Joseph Braun

About

Joseph Braun is a Professor of Epidemiology and the Director of the Center for Climate, Environment and Health at Brown University School of Public Health. He previously worked as a school nurse in Milwaukee, WI, before earning his master's and doctoral degrees in Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He completed postdoctoral training in environmental health at the Harvard School of Public Health. For over 15 years, Dr. Braun has dedicated his research to identifying modifiable risk factors of pediatric diseases to improve public health. His work involves studying the health effects of environmental pollutant exposures before conception and during various stages of development, including gestation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence. His research focuses on endocrine disrupting chemicals, toxic metals, obesity, cardiometabolic health, and neurodevelopmental disorders. Dr. Braun's team employs advanced biostatistical techniques to quantify the health effects of chemical mixtures, identify periods of heightened susceptibility, and explore metabolic and epigenetic pathways affected by chemical exposures. He is also involved in developing interventions aimed at preventing chemical exposures and their health impacts in vulnerable populations. His research utilizes three prospective cohort studies in North America—HOME, MIREC, and PEACE—that follow children from before conception through adolescence.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Environmental health
• Biology
• Computer Science
• Chemistry
• Environmental chemistry
• Environmental science
• Machine Learning
• Obstetrics
• Genetics

Selected publications

• Non-targeted analysis (NTA) and suspect screening analysis (SSA): a review of examining the chemical exposome

  Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology · 2023 · 163 citations

  Non-targeted analysis (NTA) and suspect screening analysis (SSA) are powerful techniques that rely on high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) and computational tools to detect and identify unknown or suspected chemicals in the exposome. Fully understanding the chemical exposome requires characterization of both environmental media and human specimens. As such, we conducted a review to examine the use of different NTA and SSA methods in various exposure media and human samples, including the res…

  DOI

• Exploring the evidence for epigenetic regulation of environmental influences on child health across generations

  Communications Biology · 2021 · 153 citations

  Environmental exposures, psychosocial stressors and nutrition are all potentially important influences that may impact health outcomes directly or via interactions with the genome or epigenome over generations. While there have been clear successes in large-scale human genetic studies in recent decades, there is still a substantial amount of missing heritability to be elucidated for complex childhood disorders. Mounting evidence, primarily in animals, suggests environmental exposures may generat…

  DOI

• Prenatal air pollution exposure and neurodevelopment: A review and blueprint for a harmonized approach within ECHO

  Environmental Research · 2020 · 106 citations

  DOI

• Associations Between Prenatal Urinary Biomarkers of Phthalate Exposure and Preterm Birth

  JAMA Pediatrics · 2022 · 85 citations

  Importance: Phthalate exposure is widespread among pregnant women and may be a risk factor for preterm birth. Objective: To investigate the prospective association between urinary biomarkers of phthalates in pregnancy and preterm birth among individuals living in the US. Design, Setting, and Participants: Individual-level data were pooled from 16 preconception and pregnancy studies conducted in the US. Pregnant individuals who delivered between 1983 and 2018 and provided 1 or more urine samples…

  DOI

• Prenatal exposure to endocrine disrupting chemical mixtures and infant birth weight: A Bayesian analysis using kernel machine regression

  Environmental Research · 2021 · 74 citations

  DOI

Recent grants

• Maternal and Paternal Preconception Environmental Exposures and Children's Health

  NIH · $3.0M · 2018–2024

• Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals, Thyroid Hormones, and Child Neurobehavior

  NIH · $1.8M · 2015–2020

• Prenatal Sex Steroids, Bisphenol A, Phthalates, and Sexually Dimorphic Behaviors

  NIH · $683k · 2013–2017

Frequent coauthors

• Bruce P. Lanphear

  Child and Family Research Institute

  661 shared

• Kimberly Yolton

  Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center

  641 shared

• Antonia M. Calafat

  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

  410 shared

• Aimin Chen

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  379 shared

• Kim M. Cecil

  Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center

  333 shared

• Yingying Xu

  Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center

  204 shared

• George D. Papandonatos

  Brown University

  171 shared

• Heidi J. Kalkwarf

  147 shared

Education

• PhD, Epidemiology

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  2010

• MSPH, Epidemiology

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  2008

• BS, Nursing

  University of Wisconsin Milwaukee

  2005

• BS, Biochemistry

  University of Wisconsin Madison

  2001

Similar researchers at Brown University

• David Savitzh-103
• Tongzhang Zhengh-68
• Allan Justh-64