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National Cancer Institute U.S. National Institutes of Health www.cancer.gov
Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch

Meet the Fellows


Gabriella Andreotti, Ph.D.

Gabriella Andreotti Gabriella Andreotti, a post-doctoral fellow, received her Ph.D. in Epidemiology from George Washington University in 2007. She is currently working on several projects within the Agricultural Health Study (PI: Michael Alavanja, Ph.D., Senior Investigator, OEEB), including a study of pesticide exposure and pancreatic cancer risk, obesity and pesticides and cancer risk, and pesticides and genetic susceptibility and prostate cancer risk. Dr. Andreotti has also worked on a project within the Central and Eastern European Kidney Cancer Study (PI: Lee Moore, Ph.D., Investigator, OEEB), on the association between polymorphisms of genes in the hypertension pathway and kidney cancer risk. She also collaborates on several projects within the Shanghai Biliary Tract Cancer Study (PI: Ann Hsing, Ph.D. Senior Investigator, Hormonal and Reproductive Epidemiology Branch).

Dr. Andreotti has published in Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention, the International Journal of Cancer, Cancer Research, and Carcinogenesis. Her key publications include:

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Sarah Daugherty, Ph.D.

Sarah Daugherty Sarah Daugherty, a post-doctoral fellow, received her B.A. from Carleton College, a dual Masters degree in Epidemiology and Health Behavior and Health Education from the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. in genetic epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Dr. Daugherty's work has focused on urological cancers, including prostate and bladder cancer, with an emphasis on chemoprevention and personalized medicine. Dr. Daugherty has given multiple presentations at professional conferences such as the Society for Epidemiological Research, the Amercian Association of Cancer Research (AACR), and the AACR Frontiers in Prevention, and has published her researchs in journals such as Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention and the Prostate. Dr. Daugherty's current projects include establishing a pilot study to validate self-reports of prostate cancer progression among men diagnosed with clinically localized prostate cancer in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial, and a pooled analysis of the association between aspirin, non-aspirin NSAIDs, and risk of bladder cancer.

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Linda Dong, Ph.D., M.P.H.

Linda Dong Linda Dong joined the OEEB as a Sallie Rosen Kaplan post-doctoral fellow. She has a long-standing interest in nutrition. She first merged her interests in nutrition and physical activity with the field of epidemiology at the University of California, Berkeley where she obtained her B.S. and M.P.H. In her Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Washington, she evaluated the interplay between nutrition and genetics in relation to cancer risk: "Genetic variation in calcium and vitamin D related genes and colon cancer."

She currently works with Wong-Ho Chow, Ph.D. (Senior Investigator, OEEB) and Lee Moore, Ph.D. (Investigator, OEEB) evaluating genetic and lifestyle risk factors from two large case-control studies of renal cancer in the U.S. and Europe. She is also involved in studies of esophageal and gastric cancers within several consortia. She has received a DCEG Molecular Epidemiology Research Award and an NIH Fellows Award for Research Excellence. Dr. Dong has published in JAMA, Lancet Oncology, the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, Nutrition and Cancer, and Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention. She performs peer-review services for the journal Nutrition and Cancer and the International Journal of Cancer. Linda has membership in professional organizations such as the American Association for Cancer Research and the Society for Epidemiologic Research.

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Jonathan Hofmann, Ph.D., M.P.H.

Jonathan Hofmann Jonathan Hofmann joined the OEEB as a post-doctoral fellow in May 2009. He received his Ph.D. from the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Washington, where his dissertation research focused on occupational and genetic determinants of serum cholinesterase inhibition among organophosphate-exposed agricultural pesticide handlers. Dr. Hofmann's research interests include occupational and environmental determinants of cancer, with a particular emphasis on biomarkers of exposure, susceptibility, and early biologic effects related to cancer etiology. His work has been published in several peer-reviewed journals including Occupational Medicine, the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, and the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health. He has served as a peer reviewer for Environmental Health Perspectives and the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health.

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H. Dean Hosgood, III, Ph.D.

