Metabolic Epidemiology Branch

Clear spheres in the foreground appear in front of a brightly lit and blurry background; depicting metabolism and metabolomics

Defining the relationships between diet, energy balance, hormones, tobacco, and cancer

Investigators in the Metabolic Epidemiology Branch (MEB) conduct interdisciplinary research to understand the role of metabolic and lifestyle exposures in causing and preventing cancer. Some of the potentially modifiable exposures we study include diet, hormones, physical activity, and tobacco. We study how these exposures relate to a broad variety of cancers with researchers focusing on breast, colon, endometrium, esophagus, liver, stomach, ovary, pancreas, prostate, and testis. We use traditional epidemiological methods combined with a variety of molecular methods including genomic analysis, metabolomics, microbiomics, and molecular pathology.

Research Mission

MEB’s research mission is to conduct collaborative high-impact epidemiological research on metabolic and lifestyle causes of cancer that will guide prevention and early intervention strategies worldwide.

We define causal relationships between diet, energy balance, hormones, tobacco, and cancer. Learn more about MEB research areas.

Fellowships

Training and mentoring the next generation of scientists is a key component of MEB’s mission. We provide research training for tenure-track investigators, postdoctoral fellows, doctoral students, masters and post-baccalaureate students, visiting fellows, and summer interns.

Research News from MEB

Life Course Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status Associated with Premature Mortality

In an analysis led by Dr. Wayne Lawrence and colleagues, using data from 12,610 Black and White men and women living in the United States, low neighborhood socioeconomic status experienced during young to middle adulthood was associated with higher risk of premature mortality. The relationship was most pronounced among women. 
Taking Daily Multivitamin Not Associated with Lower Risk of Death

The latest NCI Media Advisory featured research led by Erikka Loftfield, investigator in the Metabolic Epidemiology Branch (MEB), which showed that daily multivitamin use was not associated with lower risk of death.
Think Tank on Advancing Gastric Cancer Prevention

On May 17th at the Shady Grove Campus, the NCI hosted the first Think Tank on Advancing Gastric Cancer Prevention, a forum for a multidisciplinary group of gastric cancer experts to review the state of the science and collaboratively identify critical knowledge gaps.
Helicobacter pylori Genome Project Publishes Findings

The Helicobacter pylori Genome Project, an international and multidisciplinary team of ~250 scientists, have sequenced the genomes and mapped the population structure of over one thousand strains of the bacterium H. pylori, known to cause non-cardia gastric cancer, the most common anatomical subtype, collected from around the world.