Christiani Laboratory

Overview

David C. Christiani, MD, MPH, MS, is an internationally recognized physician–scientist whose research examines how environmental exposures interact with genetic susceptibility to influence the development of lung disease, cancer, and critical illness.

Research Projects

The Christiani Lab focuses on defining how environmental and occupational exposures contribute to disease through gene–environment interactions. Central to this work are large-scale epidemiologic studies that integrate genomic, transcriptomic, and other multi-omics data to identify biomarkers of exposure, susceptibility, and clinical outcomes. A major area of emphasis is lung cancer, where the lab investigates how genetic variation and environmental factors shape disease risk, treatment response, and survival.

In parallel, the lab leads research on acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), sepsis, and other critical illnesses, with the goal of understanding why some individuals develop severe disease following similar exposures. Additional long-standing global health initiatives examine arsenic toxicity in Bangladesh, occupational exposures among industrial workers, and the cardiopulmonary effects of inhaled pollutants. Across all of these efforts, the overarching goal is to translate molecular epidemiologic discoveries into effective prevention strategies, improved risk stratification, and better clinical outcomes for patients with environmentally mediated diseases.