Hong Chen, McGill University

Research

Air Pollution Autoimmune Rheumatic Disease Climate Change Environment Epidemiology Health Outcomes Humidity Immunity

Latest papers

Impact of the 2023 wildfire smoke episodes in Ontario, Canada, on asthma and other health outcomes: an interrupted time-series analysis.
CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne · 2025 · first author
Autism-associated CHD8 controls reactive gliosis and neuroinflammation via remodeling chromatin in astrocytes.
Cell reports · 2024
Association between long-term exposure to ambient air pollution and COVID-19 severity: a prospective cohort study.
CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne · 2022 · senior author

All 9 publications

Latest funding

Environmental factors and risk of autoimmune rheumatic disease incidence and serology
CIHR · 2024 · Principal investigator
$502,990
Environmental factors and risk of autoimmune rheumatic disease incidence and serology
CIHR · 2023 · Principal investigator
Air pollution and systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases
CIHR · 2018 · Co-investigator
$772,650

All 5 grants and awards

9 publications.

01

Impact of the 2023 wildfire smoke episodes in Ontario, Canada, on asthma and other health outcomes: an interrupted time-series analysis.

Chen H, Kaufman JS, Chen C, Wang J, Maier A, van Dijk A, Slipp N, Rana J, MacIntyre E, Su Y, Kim J, Benmarhnia T

CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne2025First author

DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.241506 PMID: 40324806

02

Autism-associated CHD8 controls reactive gliosis and neuroinflammation via remodeling chromatin in astrocytes.

Megagiannis P, Mei Y, Yan RE, Yuan L, Wilde JJ, Eckersberg H, Suresh R, Tan X, Chen H, Farmer WT, Cha K, Le PU, Catoire H, Rochefort D, Kwan T, Yee BA, Dion P, Krishnaswamy A, Cloutier JF, Stifani S, Petrecca K, Yeo GW, Murai KK, Feng G, Rouleau GA, Ideker T, Sanjana NE, Zhou Y

Cell reports2024

DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2024.114637 PMID: 39154337

03

Association between long-term exposure to ambient air pollution and COVID-19 severity: a prospective cohort study.

Chen C, Wang J, Kwong J, Kim J, van Donkelaar A, Martin RV, Hystad P, Su Y, Lavigne E, Kirby-McGregor M, Kaufman JS, Benmarhnia T, Chen H

CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne2022Senior author

DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.220068 PMID: 35609912

04

Maternal Exposure to Aeroallergens and the Risk of Early Delivery.

Lavigne E, Gasparrini A, Stieb DM, Chen H, Yasseen AS, Crighton E, To T, Weichenthal S, Villeneuve PJ, Cakmak S, Coates F, Walker M

Epidemiology (Cambridge, Mass.)2017

DOI: 10.1097/ede.0000000000000573 PMID: 27748684

05

Ambient air pollution and adverse birth outcomes: Differences by maternal comorbidities.

Lavigne E, Yasseen AS, Stieb DM, Hystad P, van Donkelaar A, Martin RV, Brook JR, Crouse DL, Burnett RT, Chen H, Weichenthal S, Johnson M, Villeneuve PJ, Walker M

Environmental research2016

DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2016.04.026 PMID: 27136671

06

Spatial association between ambient fine particulate matter and incident hypertension.

Chen H, Burnett RT, Kwong JC, Villeneuve PJ, Goldberg MS, Brook RD, van Donkelaar A, Jerrett M, Martin RV, Kopp A, Brook JR, Copes R

Circulation2014First author

DOI: 10.1161/circulationaha.113.003532 PMID: 24190962

07

CD4 T cells require ICOS-mediated PI3K signaling to increase T-Bet expression in the setting of anti-CTLA-4 therapy.

Chen H, Fu T, Suh WK, Tsavachidou D, Wen S, Gao J, Ng Tang D, He Q, Sun J, Sharma P

Cancer immunology research2014First author

DOI: 10.1158/2326-6066.cir-13-0155 PMID: 24778280

08

Long-term exposure to traffic-related air pollution and cardiovascular mortality.

