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Peter (Ka Hung) Chan

Oxford BHF CRE Basic Science Intermediate Transition Fellow

  • Start Date: 15/04/2021
  • End Date: 14/04/2023
  • BHF CRE Mentors: Professor Zhengming Chen and Professor Cornelia van Duijn

Research project title: A comprehensive investigation of the cardiovascular effects of air pollution and ambient temperature in two population-based biobanks of 1 million adults

Research summary:

Using epidemiological and environmental data from the China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB) and UK Biobank (UKB), my fellowship aims to develop enhanced personal air pollution and temperature exposure models, examine the prospective associations of household and ambient air pollution and temperature variations with major cardiovascular disease outcomes, and investigate the key biological pathways underlying the above associations. This will involves a combination of skills in observational epidemiology, exposure science, and OMICs-related analysis.

Study participant from rural china wearing a personal air pollution and temperature exposure monitor. Image credit: Peter Chan. Study participant from rural china wearing a personal air pollution and temperature exposure monitor. Image credit: Peter Chan.

Biography:

Air pollution and temperature variations are among the most important environmental risk factors of global disease burden, with cardiovascular disease being the leading attributable cause. Having gone through cross-disciplinary training in public health, epidemiology, and exposure science, I realized the important limitations of the existing literature and research methods. The two biobanks and the Oxford BHF CRE offer a unique opportunity to tackle these issues.

Professor Zhengming Chen in the BHF CRE leads the CKB with a multidisciplinary team of researchers, data scientists and software engineers. With his in-depth experience in leading cross-disciplinary epidemiological research on cardiovascular disease, I believe I will acquire the necessary skills and knowledge and develop leadership under his guidance during this fellowship.

I aim to develop further fellowships/ grant applications to expand my work in this area, particularly to conduct large-scale personal air pollution exposure measurements in population-based biobanks like CKB or UKB.