Dr. Honglei Chen is an MSU Foundation Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the MSU College of Human Medicine. He came to the US in 1996 as an international student from China and earned his Ph.D. in Nutritional Epidemiology from Tufts University in 2001. After spending a few years at Harvard, he went to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and led the Aging and Neuroepidemiology group in the NIEHS intramural research program.

Chen joined MSU in 2016 as part of the Global Impact Initiative. He studies the development of Parkinson’s disease and dementia with the ultimate goal of disease prevention and healthy aging. More recently, he has focused his research on understanding the poor sense of smell as a prodromal symptom for neurodegeneration and as a marker for accelerated aging.

Dr. Chen has published over 200 papers in mainstream health journals, such as the Annals of Internal Medicine, Annals of Neurology, Neurology, Movement Disorders, and Environmental Health Perspectives.

Dr. Chen’s research at MSU has been generously supported by the NIH, DoD, Parkinson Foundation, the MSU Foundation, and the Gibby versus Parky Project.