Genetic Epidemiology Branch Fellows
Clara Bodelon, M.P.H., Ph.D. -Postdoctoral Fellow
Clara Bodelon joined the Genetic Epidemiology Branch (GEB) as a postdoctoral fellow in January 2011. She received her Ph.D. in Mathematics from Boston University in 2001. From to 2002 to 2006, Dr. Bodelon did some postdoctoral research at The Salk Institute (La Jolla, CA) trying to understand the dynamics of visual processing. In 2009, Dr. Bodelon received a Master of Science in Epidemiology from the University of Washington. While working in her Master, she looked at the association between the use of analgesics and the risk of endometrial cancer. She also studied whether hormonal related factors were associated with esophageal cancer and the immunogenetic susceptibility of cervical and vulvar cancers. At the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, Dr. Bodelon will work with Maria Teresa Landi, M.D. Ph.D., Senior Investigator, GEB, applying her multidisciplinary training to genetic and molecular epidemiological studies related to the etiology and progression of lung cancer. She will also work with Nicolas Wentzensen, M.D., Ph.D., Investigator, HREB, in ovarian cancer.
Victoria Burton, B.S. -Post-baccalaureate Fellow
Victoria Burton is currently a post-baccalaureate fellow in the Genetic Epidemiology Branch (GEB), Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics. She graduated in 2010 from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) with a B.S. in Molecular Biology. While at UCSD, Ms. Burton gained over two years of research experience working in a molecular biology lab where she studied the microRNA let-7 and its sister microRNAs in C. elegans. Her strong interest in medical research brought her to the National Cancer Institute. Under the mentorship of Philip Taylor, M.D., Sc.D., Senior Investigator, GEB and Stephen Hewitt, M.D., PhD., Clinical Investigator, Laboratory of Pathology, CCR. Ms. Burton is working at the Advanced Technology Center in Tissue Array Research Program (TARP). She is currently investigating differential protein expression in tumors of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma patients from Shanxi Province, a region in northern-central China where rates of this tumor are very high. Her research aims to identify biomarkers that can potentially be used for early detection and molecularly-targeted therapy.
David Capo-Ramos, M.D., M.P.H. -Research Fellow
David Capo-Ramos joined the Genetic Epidemiology Branch (GEB) as a Research Fellow through the Undergraduate Scholarship Program (UGSP) under the NIH Office of Director. He received his medical degree in 2007 and an M.P.H. with a concentration in epidemiology in 2009 from the University of Puerto Rico. For his dissertation, Dr. Capo-Ramos conducted a comparative study of the prevalence of respiratory diseases between residents of two areas of Puerto Rico and examined the role of particulate matter emissions on asthma and other respiratory diseases. He is working with Maria Teresa Landi, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Investigator, on the etiology and progression of lung cancer.
Sara De Matteis, M.D., M.P.H. -Postdoctoral Fellow
Sara De Matteis joined Genetic Epidemiology Branch (GEB) as a postdoctoral fellow in May 2010. In 2005 Dr. De Matteis received her M.D. from Milan University School of Medicine in Italy and her M.P.H. in Occupational and Environmental Medicine from Milan University School of Occupational and Environmental Medicine in 2009. In addition she received a Masters degree in Epidemiology from Turin University (Italy) in 2009. She is currently pursuing the first year of a Ph.D. in Occupational and Environmental Medicine at Milan University, with a focus on epidemiology. In addition to her clinical work at the university, she collaborated on several epidemiological projects, including the recent analysis of occupational exposures and risk of lung cancer in the Environment and Genetics in Lung Cancer Etiology (EAGLE) study. Her primary interest is the understanding of molecular mechanisms of lung cancer using an integrative analysis approach of environmental and genetic factors. While at GEB, Dr. De Matteis will work, under the mentorship of Maria Teresa Landi, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Investigator, GEB on the interplay between genetic susceptibility and exposure to occupational carcinogens, in particular asbestos, and individual factors, such as, gender and smoking habits in association with lung cancer risk within the EAGLE study.
Ying Gao, Ph.D., M.P.H. -Postdoctoral Fellow
Ying Gao is currently a post doctoral fellow in the Genetic Epidemiology Branch (GEB). After receiving a M.D. from Beijing Medical University and a M.P.H. from Peking University, Dr. Gao went to Cornell University and received a Ph.D. in 2006. During her laboratory training in Cornell, she conducted a genome-wide gene mapping study to identify genetic regions modifiable by dietary factors in colorectal carcinogenesis with recombinant inbred mice model; in a series of epigenetics studies, Dr. Gao explored the methylation and expression profile of the derepressed Rasgrf1 allele in the Region2 knock in mice model, and did methylation mapping of Rasgrf1 Locus to identify differential methylation domain II.