Dean Hosgood Dr. Hosgood, a post-doctoral fellow, has focused his research on inter-individual variation of cancer susceptibility associated with environmental exposures, specifically in Asia. Working with Qing Lan, Ph.D. (Senior Investigator, OEEB), Nathaniel Rothman. M.D. (Senior Investigator, OEEB), and Drs. Tongzhang Zheng and Yong Zhu (Yale University), his research has expanded on experimental and epidemiological evidence suggesting that genetic variation and other intermediate endpoint biomarkers influence lung cancer susceptibility in populations with indoor air pollution exposures from coal and wood combustion. Additional work with Drs. Lan and Rothman has focused on genetic susceptibility to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, as well as genetic variation and intermediate endpoint biomarkers among individuals exposed to benzene, formaldehyde, and trichloroethylene. Dr. Hosgood also investigates genetic variation and multiple myeloma susceptibility with Dalsu Baris, Ph.D. (Investigator, OEEB). He is involved in the Asian Cohort Consortium, the International Lung Cancer Consortium, the Molecular Epidemiology Group of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), and the Genomics Forum of the American Public Health Association. He is also a member of The New York Academy of Sciences and has been awarded the Scholar-in-Training Award from AACR's Molecular Epidemiology Group, the Highly Rated Abstract Award from AACR, the Molecular Epidemiology Research Funding Award from DCEG, and the DCEG Fellows Award for Research Excellence. Dr. Hosgood's work has been published in the British Journal of Cancer, the International Journal of Cancer, Carcinogenesis, Lung Cancer, Hematological Oncology, Cancer Causes and Control, Leukemia Research, and Mutation Research, among others. He received his Ph.D. in Cancer Epidemiology, and an M.P.H. in Environmental Health Sciences, from Yale University. He is originally from Pennsylvania, where he earned his B.S. in Chemistry from Carnegie Mellon University.

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An-Tsun Huang, Ph.D.

An-Tsun Huang An-Tsun Huang, a post-doctoral fellow, received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Her dissertation expounded on the formation, fate, and risk of disinfection by-products in foods and beverages. She is applying her interest in exposure assessment and risk analysis by helping to develop an algorithm for estimating exposure to arsenic in drinking water for the New England Bladder Cancer Study, analyzing the association between reproductive factors and bladder cancer among women in the Spanish Bladder Cancer Study, developing a job-exposure matrix for silica in Shanghai industries in the Shanghai Women's Cohort Study, and collecting information on genetic polymorphisms involved in metabolism of disinfection by-products in a gene-environmental interaction study. Her research has been accepted for publication in Cancer Causes and Controls and Food Additives and Contaminants. Dr. Huang has presented to the International Society for Exposure Analysis, the Society for Risk Analysis, and the Society for Epidemiology Research on the subjects of exposure assessment and risk analysis. She is a member of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology.

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Kathryn Hughes, M.P.H.

Kathryn Hughes Kathryn Hughes is a pre-doctoral fellow in OEEB through the Yale University/NCI Partnership Training Program. In her dissertation research, Kathryn is working with Michael Alavanja, Ph.D. (Senior Investigator, OEEB) and Jay Lubin, Ph.D, (Senior Investigator, Biostatistics Branch), along with other members of the Agricultural Health Study (AHS) team and her mentors from Yale, Drs. Tongzhang Zheng and Xiaomei Ma. Her projects will explore the association between pesticides and cancer risk and the role of genetic susceptibility. The latter effort will focus on prostate cancer, which is elevated in the AHS cohort.

Kathryn received a B.S. from Tufts University in 2003, with majors in Biology and Community Health, and an M.P.H. with a focus in Chronic Disease Epidemiology from Yale University in 2005. Her Master's thesis examined the relationships between carotenoid nutrients and the F2-Isoprostanes, stable and specific biomarkers of oxidative damage to lipids, in curatively-treated head and neck cancer patients. She then spent two years as a CDC/CSTE Applied Epidemiology Fellow at the Washington State Department of Health. As part of her fellowship, Kathryn engaged in cluster investigations of non-infectious conditions, including childhood and breast cancers and aplastic anemia. She also utilized WA State Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data to explore predictors of cancer screening and conducted a literature review on tanning booth use and melanoma that was used to aid policy-making in WA regarding warning labels for tanning devices. Kathryn has presented the findings of her research at state, regional and national conferences, including the Washington State Joint Conference on Health, the Western Regional Epidemiology Network, and the 2006 Congress of Epidemiology. She is a member of the American Association for Cancer Research, the Society for Epidemiologic Research, and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists.

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Sara Karami, M.P.H.

