Chloe Mirzayi, PhD

Investigator, CUNY Institute for Implementation Science in Population Health

I am an epidemiologist and data scientist. My work spans microbiome epidemiology, standards for reporting microbiome research, and large national cohort studies of HIV prevention and care among sexual and gender minority people.

I led the development of the STORMS checklist, a consensus reporting guideline for human microbiome studies, and helped build BugSigDB, a community-curated database of published microbial signatures. I also design and maintain data collection, management and curation systems for national cohorts and trials.

I received my PhD in Epidemiology from the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health & Health Policy, advised by Levi Waldron.

• Email
• Google Scholar
• PubMed
• GitHub
• CUNY ISPH profile

Research interests

• Microbiome epidemiology
• Causal inference
• Reporting standards & reproducibility
• HIV prevention & PrEP
• Cohort data systems
• Social media & public health

Selected publications

• Meta-analysis of 22,710 human microbiome metagenomes defines an oral-to-gut microbial enrichment score and associations with host health and disease Manghi P, Antonello G, Schiffer L, …, Mirzayi C, et al. Nature Communications, 2025 · PubMed
• STREAMS guidelines: standards for technical reporting in environmental and host-associated microbiome studies Kelliher JM, Mirzayi C, Bordenstein SR, et al. Nature Microbiology, 2025 · PubMed
• Depression and Anxiety Symptoms Among Cisgender Gay and Bisexual Men During the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Time Series Analysis of a US National Cohort Study Mirzayi C, Westmoreland D, Stief M, Grov C JMIR Public Health and Surveillance, 2024 · PubMed
• BugSigDB captures patterns of differential abundance across a broad range of host-associated microbial signatures Geistlinger L, Mirzayi C, Zohra F, et al. Nature Biotechnology, 2024 · PubMed
• Structural equation model of physical activity in Turkish schoolchildren: an application of the integrated behavioural model Mirzayi C, Ferris E, Ozcebe H, et al. BMJ Open, 2021 · PubMed
• Reporting guidelines for human microbiome research: the STORMS checklist Mirzayi C, Renson A, Genomic Standards Consortium, et al. Nature Medicine, 2021 · PubMed

All publications →