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Arem, H., Weinstein, S.J., Horst, R.L., Virtamo, J., Yu, K., Albanes, D., Abnet, C.C. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D and risk of oropharynx and larynx cancers in Finnish men.
Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2011 Jun;20(6)
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Arem H, Nakyanjo N, Kagaayi J, Mulamba J, Nakigozi G, Serwadda D, Quinn TC, Gray RH, Bollinger RC, Reynolds SJ, Chang LW. Peer Health Workers and AIDS Care in Rakai, Uganda: A Mixed Methods Operations Research Evaluation of a Cluster-Randomized Trial.
AIDS Patient Care STDS. 2011 Mar 10.
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Arem H, Irwin ML, Zhou Y, Lu L, Risch H, Yu H.
Physical activity and endometrial cancer in a population-based case-control study.
Cancer Causes Control. 2011 Feb;22(2):219-26.
Carrie R. Daniel, Ph.D.-Postdoctoral Fellow
Carrie R. Daniel joined the Nutritional Epidemiology Branch (NEB) as a postdoctoral fellow in October 2008. She graduated from Emory University with an M.P.H. in Epidemiology in 2003 and a Ph.D. in Biological and Biomedical Science – Nutrition in 2008. She conducted her research and training in cancer and nutritional epidemiology with Dr. Robin Bostick, Professor, Departments of Epidemiology and Hematology & Oncology, Emory University and Dr. Marji McCullough of the American Cancer Society (ACS). Her translational research background includes work at the Arizona Health Sciences Center, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Emory Winship Cancer Institute, and ACS. With her mentor, Dr. Rashmi Sinha, Senior Investigator, NEB, she is investigating diet and nutrition in the etiology of cancer and chronic disease within a global health context. Utilizing studies conducted in the U.S., India, and South Korea, her current research includes dietary patterns, meat-related exposures, renal cancer, and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Arash Etemadi, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D. -Postdoctoral Fellow
Arash Etemadi joined the Nutritional Epidemiology Branch (NEB) as a postdoctoral fellow in June 2010. He has an M.D. (1998) , an M.P.H. (2003) and a Ph.D. in epidemiology (2007) from Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), Iran. As a result of Dr. Etemadi's interest in genetic epidemiology, he worked on familial aggregation of myopia and segregation analysis of refractive errors for his Ph.D. dissertation with Dr. Akbar Fotouhi from TUMS and Dr. Joan E Bailey-Wilson from the Inherited Disease Research Branch, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health. Dr. Etemadi did a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Maastricht, in the Netherlands, working on polymorphisms in genes responsible for the metabolism of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and DNA repair in relation to esophageal cancer. Then in 2009 he was appointed as an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology in Tehran University of Medical Sciences, to work in the Digestive Disease Research Center. The main focus of his research is the molecular and genetic epidemiology of upper gastro intestinal (GI) cancers. He is also interested in other non-communicable diseases, in particular obesity, metabolic syndrome and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). In NEB Dr. Etemadi is working on esophageal cancer studies, especially in relation to PAH exposure and nutrition with his mentors, Sanford Dawsey , M.D., Senior Investigator, NEB and Christian Abnet , Ph.D., M.P.H., Investigator, NEB.
Gabriel Lai, Ph.D., M.H.S., -Postdoctoral Fellow
Gabriel Lai joined the Nutritional Epidemiology Branch (NEB) in September 2010 as a postdoctoral fellow under the NCI Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program. He obtained a B.A. (1999) in molecular and cell biology and psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, and both an M.H.S. (2004) and Ph.D. (2009) in epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH). For his doctoral dissertation, Dr. Lai evaluated the association between metabolic perturbations and prostate cancer under the mentorship of Dr. Elizabeth Platz, Professor of Epidemiology, JHSPH. Dr. Lai’s research interests include diet, energy metabolism, and cancers. Currently, Dr. Lai is working with his mentor, Neal Freedman, Ph.D. Investigator, NEB, to examine the relationship between diet and energy metabolism with liver and other cancers.
