2019 Fall Town Hall Meeting
In November, Director Stephen J. Chanock, M.D., welcomed staff to the Fall Town Hall meeting to talk about new developments in the Division, and to recognize accomplishments over the past six months. In recognition of the launch of the 2019 Combined Federal Campaign, many staff wore their favorite hats.
Dr. Chanock gave special tribute to staff who have made substantial contributions and service to the Division with the following awards.
DCEG Fellows Awards for Research Excellence (D-FARE)
The DCEG Fellows Award for Research Excellence (D-FARE) provides funding for travel to scientific meetings or conferences to fellows who have made exceptional contributions to research projects. These contributions may include formulating research ideas, developing study designs, conducting fieldwork and analysis, or interpreting results. Each of the recognized fellows also must have played a major role in drafting a manuscript. This year had more submissions than ever before, with a total of 33 abstracts.
Fall 2019 DFARE Winners. Back: Catherine Lerro, Joe Shearer, DongHyuk Lee, Stephen Chanock, Oscar Florez-Vargas, Yei Eun Shin, Brittny Davis Lynn. Front: Parichoy Pal Choudhury, Erikka Loftfield, Nina Rao, Minkyo Song, Maisa Pinheiro
Thirteen winners were chosen by members of the ad hoc DCEG committee:
Brittny Davis Lynn, Ph.D., M.P.H.
"Associations between quantitative measures of TDLU involution and breast tumor molecular subtypes among breast cancer cases in the Black Women’s Health Study"
Oscar Florez-Vargas, Ph.D., M.Sc.
"Carriers of the germline GSTM1-deletion are at increased risk of bladder cancer risk but have high rates of tumor-infiltrating M1 macrophages and more favorable survival outcomes"
DongHyuk Lee, Ph.D.
"A semiparametric kernel test of independence with excessive zeros and application to mutational signatures"
Catherine Lerro, Ph.D., M.P.H.
"Hog farming is associated with differences in the oral microbiota"
Zhiwei Liu, Ph.D.
"HLA Zygosity influences risk of and survival from hepatocellular carcinoma among patients with HBV infection"
Erikka Loftfield, Ph.D.
"A prospective investigation of serum bile acids and risk of colon and liver cancer"
Parichoy Pal Choudhury, Ph.D.
"Prospective validation of the extended BOADICEA breast cancer risk model in the Generations Study"
Maisa Pinheiro, Ph.D.
"Detection of somatic hotspot mutations in cervical precancerous lesions using cervical exfoliated cells"
Nina Rao, B.S.
"Exploring the etiology of FGFR3 mutations in non-muscle invasive bladder cancer"
Joe Shearer, Ph.D., M.P.H.
"A nested case-control study of circulating per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances and risk of renal cell carcinoma in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial"
Yei Eun Shin, Ph.D.
"Efficient assessment of risk model calibration when the validation cohort has missing variables"
Minkyo Song, M.D., Ph.D.
"Associations of anti-parietal cell and anti-intrinsic factor antibodies with gastric cancer risk"
Diana Withrow, Ph.D.
"Trends in non-malignant brain tumors in the USA during 2004-2016: real or artifact?"
2020 NCI Director’s Intramural Innovation Awards
Rena Jones, Stephen Chanock, Sarah Jackson, Yongli Han
The NCI Director’s Intramural Innovation Award Program is designed to support development of highly innovative approaches and technology aimed at significant cancer–related problems. Novel proposals from either CCR or DCEG with the potential for high impact, the potential to generate new intellectual property or technology, an emphasis on health disparities research, or which are considered too high-risk or preliminary to pursue within the base budget allocation are encouraged. The program offers one-time awards for use in the next fiscal year. Four DCEG scientists will receive their awards in March at the PI retreat as listed below.
Principal Investigator Awards
Rena R. Jones, Ph.D., M.S.
"A nested case-control study of circulating per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and ovarian cancer in the prostate, lung, colorectal and ovarian cancer screening trial"
Career Development Awards
Yongli Han, Ph.D.
"Statistical approaches and software development for cancer risk prediction with longitudinal biomarkers"
Sarah S. Jackson, Ph.D.
"Pilot study to identify transgender individuals within electronic health records"
Clara Bodelon, Ph.D., M.S.
"Mutational landscape of in situ breast cancers in relation to invasive breast cancers"
Matthew Mille, Abigail Ukwuani, Sara Schonfeld
Special Appreciation Award
Each year, the Division recognizes staff members who have gone above and beyond the regular call of duty and provided a tremendous service to their Office, Branch, or the Division as a whole. For their hard work and a successful 2019 Radiation Epidemiology and Dosimetry Course Dr. Chanock recognized three individuals.
Abigail Ukwuani, M.P.A.
NIH Green Lab Certificate
Stephen Chanock and Ludmila Prokunina-Olsson
The NIH developed its first Green Labs Program in 2018, to increase awareness of sustainable laboratory practices and recognize laboratory personnel for embracing those practices in their day-to-day activities. The NIH Sustainability Management Team awards Green Lab Certificates to each lab that applies to the program and meets the criteria of a green lab.
The Laboratory of Translational Genomics, headed by Ludmila Prokunina-Olsson, Ph.D., is the recipient of the 2018 NIH Green Lab certificate. By being good stewards of NIH resources and reducing our impact on the environment, the lab staff demonstrated their commitment to the NIH.