Disease Study Section within the Center for Scientific Review. Her commitment extends to editorial responsibilities, acting as an Associate Editor for the Cardiovascular Digital Health Journal and an Academic Editor for PLOS ONE. Additionally, she plays an active role in the International Genetic Epidemiology Society, co-chairing its Education Committee.

Investigator
Framingham Heart Study


Member
Boston University
Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research




Calorie Restriction, Mitochondrial DNA Heteroplasmy, Cardiometabolic Profiles, and Biological Aging
08/01/2024 - 07/31/2026 (Subcontract PI)
Trustees of Tufts College, Inc NIH NIA
1R21AG085086-01

Trans-omic Analysis of Alcohol Consumption and Its Relation to Cardiovascular Disease
07/01/2021 - 04/30/2026 (PI)
NIH/National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
5R01AA028263-04

Mitochondrial DNA, Nuclear DNA Methylation, and Cardiometabolic Disease Traits
09/01/2021 - 06/30/2025 (PI)
NIH/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
5R01HL155569-04

Sex Differences in Alzheimer's Disease Progression: Framingham Heart Study
10/15/2022 - 11/14/2024 (Subcontract PI)
Duke University Cure Alzheimers Fund


Mitochondrial DNA Copy number and Sequence Variation in Relation to Age, Metabolic traits, and Alzheimer's Disease Related Phenotypes
09/15/2018 - 05/31/2024 (Multi-PI)
PI: Chunyu Liu, PhD
NIH/National Institute on Aging
5R01AG059727-04

Validation of the DCTclock drawing task as a cognitive screening tool for prodromal Alzheimers disease in the Framingham Heart Study
09/30/2021 - 05/31/2023 (Subcontract PI)
Brown University NIH NIA
1R21AG072588-02

Sex Differences in Alzheimer's Disease Progression: Framingham Heart Study
02/15/2021 - 02/14/2023 (Subcontract PI)
Duke University Cure Alzheimers Fund


Mitochondrial heteroplasmy as an endophenotype of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders
07/23/2019 - 11/30/2022 (Subcontract PI)
Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine/CWRU NIH NIMH
5R21MH121165-02

Association Analysis of Heteroplasmic mtDNA Mutations in Whole Genome Sequencing: Methods and Application to Cardiometabolic Disease Traits
02/04/2019 - 01/31/2022 (PI)
NIH/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
5R21HL144877-02



Title


Yr Title Project-Sub Proj Pubs

Publications listed below are automatically derived from MEDLINE/PubMed and other sources, which might result in incorrect or missing publications. Faculty can login to make corrections and additions.

iCite Analysis       Copy PMIDs To Clipboard

  1. Leng Y, Ding H, Ang TFA, Au R, Doraiswamy PM, Liu C. Identifying proteomic prognostic markers for Alzheimer's disease with survival machine learning: The Framingham Heart Study. J Prev Alzheimers Dis. 2025 Feb; 12(2):100021.View Related Profiles. PMID: 39863332
     
  2. Rong J, Pathiravasan CH, Zhang Y, Faro JM, Wang X, Schramm E, Borrelli B, Benjamin EJ, Liu C, Murabito JM. Baseline Smartphone App Survey Return in the Electronic Framingham Heart Study Offspring and Omni 1 Study: eCohort Study. JMIR Aging. 2024 Dec 31; 7:e64636.View Related Profiles. PMID: 39740111; PMCID: PMC11706443; DOI: 10.2196/64636;
     
  3. O'Shea S, Liu Y, Liu C, Frank SA, Shih LC, Au R. Obesity and the development of Parkinson's disease within the Framingham Heart study cohort. Clin Park Relat Disord. 2025; 12:100291.View Related Profiles. PMID: 39758706; PMCID: PMC11700282; DOI: 10.1016/j.prdoa.2024.100291;
     
  4. Carbonneau M, Li Y, Qu Y, Zheng Y, Wood AC, Wang M, Liu C, Huan T, Joehanes R, Guo X, Yao J, Taylor KD, Tracy RP, Peter D, Liu Y, Johnson WC, Post WS, Blackwell T, Rotter JI, Rich SS, Redline S, Fornage M, Wang J, Ning H, Hou L, Lloyd-Jones D, Ferrier K, Min YI, Carson AP, Raffield LM, Teumer A, Grabe HJ, Völzke H, Nauck M, Dörr M, Domingo-Relloso A, Fretts A, Tellez-Plaza M, Cole S, Navas-Acien A, Wang M, Murabito JM, Heard-Costa NL, Prescott B, Xanthakis V, Mozaffarian D, Levy D, Ma J. DNA Methylation Signatures of Cardiovascular Health Provide Insights into Diseases. medRxiv. 2024 Nov 20.View Related Profiles. PMID: 39606375; PMCID: PMC11601778; DOI: 10.1101/2024.11.19.24317587;
     
