Dr. Austin Jiazhi Niu joined the Division of Hospital Medicine in the Department of Medicine as an Instructor in June of 2023. He was born in New Jersey and attended Washington University in St. Louis, graduating with a major in Biochemistry. During his undergraduate years he pursued basic science research in HIV. He then went on to attend Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and received his medical degree in 2020. He was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society that same year. Dr. Niu completed his internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Barnes-Jewish Hospital/Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis prior to joining the division in 2023. During residency, he received one of the earliest grant approvals under The Interesting Patient Fellowship program, which promotes investigations inspired by a patient seen during residency. He additionally has interest in working with medicine students, in particular teaching Internal Medicine bedside ultrasound guided/assisted procedures.
Regarding research interests, he is working on projects studying the genetics of aortic dissection as well as cardiac critical care. Outside of medicine, his main interest is practicing and performing Contemporary Wushu, an acrobatic and performance-oriented branch of Chinese Martial Arts. He has done performances at the Botanical Gardens Chinese Culture Days Festival. His favorite restaurant in St. Louis is Chilispot. It reminds him of the time he spent at the West China School of Medicine/West China Hospital of Sichuan University in Chengdu, the capital of the Sichuan Province in China during the summer after his 1st year of medical school. His key interests are Hospital Medicine, Inpatient Care, Genetics of Aortic Disease, Cardiac Critical Care, Arts and Humanities in Medicine. His research areas are studying the genetics of heritable thoracic aortic disease utilizing whole exome sequencing, analysis of Mechanical Circulatory Support devices placed at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.