Dr. Lyu is an Assistant Professor in the TSET Health Promotion Research Center and the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine. Trained as a communication scientist, she uses qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods to address topics at the intersection of health communication and tobacco control. Dr. Lyu's current research primarily focuses on developing, optimizing, and implementing digital interventions for tobacco cessation, as well as health communication and marketing related to novel nicotine products, such as e-cigarettes and oral nicotine products.
Dr. Lyu values social support, especially from peers, and emphasizes cultural appropriateness in intervention design. She developed the first social media-based peer mentoring program for e-cigarette cessation among young populations. This program has the potential to integrate into tobacco cessation interventions for diverse groups and other health behavior change interventions, addressing the common challenge of reduced engagement over time in social media interventions, and further enhancing their efficacy.
Prior to joining the HPRC, Dr. Lyu completed her postdoctoral fellowship with Drs. Pamela Ling, Janice Tsoh, and Wendy Max at the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California, San Francisco.
Academic Section(s):
Family and Preventive Medicine
Education:
Degree-Granting Institutions
- PhD, Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
- BA, Radio and Television Journalism, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
Postgraduate Training
- Postdoctoral Fellow, Tobacco Research, Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, University of California, San Francisco, California, United States
Funding:
05/01/2026 - 04/30/2031
Principal Investigator
NIH/National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) (K01DA06913)
Integrating Peer Mentoring Into Social Media-Based Vaping Cessation Interventions for Young Adults
Total: $1,000,867
07/01/2025 - 06/30/2027
Principal Investigator (MPI: Emily Hébert)
TSET Health Promotion Research Center Seed Grant
Developing a Just-In-Time Adaptive Intervention to Help Young Adults Achieve and Sustain Abstinence from Nicotine Vaping
Total: $110,000
09/09/2024 - 08/31/2029
Co-Investigator (PI: Pamela M. Ling)
NIH/National Cancer Institute (NCI) (R01 CA292971)
Social media support groups for adolescent vaping cessation
Total: $3,399,553
07/01/2024 - 06/30/2027
Principal Investigator
California Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program New Investigator Award (T34KT8021)
Peer Mentored Social Media-Based Vaping Cessation Intervention for Adolescents and Young Adults
Total: $800,000
Additional Information: Declined due to accepting faculty position outside California
12/01/2021 - 11/30/2022
Principal Investigator
NIH NRSA Individual Postdoctoral Fellowship Grant (F32) (1F32CA265059-01)
Developing a peer mentoring system for social media adolescent vaping cessation interventions: A feasibility and acceptability study.
Total: $81,409
Additional Information: Funded with a perfect review score (impact score: 10; percentile: 1st)
Select Publications:
(*denotes student/mentee author)
Lyu JC, White JS, Shlipak K*, Afolabi A*, Ling PM. Peer-mentored social media groups for youth vaping cessation: Single-arm pilot trial. JMIR Pediatr Parent. 2026 May 25;9:e46283. doi: 10.2196/46283
Lyu JC, Afolabi A*, White JS, Ling PM. Perceptions and aspirations toward peer mentoring in social media-based electronic cigarette cessation interventions for adolescents and young adults: Focus group study. JMIR Formative Research. 2022 Dec 1;6(12):e42538. doi: 10.2196/42538
Ling PM, Lyu JC, Lisha NE, Nguyen N, Gribben V, Ramo DE. Social media support groups for youth nicotine vaping cessation: An RCT. Am J Prev Med. 2026 Aug;71(2):108314. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2026.108314
Lyu JC, Olson SS, Ramo DE, Ling PM. Delivering vaping cessation interventions to adolescents and young adults on Instagram: Protocol for a randomized controlled trial. BMC Public Health. 2022 Dec 10;22(1):2311. doi: 10.1186/s12889-022-14606-7
Lyu JC, Galimov A, Ganz O, Ling PM, Stanton C, Ozga JE. Clear in California: Sesh+ nicotine pouches' advertising under flavor restrictions. Tob Prev Cessat. 2026 May 9;12. doi: 10.18332/tpc/215182
Lyu JC, Ozga JE, Stanton CA, Hrywna M, Ganz O, Cornacchione Ross J, Sharma A, Ling PM. Advertising the leading US nicotine pouch brand: A content analysis of ZYN advertisements from 2019 to 2023. Tob Control. 2025 May 7:tc-2024-059145. doi: 10.1136/tc-2024-059145
Han E, Lyu JC, Ling PM. An exploratory typology of tobacco-related misleading content on social media: Qualitative analysis of Instagram and TikTok. J Med Internet Res. 2025 Dec 17;27:e78854. doi: 10.2196/78854
Lyu JC, Huang P, Jiang N, Ling PM. A systematic review of e-cigarette marketing communication: Messages, communication channels, and strategies. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2022; 19(15):9263. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9367763/
Lyu JC, Luli GK, Ling PM. Vaping discussion in the COVID-19 pandemic: An observational study using Twitter data. PLoS ONE. 2021 Dec 8;16(12):e0260290. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0260290
More published works available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/chen.lyu.1/bibliography/public/