To merge her interest in genetics and epigenetics with the field of human cancer epidemiology, Dr. Gao joined GEB in 2007. Under the mentorship of Drs. Phil Taylor and Lynn Goldin, both Senior Investigators, GEB, Dr. Gao is evaluating lifestyle factors in UGI cancers in the Shanxi case-control study, family history in lung cancer in the EAGLE study, and medical history in lymphomagenesis with the Swedish database. She will explore the association between genetic factors and UGI cancers in the rare cancer iSelect project. During her stay in GEB, Dr. Gao has received a NCI Director’s Career Development Award and a NIH Fellows Award for Research Excellence (FARE).
Asieh Golozar, M.D., M.P.H. -Postdoctoral Fellow
Asieh Golozar joined the Genetic Epidemiology Branch (GEB) as a visiting Postdoctoral Fellow in July 2009. Dr. Golozar received her medical degree from the Tehran University of Medical Sciences in 2005 and her M.P.H. from Tehran University in 2007. From 2005 to 2009, Dr Golozar worked as a Research Fellow on the Gastro-Esophageal Malignancies In Northern Iran (GEMINI) project, a collaborative endeavor among scientists from Iran, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), and the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute to study upper gastrointestinal (UGI) cancers. In 2008 she came to the U.S. as a doctoral student in Genetic Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr Golozar is working with Drs. Alisa Goldstein and Philip Taylor, Senior Investigators, GEB, to conduct studies of genetic susceptibility based on genotying data from subjects in the “Rare Cancer iSelect Project”, focusing on UGI cancers. She will also participate in planning and conducting the UGI GWASs.
Fangyi Gu, M.Med., Sc.D. -Postdoctoral Fellow
In May 2010, Fangyi Gu became a postdoctoral fellow in the Genetic Epidemiology Branch (GEB). Dr. Gu completed her ScD. in Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health in 2010 and earned a Master of Medicine from Peking Union Medical College in 2004 and a Bachelor of Medicine from Peking Medical University in 2001. She has collaborated on several epidemiological projects, including the recent GWAS of smoking behaviors led by the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics (DCEG), National Cancer Institute and Harvard investigators, as well as an international multicenter association study of insulin like growth factor pathway genes with circulating IGF1/BP3 hormone levels. While at DCEG, Dr. Gu will work with Dr. Neil Caporaso, Senior Investigator, GEB and colleagues on smoking exposure and genetic susceptibility in relation to lung cancer risk.
Paula Hyland, PH.D., M.P.H.,-Postdoctoral Fellow
Paula Hyland Ph.D., M.P.H., the 2008-2013 Northern Irish Cancer Prevention Fellow joined the Genetic Epidemiology Branch (GEB), Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, of the National Cancer Institute, in January 2010. Dr. Hyland received her Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Ulster, Coleraine, (UUC), in Northern Ireland (NI), studying the effects of dNTP pool imbalances on DNA replication and repair fidelity. She also has a B.Sc. in Biomedical Sciences from UUC. In 2009, she obtained her M.P.H. from Queen’s University in Belfast, NI, which focused on the molecular epidemiology of esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) and the alteration of chromatin modifiers and histone marks by HPV-16 E6/7 oncogenes. Dr. Hyland’s present research interests include investigating the association of genetic variation as well as epigenetic changes and the risk of esophageal cancer and melanoma. She is currently working with Philip Taylor, M.D., Sc.D., Senior Investigator in GEB, on the following projects: assessing the relationship of selected gene pathways to risk of esophageal cancer using SNP data from the upper gastrointestinal (UGI) cancer, iSelect, and GWAS data sets; protein biomarkers with survival in UGI cancers; and mRNA and microRNA expression in Barrett’s esophagus from the Barrett’s Esophagus Early Detection Study. She is also working with Rose Yang, Ph.D., M.P.H., Investigator, GEB examining the epigenome in melanoma-prone families. In 2010, Dr. Hyland was awarded a DCEG Intramural Research Award for her project: “Genome-wide epigenetic changes in melanoma-prone families segregating CDKN2A mutations”.
