Jennifer Weuve

Jennifer Weuve, MPH, ScD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology of the Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH). In her research, she pursues answers to questions in two major realms of human health: (1) the forces that accelerate the aging of the brain and body, and (2) the health effects of being exposed to environmental toxicants. Underlying all of her research is a foundation in epidemiologic methods. Dr. Weuve is PI or co-investigator of several projects that encompass both of these realms. For example, she is PI of two NIH-funded epidemiologic studies of air pollution and dementia risk. The first study, the Air-Noise-Dementia Study (ANDS) examines the hypothesis that long-term exposure to air pollution and noise from the community affect brain changes that we can see on magnetic resonance images (MRI) and, ultimately, the development of dementia. The second study is entitled “Air Pollution and Alzheimer's Dementia: Neuropathologic and Olfactory Mechanisms in Multi-Ethnic Longitudinal Cohorts Dementia” (AERONoSE). With engagement of a cross-disciplinary team including Dr. Jayant Pinto (University of Chicago), this study evaluates olfactory pathways linking air pollution exposure to dementia risk. With other co-PIs, Dr. Weuve is validating a portable XRF instrument for quantifying lead in bone and mercury and manganese in toe nail (NIEHS). Such an instrument potentially could be used in large-scale investigations into the health effects of cumulative exposures to these metals. Dr. Weuve is a member of the editorial board of EPIDEMIOLOGY. She is also Co-Director of the international initiative, MEthods in LOngitudinal research on DEMentia (MELODEM) and PI of the NIH grant that supports it. Dr. Weuve earned degrees in epidemiology at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health (MPH) and the T.H. Chan Harvard School of Public Health (ScD), and held a post-doctoral fellowship in environmental health at the T.H. Chan Harvard School of Public Health. Prior to joining BUSPH, she was on the faculty of the Rush Institute for Healthy Aging in Chicago.