Our Faculty

Jinbing Bai

Associate Professor
PhD, MSN, RN, FAAN
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Bio

Dr. Jinbing Bai is an Associate Professor (with tenure) at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University and a member of the Cancer Prevention and Control (CPC) Program at the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing. His research focuses on symptom science, patient-reported outcomes (PROs), the gut microbiome, and the microbiome-gut-brain axis, particularly in relation to cancer treatment, examining how these biological factors interact with psychosocial factors — including social determinants of health — to influence cancer outcomes and patient experiences. A central focus of Dr. Bai’s program of research is on children and adolescents with cancer, including childhood cancer survivors, where he studies how environmental and dietary exposures shape gut microbial composition and, in turn, influence psychoneurological symptoms such as pain, fatigue, anxiety, depression, and cognitive dysfunction. He serves as a Champion for the Childhood Cancer & the Environment Program (CCEP), a national PEHSU initiative launched in 2022 that educates pediatric health care providers, parents, and caregivers about environmental influences on childhood cancers such as leukemia. Dr. Bai has led multiple projects sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Oncology Nursing Foundation, NRG Oncology, the American Cancer Society, and the American Nurses Foundation. 

Areas of Interest

  • Biological Behavioral Omics
  • Cancer
  • Child and Adolescent Health
  • Data Science
  • Health Disparities
  • Methods
  • Neurocognitive Neuroscience
  • Symptom Science

Teaching

Dr. Bai has taught undergraduate courses in the nursing school. He was invited to give lectures for PhD courses in different schools or other universities, including Emory Rollins School of Public Health. His research and teaching experiences have laid a great foundation for him to mentor students, including doctoral students (e.g., PhD and DNP), Honors students, and different levels of scholars (e.g., postdoctoral fellow).

Research

Dr. Bai's research focuses on the identification of bio-psycho-social mechanisms of treatment-related symptoms/toxicities, particularly psychoneurological symptoms (PNS, including pain, fatigue, anxiety, depression, and cognitive dysfunction) among cancer populations (e.g., children) and develop targeted interventions to mitigate symptom burden and improve quality of life. His program of research specifically focuses on cancer symptoms, patient-reported outcomes, and biological mechanisms (i.e., microbiome and metabolite). In addition, his research tests new bioinformatics tools for analysis of omics big data (e.g., microbiome and metabolome markers). Assessment of social determinants of health is woven throughout his research. 

Publications

  1. Bai, J., Eldridge, R. C., Martin, M., Powell, C., Sutton, K. S., Houser, M., Noh, H. I., Wu, Y., Olson, T., Konstantinidis, K. T., & Bruner, D. W. (2024). Multi-omics analysis of the gut microbiome and metabolites associated with psychoneurological symptoms in children with solid tumors with chemotherapy. Journal of Translational Medicine, 22, 256. 
  2. Bai, J., Pugh, S.L., Eldridge, R., Yeager, K., Zhang, Q., Lee, W.R., Shah, A.B., Dayes, I.S., D’Souza, D.P., Michalski, J.M., Efstathiou, J.A., Longo, J.M., Pisansky, T.M., Maier, J.M., Faria, S.L, Desai, A.B., Seaward, S.A., Sandler, H.M., Cooley, M.E., & Bruner, D.W. (2023). Rurality and neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation associated with patient-reported outcomes and survival in men with prostate cancer in NRG RTOG 0415. International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics, 116(1), 39-49.
  3. Zhou, S., Martin, M., Powell, C., Sutton, K. S., George, B., Olson, T., Konstantinidis, K. T., Bruner, D. W., & Bai, J. (2022). How to maintain a healthy gut microbiome in children with cancer? Gut microbiome association with diet in children with solid tumors postchemotherapy. Omics: A Journal of Integrative Biology, 26(4), 236-245. 
  4. Bai., J., Bruner, D.W., Fedirko, V., Beitler, J., Zhou, C., Gu, J., Zhao, H., Lin, I-H., Chico, C.E., Higgins, K., Shin, D.M., Saba, N., Miller, A.H., & Xiao, C-H. (2020). Gut microbiome associated with the psychoneurological symptom cluster in patients with head and neck cancers. Cancers, 12(9), 2531. 
  5. Song, B.C. & Bai, J. (2021). Microbiome-gut-brain axis in cancer and cancer treatment-related psychoneurological toxicities and symptoms: A systematic review. Supportive Care in Cancer, 29(2), 605-617. 
  6. Bai, J., Jhaney, I., Wells, J. (2019). Developing a reproducible microbiome data analysis pipeline using the Amazon Web Services cloud for a cancer research group. Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) Medical Informatics, 7(4), e14667. 
  7. Bai, J., Hu, Y-J., & Bruner, D. K. (2019). Composition of gut microbiota and its association with body mass index and lifestyle factors in a cohort of 7-18 years old children from the American Gut Project. Pediatric Obesity, 14(4), e12480. 
  8. Bai, J., Brubaker, A., Meghani, S. H., Bruner, D. W., & Yeager, K. A. (2018). Spirituality and quality of life in Black patients with cancer pain. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 56(3), 390-397
  9. Bai, J., Swanson, K., Harper, F. W. K., Penner, L., & Santacroce, S. J. (2017). Parent verbal and nonverbal caring behaviors and child distress during cancer treatment-related port starts: a time-window sequential analysis. Oncology Nursing Forum, 44(6), 675-687.

Awards & Affiliations

Awards and Honors

  • 2022 The Leadership Academy, Southern Nursing Research Society (SNRS)
  • 2021 Emerging Nurse Researcher & Scholar Award, Sigma Theta Tau International 
  • 2021 Victoria Mock New Investigator Award, Oncology Nursing Society (ONS)
  • 2021 Mentee Research Award, NINR-NCI-ONS Symptom Science Symposia
  • 2019 Woodruff Scholar Early Independence Award, Emory University
  • 2019 Fellow, American Academy of Nursing
  • 2019 Excellence in Innovation Award, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, Emory University
  • 2018 SNRS/American Nurses Foundation Scholar
  • 2016 Best Research Paper, Research in Nursing & Health
  • 2016 Young Investigator Award, American Pain Society
  • 2015 Jean Guveyan Scholarship, American Society of Pain Management Nursing
  • 2012–2015 Linda R. Cronenwett Endowed Doctoral Scholarship, UNC Chapel Hill
  • 2011–2016 Caroline H and Thomas S Royster Fellowship, Graduate School, UNC Chapel Hill