Mark Purdue Awarded Scientific Tenure by the NIH
, by DCEG Staff
Mark Purdue
In December 2017, Mark Purdue, Ph.D., was awarded scientific tenure by the NIH and promoted to senior investigator in the Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch. Dr. Purdue investigates cancer risk associated with occupational exposures, circulating immune markers as they relate to risk for non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and multiple myeloma, and genetic susceptibility to renal cell carcinoma. His extensive portfolio in these areas has advanced the field and made significant contributions to public health and worker safety.
Dr. Purdue applies a wide range of classic and molecular epidemiologic methods to enhance exposure assessment and elucidate mechanisms underlying the development of cancer. In particular, he is an expert on the carcinogenicity of the chlorinated solvent trichloroethylene (TCE), reporting associations between cumulative exposure to TCE and increasing risk for NHL and renal cell cancer. These findings inform regulatory and review agencies worldwide, including the National Toxicology Program and the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
In the arena of molecular epidemiology, Dr. Purdue leads cohort-based investigations of circulating immune and other biomarkers in cancer risk. In a series of cutting-edge studies, he found an association between pre-diagnostic serum biomarkers and risk for NHL. He has extended his work on circulating biomarkers to a related cancer, multiple myeloma, and reported key insights into the etiology of this lethal lymphoid malignancy.
Dr. Purdue was the first to conduct a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of renal cell cancer; most recently expanding his research to meta-analyses that resulted in the identification of seven additional regions, doubling the number of susceptibility loci identified to date.