Brandon Pierce

Brandon Pierce is a Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Chicago, where he leads research at the intersection of genetic, molecular, and environmental epidemiology. His work focuses on how genetic variation influences or alters the effects of environmental exposures and biomarkers on human health and biology.

Dr. Pierce earned his BA in Biology from Washington University in St. Louis (2002), MS in Genetic Epidemiology from Washington University School of Medicine (2004), and PhD in Public Health Genetics from the University of Washington (2008). His research spans several key areas including genetic epidemiology of aging, gene-environment interactions, arsenic toxicity mechanisms, and prostate cancer disparities.

Dr. Pierce's research group investigates dynamic features of the genome that serve as biomarkers of aging, exposure, and disease risk; genetic susceptibility and response to arsenic exposure; methods for assessing causal relationships among risk factors; and genetic contributors to prostate cancer disparities. His work with large arsenic-exposed cohorts in Bangladesh and the U.S. has revealed biological mechanisms of toxicity and susceptibility. Recent publications show a strong focus on DNA methylation patterns across diverse tissue types, racial disparities in prostate cancer, and integrating multi-omics approaches to understand complex disease mechanisms.

Among his notable recognitions are the 2017 RIVER Outstanding Investigator Award from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, being a 2015 Finalist for the Brian MacMahon Early Career Epidemiologist Award, the 2012 Young Investigator Award from the Cancer Research Foundation, and the 2011 Outstanding New Environmental Scientist (ONES) Award.

Dr. Pierce has secured substantial NIH funding as Principal Investigator, including the R35ES028379 "Arsenic and the Human Genome" grant (2017-2025) and the R01CA297773 grant (2025-2030) on characterizing cancer susceptibility mechanisms. His laboratory actively collaborates with researchers studying the Gene-Tissue Expression project (GTEx) and leads projects examining DNA methylation features in diverse tissue types and prostate cancer disparities.