Frank B. Hu (; born 1966) is a Chinese American nutrition and diabetes researcher. He is Chair of the Department of Nutrition and the Fredrick J. Stare Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology at the

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is the public health school at Harvard University, located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. It was named after Hong Kong entrepreneur Chan Tseng-hsi in 2014 following a US$350 ...

, and Professor of Medicine at the

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...

. Hu is also the Director of the Epidemiology and Genetics Core of the Boston Obesity Nutrition Research Center; and co-director of the Program in Obesity Epidemiology and Prevention at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Hu was elected into the

National Academy of Medicine The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), known as the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineerin ...

(NAM) in 2015, one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine.

Education

A native of

Hubei Province Hubei is a province in Central China. It has the seventh-largest economy among Chinese provinces, the second-largest within Central China, and the third-largest among inland provinces. Its provincial capital at Wuhan serves as a major politi ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, Hu received his M.D. from the Tongji Medical University (now Tongji Medical College of the

Huazhong University of Science and Technology The Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST; ) is a public university in Wuhan, Hubei, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education of China. The university is part of Project 985, Project 211, and the Double First-Cl ...

) in

Wuhan Wuhan; is the capital of Hubei, China. With a population of over eleven million, it is the most populous city in Hubei and the List of cities in China by population, eighth-most-populous city in China. It is also one of the nine National cent ...

in 1988, and his Ph.D. from the

University of Illinois at Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the Universi ...

in 1996.

Research

Hu's research has focused on diet/lifestyle, metabolic, and genetic determinants of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease (CVD). His 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. These findings have contributed to current public health recommendations and policies for prevention of chronic diseases. Dr. Hu's group has also identified novel biomarkers (e.g., adipokines and nutrient metabolites) and gene-environment interactions in relation to risk of obesity and diabetes by integrating cutting-edge omics technologies into epidemiological studies (Systems Epidemiology approach). In addition, Dr. Hu has been collaborating with researchers from China to study nutrition transition, metabolic phenotypes, and cardiovascular disease in Chinese populations. His researches have also extended to global nutrition, obesity and policy issues. In 1997, he published a study showing that types of fat are more important than total amount of fat in determining risk of heart disease in the

Nurses' Health Study The Nurses Health Study is a series of prospective studies that examine epidemiology and the long-term effects of nutrition, hormones, environment, and nurses' work-life on health and disease development. The studies have been among the largest i ...

. His recent work shows that unsaturated fats, especially polyunsaturated fats, and/or high-quality carbohydrates can be used to replace saturated fats to reduce coronary heart disease risk in the

and Health Professionals Follow-up Study. In 2001, Hu published a study to quantify the preventability of type 2 diabetes through diet and lifestyle, showing that up to 90% of diabetes cases can be prevented by eating a healthy diet, maintaining normal weight, exercising regularly, not smoking tobacco, and consuming alcohol moderately. Hu has conducted extensive research on sugar-sweetened beverages and the risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Dr. Hu is a recipient of the Kelly West Award for Outstanding Achievement in Epidemiology from the

American Diabetes Association The American Diabetes Association (ADA) is a United States-based nonprofit that seeks to educate the public about diabetes and to help those affected by it through funding research to manage, cure and prevent diabetes, including type 1 diabetes ...

in 2010. He served on the IOM Committee on Preventing the Global Epidemic of Cardiovascular Disease: Meeting the Challenges in Developing Countries (2009-2010), and the AHA/ACC Obesity Guidelines Expert Panel (2008-2013). Dr. Hu also served on the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, USDA/HHS. He is the principal author of a textbook on Obesity Epidemiology (

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 2008).

References

External links

Frank Hu
at

Google Scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of Academic publishing, scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in Beta release, beta in November 2004, th ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hu, Frank 1966 births Living people Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health faculty Chinese emigrants to the United States Scientists from Hubei University of Illinois Chicago alumni American food scientists American nutritionists Huazhong University of Science and Technology alumni Harvard Medical School faculty American public health doctors Members of the National Academy of Medicine