Sara Karami Sara Karami is a pre-doctoral fellow who received her M.P.H. in Epidemiology and Biostatistics at George Washington University in 2004. Her research on age-related cancer disparities earned her the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Special Project Award, presented to her by George Washington University (GWU) in 2004. At present, Ms. Karami is pursuing her Ph.D. in Epidemiology at GWU. Her research with OEEB is primarily in the areas of occupational exposures (such as pesticides, UV, lead) and cancer risk, and genetic susceptibility and risk of renal cell cancer, under the mentorship of Lee Moore, Ph.D. (Investigator, OEEB). Sara is currently working on several projects using data from the U.S. Renal Cell Cancer (RCC) Case-Control Study (PI: Wong-Ho Chow, Ph.D., Senior Investigator, OEEB), including lifetime occupational history and RCC risk and family history of cancer and RCC risk. She is also creating job-exposure matrices for occupational UV exposure and pesticide exposure.

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Briseis Kilfoy, M.P.H.

Briseis Kilfoy Ms. Kilfoy, a pre-doctoral fellow in OEEB through the Yale University/NCI Partnership Training Program, is completing her dissertation work on thyroid cancer. She is currently working with Mary Ward, Ph.D. (Senior Investigator, OEEB) on the relation of drinking water and dietary nitrate exposure to thyroid cancer and other thyroid abnormalities. She is also conducting descriptive analyses of thyroid cancer with Drs. Bill Anderson and Susan Devesa (Senior Investigators, Biostatistics Branch). Before coming to NCI, her work at Yale included projects on genetic factors and risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, family history and breast cancer, and tobacco control interventions. Ms. Kilfoy completed her Masters in Public Health at Yale University and her Bachelors at the University of Chicago. Her research has been published in Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers Prevention, Preventing Chronic Disease, the American Journal of Epidemiology, and the Journal of the American Pharmacology Association. Ms. Kilfoy is originally from Madison, Wisconsin.

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Stella Koutros, Ph.D.

Stella Koutros Dr. Koutros, a post-doctoral fellow, began her education with a B.A. from Tufts University with a focus in epidemiology and public health. She received her M.P.H. and Ph.D. in epidemiology from Yale University. As part of her doctoral studies, she participated in the Yale-NCI partnership training program in cancer epidemiology and conducted her dissertation research in OEEB. After receiving her doctorate in 2008, Dr. Koutros became a post-doctoral fellow in OEEB where she is studying a variety of occupational, environmental, and genetic risk factors for cancer. She is involved in and leading several projects within the Agricultural Health Study (PI: Michael Alavanja, Ph.D., Senior Investigator, OEEB) under the mentorship of Laura Beane Freeman, Ph.D. (Investigator, OEEB). For example, she is looking for gene-environment interactions associated with prostate cancer as well as the impact of pesticide exposure on cancer risk. Dr. Koutros is also investigating genetic risk factors for prostate cancer in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening trial and the Breast and Prostate Cancer Cohort Consortium. She is also conducting research on occupational and environmental risk factors for bladder cancer in the Spanish and New England bladder cancer case-control studies.

Her experiences before coming to NCI were in various aspects of the public health field including two Yale/NCI grants for epidemiology training, and working at the Connecticut Tumor Registry focusing on cancer epidemiology. In 2008, she was awarded the American College of Epidemiology Student Prize for her work on "Aromatic amine pesticide use and human cancer risk: results from the U.S. Agricultural Health Study."

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Anjoeka Pronk, Ph.D.

Anjoeka Pronk Anjoeka Pronk, a Visiting Fellow, is investigating the association between various occupational exposures and cancer in the Shanghai Women's Health Study, such as occupational physical activity and breast cancer, nightshift work and breast cancer, and lead exposure and various cancer sites. She is also assessing individuals' occupational exposure to diesel exhaust in two bladder cancer case-control studies using detailed job-specific questionnaire combined with a review of published exposure levels. Dr. Pronk is also involved in a study of the association between environmental exposure to dioxins and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL); she is linking the residential histories of participants of a large, population-based case-control study of NHL to a database of dioxin-emitting industrial facilities in the U.S. that provides information on emission levels. Dr. Pronk has a Master's degree in Environmental Toxicology and Health from Wageningen University, The Netherlands. She received her Ph.D. from the Utrecht University Department of Medicine, The Netherlands. For her thesis, she studied the association between isocyanate exposure and respiratory health effects in the spray painting industry. She performed a cross-sectional study to evaluate isocyanate exposure and its risk of respiratory symptoms, lung function, and several immunological parameters. This project was carried out at the Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Utrecht University, and the Department of Food and Chemical Risk Assessment, TNO, Zeist, both in The Netherlands.

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