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. Meet the current MEB fellows and find out about our research training opportunities.

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

Train on identifying risk factors for a wide range of malignancies.

Research News from MEB

  • aerial photography of city during daytime

    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. 

  • Six pills of various shapes and colors sit in the palm of a person’s hand, with their other hand picking up one of the pills.

    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.

  • Group photo from the Think Tank on Advancing Gastric Cancer Prevention outside the NCI Shady Grove campus.

    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.

  • graphical representation of h pylori bacterium and genomic landscape

    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.

Select Publications

 

 

Portrait of happy senior woman in cycling helmet riding outdoors.
Activity, Metabolites, and Breast Cancer

Affected metabolites include glucose regulation, amino acid, and fatty acid metabolism