Wenny (Shih-Wen) Lin, Ph.D., M.P.H- Postdoctoral Fellow
Wenny (Shih-Wen) Lin joined the Nutritional Epidemiology Branch (NEB) as a postdoctoral fellow in October 2009 under the Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program at the National Cancer Institute. Her primary mentor is Dr. Christian Abnet, Investigator, NEB. Dr. Lin earned her Ph.D. in Cell & Molecular Biology/Gene Therapy & Vaccines at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 2008 and her M.P.H. at the Harvard School of Public Health in 2009. Her dissertation research focused on vaccine prime-boost strategies using adenovirus and adeno-associated virus vectors to induce CD8+ T cell responses against HIV-1. While earning her M.P.H., she worked with Dr. Lorelei Mucci, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Channing Laboratory, examining the epidemiology of nutritional factors in the development of TMPRSS2:ERG prostate cancers in the Physicians Health Study. She also analyzed and interpreted surveillance data at the Center for Birth Defects Research and Prevention, Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Currently, Dr. Lin's research focus is the molecular epidemiology of dietary and toxic elements in upper gastrointestinal cancer etiology.
Jacqueline Major, Ph.D.- Research Fellow
Jacqueline Major, Ph.D., joined the Nutritional Epidemiology Branch (NEB) in 2009 as a postdoctoral fellow. She has an M.S. in statistics and a Ph.D. in Epidemiology (2009) from the University of California at San Diego (UCSD). For her doctoral dissertation, she examined body mass in relation to pathological, clinical, and genetic components of prostate cancer recurrence in men who underwent radical prostatectomy (SPECS Study). She also worked with Dr. Elizabeth Barrett-Connor, Professor and Division Chief of Epidemiology, UCSD on the Rancho Bernardo Study to examine circulating growth factors and subsequent cancer mortality. Prior to pursuing her doctorate, she was senior statistician for the Women’s Healthy Eating and Living (WHEL) Study - a multi-center randomized intervention trial examining the effect of a plant-based diet on breast cancer recurrence and survival. Currently, Dr. Major is working with Demetrius Albanes, M.D., Senior Investigator, NEB on the etiology of prostate and other cancers, including the role of growth factors, vitamins, trace elements, and genetic variants. She is also working on novel statistical approaches to nutritional epidemiological analysis with Barry I. Graubard, Ph.D. Senior Investigator, Biostatistics Branch; Arthur Schatzkin, M.D., Dr.P.H., Chief, NEB; and Rashmi Sinha, Ph.D., Senior Investigator, NEB.
Alison Mondul, Ph.D.- Postdoctoral Fellow
Alison Mondul, Ph.D., joined the Nutritional Epidemiology Branch (NEB) as a postdoctoral fellow in June 2009. In 2009 she received a Ph.D. in cancer epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she studied the relationship between statin use, cholesterol, and prostate cancer with her mentor, Dr. Elizabeth Platz, Professor. Prior to her doctoral work at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Mondul earned an M.S.P.H. in epidemiology from Emory University in 2002 and worked at the American Cancer Society in Atlanta, Georgia. She is currently working with her mentor, Demetrius Albanes, M.D., Senior Investigator, NEB, on the role of nutrients including vitamins E and D, retinol, and cholesterol in the etiology of prostate and other cancers.
Steven C. Moore, Ph.D. -Research Fellow
Steven C. Moore joined the Nutritional Epidemiology Branch (NEB) as a pre-doctoral fellow
in 2005. He received his Ph.D. in cancer epidemiology from Yale University in 2007 and
continued his stay in NEB as a post-doctoral fellow. His dissertation examined the
epidemiologic relationships linking adiposity with mortality and cancer incidence,
particularly emphasizing how novel analytic strategies might be used to resolve
long-standing controversies.
Under the primary mentorship of Drs. Michael Leitzmann and Arthur Schatzkin, Dr. Moore
has researched the epidemiologic relationships between physical activity and incidence of
cancers of the prostate, kidney, and brain. Dr. Moore also has helped initiate efforts to
improve the measurement of physical activity in epidemiologic studies and to use
measurement error modeling techniques to correct questionnaire-based physical activity
measures. To that end, Dr. Moore facilitated the development of the Shanghai Physical
Activity Study, a subcohort of 600 men and women from the Shanghai Men's and Women's
cohorts where physical activity levels are measured using objective monitoring by
accelerometer. In addition, Dr. Moore also played a key role in initiating, developing,
and piloting an internet-based assessment of physical activity based upon a 24 hour recall
paradigm (ACT24). During his time in the DCEG, Dr. Moore has been awarded the DCEG
Fellowship Achievement Award and served as a NIH Fellows representative (FELCOM). Dr.
