Rate My Professor Xuejuan Jiang

Xuejuan Jiang, PhD, serves as Associate Professor of Research Ophthalmology and Director of Biostatistics at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. She obtained her BS in Molecular & Cellular Biology from the University of Science and Technology of China in 2002, followed by an MS in Applied Biostatistics & Epidemiology from USC in 2004, and a PhD in Epidemiology from USC in 2007. Throughout her career at USC, Dr. Jiang has held key roles in major population-based eye studies, including as co-investigator in the Los Angeles Latino Eye Study (LALES), Chinese American Eye Study (CHES), and African American Eye Disease Study (AFEDS). These studies have advanced knowledge on racial and ethnic disparities in eye diseases, utilizing advanced imaging like Spectral-Domain Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) to identify genetic and biological determinants of neurodegeneration-related biomarkers.

Dr. Jiang's research specializes in designing, managing, and analyzing epidemiological studies focused on eye diseases, particularly in preschool children, and the impacts of race/ethnicity, environmental factors, and genetics on conditions such as amblyopia, glaucoma, retinopathy, and retinal vascular complications associated with sickle cell trait. She leads an international consortium consolidating population-based studies of preschool eye diseases to create the largest repository of vision health data for this group. As Principal Investigator, she has secured multiple NIH grants, including R01EY030560 (2019–2024) on intrauterine tobacco smoke exposure, DNA methylation, and vision disorders in multiethnic children; R21EY028721 (2018–2021) on cumulative effects of sickle cell trait on the eye in older African Americans; and R21EY025313 (2015–2018) for the Pediatric Eye Disease Consortium. She also serves as Co-PI on RF1AG084072 (2023–2026) for imaging cerebral small vessels in vascular cognitive impairment and dementia (VCID) as part of the MarkVCID consortium. Her contributions include evaluating small vessel morphology, density, and perfusion as VCID biomarkers in multiethnic cohorts. Key publications encompass 'Association of Parental Myopia With Higher Risk of Myopia Among Multiethnic Children Before School Age' (JAMA Ophthalmology, 2020), 'Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Thickness in Healthy Eyes of Black, Chinese, and Latino Americans: A Population-Based Multiethnic Study' (Ophthalmology, 2021), 'Retinal perfusion is linked to cognition and brain MRI biomarkers in Black Americans' (Alzheimer's & Dementia, 2024), and 'Prevalence and Risk Factors of Open-Angle Glaucoma in an Adult Chinese American Population: The Chinese American Eye Study' (American Journal of Ophthalmology, 2025). Her work significantly influences the fields of ophthalmic epidemiology and neuroimaging biomarkers for cognitive decline.