  5. Bui H, Keshawarz A, Wang M, Lee M, Ratliff SM, Lin L, Birditt KS, Faul JD, Peters A, Gieger C, Delerue T, Kardia SLR, Zhao W, Guo X, Yao J, Rotter JI, Li Y, Liu X, Liu D, Tavares JF, Pehlivan G, Breteler MMB, Karabegovic I, Ochoa-Rosales C, Voortman T, Ghanbari M, van Meurs JBJ, Nasr MK, Dörr M, Grabe HJ, London SJ, Teumer A, Waldenberger M, Weir DR, Smith JA, Levy D, Ma J, Liu C. Association analysis between an epigenetic alcohol risk score and blood pressure. Clin Epigenetics. 2024 Oct 28; 16(1):149. PMID: 39468603; PMCID: PMC11520477; DOI: 10.1186/s13148-024-01753-4;
     
  6. Yuan J, Tao Q, Ang TFA, Liu C, Devine S, Auerbach SH, Mez J, Farrer LA, Qiu WQ, Au R. The Relationship between Framingham Stroke Risk Profile on Incident Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease: A 40-Year Follow-Up Study Highlighting Female Vulnerability. Ann Neurol. 2024 Dec; 96(6):1124-1134.View Related Profiles. PMID: 39404028
     
  7. Leng Y, Ding H, Alvin Ang TF, Au R, Doraiswamy PM, Liu C. Identifying Proteomic Prognostic Markers for Alzheimer's Disease with Survival Machine Learning: the Framingham Heart Study. medRxiv. 2024 Sep 23.View Related Profiles. PMID: 39399041; PMCID: PMC11469405; DOI: 10.1101/2024.09.21.24314123;
     
  8. Sun X, Bulekova K, Yang J, Lai M, Pitsillides AN, Liu X, Zhang Y, Guo X, Yong Q, Raffield LM, Rotter JI, Rich SS, Abecasis G, Carson AP, Vasan RS, Bis JC, Psaty BM, Boerwinkle E, Fitzpatrick AL, Satizabal CL, Arking DE, Ding J, Levy D, Liu C. Association analysis of mitochondrial DNA heteroplasmic variants: Methods and application. Mitochondrion. 2024 Nov; 79:101954.View Related Profiles. PMID: 39245194; PMCID: PMC11568909; DOI: 10.1016/j.mito.2024.101954;
     
  9. Xu W, Hong YS, Hu B, Comhair SAA, Janocha AJ, Zein JG, Chen R, Meyers DA, Mauger DT, Ortega VE, Bleecker ER, Castro M, Denlinger LC, Fahy JV, Israel E, Levy BD, Jarjour NN, Moore WC, Wenzel SE, Gaston B, Liu C, Arking DE, Erzurum SC. Mitochondrial DNA copy number variation in asthma risk, severity, and exacerbations. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2024 Sep 03. PMID: 39237012; DOI: 10.1016/j.jaci.2024.08.022;
     
  10. Spartano NL, Zhang Y, Liu C, Chernofsky A, Lin H, Trinquart L, Borrelli B, Pathiravasan CH, Kheterpal V, Nowak C, Vasan RS, Benjamin EJ, McManus DD, Murabito JM. Agreement Between Apple Watch and Actical Step Counts in a Community Setting: Cross-Sectional Investigation From the Framingham Heart Study. JMIR Biomed Eng. 2024 Jul 24; 9:e54631.View Related Profiles. PMID: 39047284; PMCID: PMC11306942; DOI: 10.2196/54631;
     
Showing 10 of 165 results. Show More

This graph shows the total number of publications by year, by first, middle/unknown, or last author.

Bar chart showing 165 publications over 22 distinct years, with a maximum of 22 publications in 2022

YearPublications
20033
20041
20052
20063
20076
20082
20091
20112
20122
20132
20143
20157
201610
201714
201813
201913
202011
202114
202222
202316
202417
20251
In addition to these self-described keywords below, a list of MeSH based concepts is available here.

Genomewide associaiton study, mitochondrial DNA, DNA methylation and cardiovascular disease

Dr. Liu's commitment to academia encompasses both teaching and mentoring. She has taught several graduate-level courses including two core courses for the MS and PhD programs in Biostatistics. Dr. Liu's dedication extends to mentoring junior faculty members, postdoctoral fellows, and students enrolled in various programs—ranging from PhD and MS to MPH. At present, Dr. Liu is the primary mentor for four PhD students. Furthermore, she holds crucial administrative positions, co-directing the MS in Applied Biostatistics and serving as co-chair of the Department PhD Career Development Committee and the Student Paper Competition Committee.

Available to Mentor as: (Review Mentor Role Definitions):
  • Advisor
  • Career Mentor
  • Co-Mentor or Peer Mentor
  • Project Mentor
  • Research / Scholarly Mentor
Contact for Mentoring:

801 Massachusetts Ave
Boston MA 02118
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