Moore was the co-chair of the Mentoring Sub-Committee of NIH FELCOM.
Kristin Moy, M.P.H., Ph.D. - Postdoctoral Fellow
Kristin Moy joined the Nutritional Epidemiology Branch (NEB) as a postdoctoral fellow in December 2011. She obtained a B.A. in biological chemistry from Wellesley College and both a M.P.H. (2007) and Ph.D. (2011) in epidemiology from the University of Minnesota. For her doctoral dissertation, Dr. Moy examined the associations between dietary intake of glucosinolate metabolites and the risks of lung and breast cancers in the Singapore Chinese Health Study under the mentorship of Dr. Jian-Min Yuan, Professor. In NEB, Dr. Moy is working with her mentor, Rachael Stolzenberg-Solomon, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.D., Investigator, NEB, on the role of diet and nutrition in the etiology of pancreatic cancer. Dr. Moy’s research interests also include the potential role of genes in modifying the diet-pancreatic cancer association.
Gwen Murphy, Ph.D., M.P.H.- Research Fellow
Gwen Murphy is a Research Fellow in the Nutritional Epidemiology Branch (NEB) under the mentorship of Dr. Sanford Dawsey, Senior Investigator, NEB. She earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Medicine from Trinity College Dublin in 2005 and her Masters in Public Health from University College Dublin in 2006. Prior to coming to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Dr. Murphy worked as a Fellow with Professor Cecily Kelleher in the School of Public Health and Population Sciences in University College, Dublin.
Within NCI’s Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics (DCEG), Dr. Murphy has been involved in several projects relating to gastrointestinal cancers, including a number of investigations into gene-diet interactions relating to colorectal adenoma recurrence within the Polyp Prevention Trial cohort. In addition she is coordinating an NCI-led International Consortium to examine the role of Epstein Barr Virus in gastric adenocarcinoma. In 2008, Dr. Murphy was awarded a Cancer Prevention Research Training Merit Award from NCI in recognition of outstanding performance as a Cancer Prevention Fellow as well as a Fellows Award for Research Excellence. In 2010 she was awarded an Intramural Research Award for her project: “An Evaluation of serum antibodies to Helicobacter pylori proteins and risk of Upper Gastrointestinal and Pancreatic cancers”. Dr. Murphy is currently working on a number of projects looking at how nutritional and infectious factors may modulate risk of gastric cancer.
Selected Publications:
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Murphy, G., Camargo, M.C., Pfeiffer, R., Rabkin, C. Sex difference in Epstein-Barr virus-positive Gastric Cancer – Results of a Meta-analysis.
Gastroenterology. 2009 Sep;137(3):824-33
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Murphy, G., Shu, X.O., Gao, Y., Ji, B., Cook, M.B., Yang, G, Li, H., Rothman, R., Zheng, W., Chow W. Family factors affecting risk of colorectal cancer in a prospective cohort of Chinese women.
Cancer Causes and Control. 2009 Oct;20(8):1517-21.
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Murphy, G., Thornton, J., McManus, R., Swan, N., Ryan, B., O’Morain, C.A., Hughes, D.J., O’Sullivan, M. Association of gastric disease with polymorphisms in the inflammatory-related genes IL-1B, IL-1RN, IL-10, TNF and TLR4.
European Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. 2009 June; 21(6):630-5.
Elizabeth Hill Ruder, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.D.- Postdoctoral Fellow
Elizabeth (Liz) Hill Ruder joined the Nutritional Epidemiology Branch (NEB) in September 2009 as a Cancer Prevention Fellow. Dr. Ruder earned her Ph.D. in nutrition science from the Pennsylvania State University in 2008. Her dissertation examined the relationship of birth characteristics to age at menarche and concentrations of adolescent serum sex hormones in the Dietary Intervention Study in Children (DISC). Dr. Ruder also holds an M.P.H. with a concentration in epidemiology and biostatistics from The Johns Hopkins School of Public Health (2009), a B.S. in nutritional sciences from Cornell University (2000) and is a Registered Dietitian (R.D.) with internship training from the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. Her current work focuses on assessing diet related risk factors for colorectal cancer in the AARP Diet and Health Study.
