This novel, three-year postdoctoral CPRIT Epidemiology training program, funded by CPRIT, is broad, flexible and provides a personalized multidisciplinary team of mentors for each fellow. Mentors represent Baylor College of Medicine, Rice University, MD Anderson Cancer Center and Texas A&M University. They are:
Baylor College of Medicine
Aaron Thrift, Ph.D.
Aaron Thrift, Ph.D. is a genetic epidemiologist with interests in Barrett’s esophagus, esophageal adenocarcinoma, and risk prediction and screening and surveillance of GI cancers.
Hoda J. Badr, Ph.D.
Dr. Badr’s research seeks to understand and address disparate health outcomes and improve the quality of life of cancer patients and their family caregivers.
Philip Lupo, Ph.D.
Dr. Lupo’s research focuses on the role of genes and prenatal exposures in risk for childhood cancer, and identification of risk factors for long-term complications of cancer therapies.
Michael Scheurer, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Dr. Scheurer’s research focuses on viruses and immune function as risk factors for cancer development and progression.
Jessica Davila, Ph.D.
Dr. Davila focuses on the epidemiology of colorectal cancer and adherence to HIV and HCC surveillance.
Hashem El-Serag, M.D., M.P.H.
Dr. El-Serag’s research focuses on screening and surveillance of GI and liver cancer, and epidemiology and comparative effectiveness research of digestive disorders.
Suzanne Fuqua, Ph.D.
Dr. Fuqua’s research interests lie in hormone receptors, hormone responsiveness, gene expression profiling, and predictive markers for breast cancer.
Richard Gibbs, Ph.D.
Dr. Gibbs is director of the Human Genome Sequencing Center. His focus is on developing tools for generating, manipulating, and analyzing genome data and molecular evolution.
Susan Hilsenbeck, Ph.D.
Dr. Hilsenbeck runs the Biostatistics and Informatics Core and focuses on the design and analysis of prognostic and predictive biomarker studies in clinical trials.
Mike Ittman, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Ittman focuses on the molecular genetics of rare tumors and directs the Human Tissue Acquisition and Pathology Core Resource.
Li Jiao, M.D.
Dr. Jiao focuses on the epidemiology of GI cancers, insulin resistance and obesity.
Maria Jibaja-Weiss, Ed.D.
Dr. Jibaja-Weiss directs the Office of Outreach and Health Disparities and focuses on Implementation Science.
Deborah Johnson, Ph.D.
Dr. Johnson’s research interests include regulation and roles of transcription factors in oncogenic transformation.
Oliver Lichtarge, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Lichtarge focuses on computational approaches to multi-scale data integration and network perturbations; and systems biology.
Yanhong Liu, Ph.D.
Dr. Liu focuses on the role of genetic susceptibility to lung cancer and exome sequencing.
Susan Marriott, Ph.D.
Dr. Marriott’s lab focuses on transcription control and viral transformation.
Dr. Martha Mims, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Mims' research concentrates on genetic markers of prostate cancer risk in African Americans.
Donald Parsons, M.D.
Dr. Parsons focuses on the clinical application of genomic technologies in pediatric cancer care, specializing in pediatric neuro-oncology.
Laura Petersen, M.D., M.P.H.
Dr. Petersen is director of the Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness and Safety and focuses on health outcomes and cost effectiveness analysis.
Joseph Petrosino, Ph.D.
Dr. Petrosino’s lab focuses on microbiomics and metagenomics. He directs the Center for Metagenomics and Microbiome Research.
Jeffrey Rosen, M.D.
Dr. Rosen's lab focuses on elucidating the mechanisms regulating mammary gland development and determining how these regulatory mechanisms have deviated in breast cancer. He is principal investigator of the CPRIT Training Program in Cancer Biology.
Chad Shaw, Ph.D.
Dr. Shaw focuses on bioinformatics and systems biology.
Arun Sreekumar, Ph.D.
Dr. Sreekumar's lab focuses on metabolomics, and he directs the Metabolomics Core Resource.
James Versalovic, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Versalovic’s lab research seeks to understand the nature of the mammalian gut microbiome and how gut bacteria impact mucosal immunity and intestinal inflammation with focus on microbial genomics, human microbiome and metagenomics, mucosal immunity, gut inflammation and intestinal neoplasia.
Thomas Westbrook, Ph.D.
Dr. Westbrook focuses on functional genomics and RNAi-based strategies for gene discovery. He directs the Cell-Based Assay Screening Service.
Donna White, Ph.D.
Dr. White focuses on the epidemiology of hepatitis C infections and meta-analyses.
Cheryl Walker, Ph.D.
Dr. Walker focuses on the molecular genetics and epigenetics of environmental causes of cancer. She directs the NIEHS Center for Translational Environmental Health Research (CTEHR).
Dr. Symanski is the director of the Program in Population and Environmental Health Disparities. Her research focuses on the health impacts of environmental exposures in vulnerable populations and evaluating the impact of the chemical and non-chemical stressors in the environment on maternal and infant health.
Dr. Whitworth is an environmental epidemiologist whose research focuses on understanding the relation between exposure to environmental toxicants and maternal and child health outcomes, with a particular interest in the use of biomarkers to characterize chemical exposure.
Dr. Oluyomi’s research focuses on measuring neighborhood-level stressors and investigating the pathways through which these stressors relate to disease. He has interests in population health, environmental health, and data science.
Dr. Cheng’s research focuses on the development and application of computational approaches to better understand the mechanisms of human diseases, particularly in cancer systems biology and cancer immunology.
MD Anderson Cancer Center
Abenaa Brewster, M.D.
Dr. Brewster is a medical oncologist with a focus on the roles of tumor biology, genetic susceptibility, ethnicity and obesity in risk and survival of breast cancer.
Paul Cinciripini, Ph.D.
Dr. Cinciripini focuses on smoking cessation and nicotine psychopharmacology with an emphasis on studies developing novel behavioral and pharmacological treatments for nicotine dependence.
Sharon Giordano, M.D., M.P.H.
Dr. Giordano uses large databases to study quality of health care delivery, disparities, and outcomes for cancer patients, with a focus on comparative effectiveness research.
Jason Huse, Ph.D., M.D.
Dr. Huse is a neuropathologist who studies the pathophysiology of primary brain tumors, particularly diffuse gliomas.
Paul Scheet, Ph.D.
Dr. Scheet is a statistical geneticist with interests in clinical, population and evolutionary genetics, and cancer genomics. He develops methods for GWAS, for inferring haplotypes from unphased genotype data and imputation-based association mapping.
Sanjay Shete, Ph.D.
Dr. Shete is a Genetic Epidemiologist and Quantitative Behavioral Statistician with interests in developing statistical methods for genetic, population, and behavioral data.
Ya Chen Tina Shih, Ph.D.
Dr. Shih applies methods of health economics, health services research, and pharmacoeconomics in medical research, in particular cancer research
Rice University
Vivian Ho, Ph.D.
Dr. Ho is a leading international authority in Health Economics, with a focus on the association between hospital market competition and/or regulation with patient costs and quality of care.