Chen H, Goldberg MS, Burnett RT, Jerrett M, Wheeler AJ, Villeneuve PJ

Epidemiology (Cambridge, Mass.)2013First author

DOI: 10.1097/ede.0b013e318276c005 PMID: 23222554

09

Postmenopausal breast cancer is associated with exposure to traffic-related air pollution in Montreal, Canada: a case-control study.

Crouse DL, Goldberg MS, Ross NA, Chen H, Labrèche F

Environmental health perspectives2010

DOI: 10.1289/ehp.1002221 PMID: 20923746

Environmental factors and risk of autoimmune rheumatic disease incidence and serology

Principal investigatorCIHR2024Project Grant

Principal investigators: Bernatsky, Sasha R; Avina-Zubieta, Juan A; Chen, Hong; Smargiassi, Audrey

Keywords: Air Pollution; Autoimmune Rheumatic Disease; Climate Change; Environment; Epidemiology; Health Outcomes; Humidity; Immunity; Musculoskeletal Diseases; Rheumatoid Arthritis

$502,990

Environmental factors and risk of autoimmune rheumatic disease incidence and serology

Principal investigatorCIHR2023Project Grant - Priority Announcement: Health and Climate Change

Principal investigators: Bernatsky, Sasha R; Avina-Zubieta, Juan A; Chen, Hong; Smargiassi, Audrey

Keywords: Air Pollution; Autoimmune Rheumatic Disease; Climate Change; Environment; Epidemiology; Health Outcomes; Humidity; Immunity; Musculoskeletal Diseases; Rheumatoid Arthritis

Air pollution and systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases

Co-investigatorCIHR2018Project Grant

Principal investigators: Bernatsky, Sasha R; Smargiassi, Audrey

Keywords: Air Pollution; Arthritis; Epidemiology; Health Outcomes; Rheumatoid Arthritis; Rheumatology; Systemic Autoimmune Rheumatic Diseases

$772,650

A transdisciplinary team investigating the toxico-genomics and epidemiology of chronic cardiorespiratory diseases from exposures to ultra fine and nano particles

Co-investigatorCIHR2015Environments, Genes and Chronic Disease - LOI

Principal investigators: Goldberg, Mark S; Ariya, Parisa A; Maysinger, Dusica

Keywords: Atmospheric Chemistry; Chronic Cardiovascular Disease; Chronic Respiratory Disease; Environmental Epidemiology; Exposure Assessment; Genomics; Nano And Ultrafine Particles; Toxicology

Exploring the Development of Biologically-Weighted Multi-Pollutant Exposure Surfaces for the Evaluation of Air Pollution Health Effects

Co-investigatorCIHR2014Collaborative Health Research Projects (NSERC partnered)

Principal investigators: Hatzopoulou, Marianne; Goldberg, Mark S; Joseph, Lawrence; Weichenthal, Scott A

Keywords: Air Pollution; Cardiovascular Health; Population Exposure; Urban Transportation

$301,589

From CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC funding decisions: CIHR since 2008, NSERC since 1991 and SSHRC since 1998, including their latest published competition results.