Tram Lam, Ph.D. -Postdoctoral Fellow
Tram Kim Lam came to GEB as a postdoctoral fellow under the Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program in 2007. Dr. Lam received her undergraduate degree in Biology from Yale University. She received her M.P.H. and Ph.D. in Epidemiology from Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is currently working primarily with Dr. Maria Teresa Landi in GEB, where she is involved in the EAGLE (Environment And Genetics in Lung cancer Etiology) study. Dr. Lam's research interests include diet, genes involved in the metabolism of exogenous carcinogens, the interplay between genetic variants and diet, and their roles in carcinogenesis. She is conducting research to provide a better characterization of lung carcinogenesis and to explore a possible link between diet, genetic variants, infectious agents and lung cancer. In addition to lung cancer, Dr. Lam's other projects include examining the role of plasma vitamin C in relation to upper gastrointestinal (UGI) cancers among a high-risk population in China and dietary fiber in relation to UGI cancers in the National Institutes of Health-Association of American Retired Persons cohort.
Wenqing Li, Ph.D. -Postdoctoral Fellow
Wenqing Li, Ph.D., joined the Genetic Epidemiology Branch (GEB) as a visiting postdoctoral fellow in January 2012. He received his Ph.D. in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from Peking University, China, in July, 2010. His doctoral dissertation involved the the gene-environmental interaction in the evolution of precancerous gastric lesions, as well as the genetic factors which determine the effect of chemo-intervention trials. Since August, 2011, Dr. Wenqing Li has worked as a postdoctoral research fellow in Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, where he worked on risk factors and comorbidities of skin cancer and skin diseases basing on the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS), NHS II, and Health Professionals’ Follow-up Study, and also the clinical resources in Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
His interests focus on the influence of environmental and genetic factors in the etiology and prevention of cancer, particularly gastrointestinal cancer and skin cancer. Under the mentorship of Alisa Goldstein, Ph.D., Senior Investigator, GEB, and Dr. Philip R. Taylor, M.D., Sc.D., Senior Investigator, Wenqing Li will be working on genetic and environmental factors involved in the development of cancer.
Carolyn Reyes-Guzman, M.P.H. -Predoctoral Fellow
Carolyn Reyes-Guzman joined the Genetic Epidemiology Branch (GEB) as a pre-doctoral CRTA fellow in November 2011. Prior to joining as a fellow, she worked with GEB as a Special Volunteer since December 2010. She received her B.A. in French from Santa Clara University in 1999, and her M.P.H in Epidemiology from George Washington University (GWU) in 2005. Her interest in tobacco prevention and cancer etiology led her to focus her Master’s research on cancer prevention, and in May 2005, she defended her thesis on the effectiveness of the cancer prevention clinic at Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Epidemiology at GWU. At GEB, Carolyn works with Dr. Neil Caporaso and her dissertation work focuses on the epidemiology of light and intermittent smokers, their genetics, and lung cancer outcomes.
Melissa Rotunno, Ph.D. -Postdoctoral Fellow
Melissa Rotunno joined GEB in 2005 as a postdoctoral fellow. She received her Ph.D. in Physics at the University of Milan in 2004, followed by graduate courses in epidemiology, bioinformatics, and molecular epidemiology. Under the mentorship of Dr. Maria Teresa Landi, she has primarily work on genomic and epidemiologic data within the Environment And Genetics in Lung cancer Etiology (EAGLE) study, including microarray and microRNA expression data, single nucleotide polymorphisms data in candidate genes, and genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Her primary interest is the understanding of molecular mechanisms originating cancer through the development of algorithms for integrative analysis of environmental risk factors and data from different biomarkers and same subjects (e.g., smoking exposure, polymorphisms, and gene expression in lung cancer). She has conducted research in the role of Phase I metabolic genes and lung cancer risk considering both genotype data and mRNA expression as well as gene expression signatures associated with cigarette smoking and lung adenocarcinoma development.
Guoqin Yu, Ph.D. -Postdoctoral Fellow
Guoqin Yu joined GEB and IIB as a CRTA postdoctoral fellow. She got B. S in Biology/Computer Science in 2001 and M. S in Genetics from Zhejiang University/Beijing Institute of Botany in 2004. She got PhD from Washington University in St. Louis in Evolution, Ecology and Population Biology in December, 2009. Her PhD advisor is Dr. Barbara Schaal. During her PhD, she studied the evolution of starch synthesis pathway genes in wild and cultivated rice, the association between variation in starch genes and starch quality in rice. After her PhD, she joined with Dr. Arlin stoltzfus and Dr. John Moult to improve her bioinformatics techniques. She studied the evolution of prokaryotes genomes using population genetics tools. She is interested in explain the variation within/between human populations and its relationship with cancer. She is also interested in the relationship between human mcirobiomes and cancer.