Frequent collaborators

Kevin Petrecca and Kevin Petrecca: 99 shared papers
Scott Weichenthal and Scott Weichenthal: 47 shared papers
Scott Weichenthal and Éric Lavigne: 25 shared papers
Scott Weichenthal and Hong Chen: 23 shared papers
Scott Weichenthal and Éric Lavigne: 22 shared papers
Éric Lavigne and Hong Chen: 22 shared papers
Scott Weichenthal and Hong Chen: 20 shared papers
Scott Weichenthal and Eric Crighton: 9 shared papers
Eric Crighton and Hong Chen: 9 shared papers
Teresa To and Scott Weichenthal: 7 shared papers
Scott Weichenthal and Eric Crighton: 7 shared papers
Teresa To and Eric Crighton: 6 shared papers
Teresa To and Hong Chen: 6 shared papers
Mark Walker and Hong Chen: 6 shared papers
Mark Walker and Scott Weichenthal: 5 shared papers
Mark Walker and Scott Weichenthal: 5 shared papers
Hong Chen and Hong Chen: 5 shared papers
Mark Walker and Mark Walker: 4 shared papers
Éric Lavigne and Éric Lavigne: 4 shared papers
Scott Weichenthal and Éric Lavigne: 3 shared papers
Scott Weichenthal and Éric Lavigne: 3 shared papers
Éric Lavigne and Éric Lavigne: 3 shared papers
Hong Chen and Éric Lavigne: 3 shared papers
Mark Walker and Mark Walker: 2 shared papers
Mark Walker and Mark Walker: 2 shared papers
Mark Walker and Hong Chen: 2 shared papers
Scott Weichenthal and Hong Chen: 2 shared papers
Éric Lavigne and Hong Chen: 2 shared papers
Hong Chen and Elaina MacIntyre: 2 shared papers
Stefano Stifani and Jean-Francois Cloutier: 1 shared paper
Stefano Stifani and Kevin Petrecca: 1 shared paper
Stefano Stifani and Arjun Krishnaswamy: 1 shared paper
Stefano Stifani and Kevin Petrecca: 1 shared paper
Stefano Stifani and YANG ZHOU: 1 shared paper
Stefano Stifani and Hong Chen: 1 shared paper
Woong-Kyung Suh and Hong Chen: 1 shared paper
Teresa To and Mark Walker: 1 shared paper
Teresa To and Éric Lavigne: 1 shared paper
Teresa To and Mark Walker: 1 shared paper
Teresa To and Hong Chen: 1 shared paper
Jean-Francois Cloutier and Kevin Petrecca: 1 shared paper
Jean-Francois Cloutier and Arjun Krishnaswamy: 1 shared paper
Jean-Francois Cloutier and Kevin Petrecca: 1 shared paper
Jean-Francois Cloutier and YANG ZHOU: 1 shared paper
Jean-Francois Cloutier and Hong Chen: 1 shared paper
Mark Walker and Éric Lavigne: 1 shared paper
Kevin Petrecca and Arjun Krishnaswamy: 1 shared paper
Kevin Petrecca and YANG ZHOU: 1 shared paper
Kevin Petrecca and Hong Chen: 1 shared paper
Scott Weichenthal and Hong Chen: 1 shared paper
Mark Walker and Hong Chen: 1 shared paper
Arjun Krishnaswamy and Hong Chen: 1 shared paper
Kevin Petrecca and Hong Chen: 1 shared paper
Eric Crighton and Hong Chen: 1 shared paper
YANG ZHOU and Hong Chen: 1 shared paper
Éric Lavigne and Hong Chen: 1 shared paper
Éric Lavigne and Perry Hystad: 1 shared paper
Éric Lavigne and Jeff Kwong: 1 shared paper
Mark Walker and Hong Chen: 1 shared paper
Perry Hystad and Hong Chen: 1 shared paper
Perry Hystad and Éric Lavigne: 1 shared paper
Perry Hystad and Jeff Kwong: 1 shared paper
Hong Chen and Jeff Kwong: 1 shared paper
Hong Chen and Elaina MacIntyre: 1 shared paper

Neurology and Neurosurgery
Occupational & Environmental Health Division
School of Epidemiology and Public Health
Obstetrics and Gynecology
Health Sciences
Physiology
Geography and Environmental Studies
Other

1 shared papers, latest 2014

Teresa To

Pediatrics

1 shared papers, latest 2017

Write to this professor

A short, specific email works best. This draft uses one of their recent papers; replace the parts in brackets with your own details before sending.

Applying for

Paper to mentionMention their CIHR grant from 2024

Subject: Prospective PhD student: Air Pollution Dear Professor Chen, My name is [your name], and I am a [your current degree or role] at [your institution]. I am applying for a PhD position starting in [term and year]. I read your paper "Impact of the 2023 wildfire smoke episodes in Ontario, Canada, on asthma and other health outcomes: an interrupted time-series analysis." (2025), and it connects closely to my own work on [your research topic]. [One or two sentences on what you did and what you learned.] I also saw your CIHR-funded project "Environmental factors and risk of autoimmune rheumatic disease incidence and serology" (2024), and I would be glad to contribute to work in that direction. Are you accepting new PhD students for [term and year]? I have attached my CV and transcripts, and I would be glad to talk at a time that suits you. Thank you for your time. Kind regards, [your name]