Louis Block Distinguished Service Professor
Dean, Population and Precision Health
Director, Institute for Population and Precision Health
Director, Chicago Center for Health and Environment
Associate Director of Population Research, Comprehensive Cancer Center
I am Dean for Population and Precision Health and Director of the Institute for Population and Precision Health. Trained in medicine, epidemiology, environmental health and genomics, my research expertise encompasses large-scale population-based studies assessing environmental disease risks and their modifying factors including social, biological and other disparity-related factors. My research interests focus on studying the inter-relationships between environmental and genomic factors in cancer and other diseases and exploiting information on these relationships at a population level in developing and evaluating prevention interventions in humans. Specifically, my research integrates the environmental, nutritional and life-style factors with measures of host factors and modern molecular genomics (involving DNA, RNA and protein variations) to understand the etiology, pathogenesis, prognosis and prevention of cancer and other disorders of national and international public health significance. In addition to applied and translational studies, my research directly addresses environmental health disparity and their prevention avenues. Findings from many of my environmental health studies have had EHS policy implications nationally and internationally. Currently, I lead the only NIEHS-funded Environmental Health Core Center in Chicago. I am leading a large team of scientists to establish a prospective multiethnic cohort in Chicago involving extensive environmental data and a biobank to address health disparity related research questions. As part of these responsibilities, I have built multidisciplinary multi-institutional teams, promoted collaborations, mentored junior and mid-level faculties, and managed large staff and budgets. I serve on numerous national and international panels including a current 4-year term on the NIEHS Advisory Board and a 3-year term on an NAS panel evaluating EPA policy on arsenic.
Columbia University
New York
Postdoc - Epidemiology
1995
University of Western Australia
Australia
MMedSc - Epidemiology
1992
University of Western Australia
Australia
PGDip - Public Health
1990
Institute for Postgraduate Medicine & Research, Dhaka University
Bangladesh
MBBS(MD) - Medicine
1988
Association of female reproductive and hormonal factors with gallbladder cancer risk in Asia: A pooled analysis of the Asia Cohort Consortium.
Association of female reproductive and hormonal factors with gallbladder cancer risk in Asia: A pooled analysis of the Asia Cohort Consortium. Int J Cancer. 2024 Mar 13.
PMID: 38478921
Association of Microsatellite Instability and Gene Expression Profile in Colorectal Carcinoma and Potential Implications for Therapy.
Association of Microsatellite Instability and Gene Expression Profile in Colorectal Carcinoma and Potential Implications for Therapy. Medicina (Kaunas). 2024 Feb 20; 60(3).
PMID: 38541076
Association between reproductive factors with lung cancer incidence and mortality: A pooled analysis of over 308,000 females in the Asia cohort consortium.
Association between reproductive factors with lung cancer incidence and mortality: A pooled analysis of over 308,000 females in the Asia cohort consortium. Int J Cancer. 2024 Jun 15; 154(12):2090-2105.
PMID: 38375919
Genetic drivers of heterogeneity in type 2 diabetes pathophysiology.
Genetic drivers of heterogeneity in type 2 diabetes pathophysiology. Nature. 2024 Mar; 627(8003):347-357.
PMID: 38374256
Uterine Fibroid Prevalence in a Predominantly Black, Chicago-Based Cohort.
Uterine Fibroid Prevalence in a Predominantly Black, Chicago-Based Cohort. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2024 Feb 14; 21(2).
PMID: 38397711
Differential patterns of reproductive and lifestyle risk factors for breast cancer according to birth cohorts among women in China, Japan and Korea.
Differential patterns of reproductive and lifestyle risk factors for breast cancer according to birth cohorts among women in China, Japan and Korea. Breast Cancer Res. 2024 01 22; 26(1):15.
PMID: 38254178
Patterns of common illness and injury of readymade garment workers and a review of safety practices in Bangladesh.
Patterns of common illness and injury of readymade garment workers and a review of safety practices in Bangladesh. Work. 2024 Jan 20.
PMID: 38277318
Air quality and cancer risk in the All of Us Research Program.
Air quality and cancer risk in the All of Us Research Program. Cancer Causes Control. 2023 Dec 25.
PMID: 38145439
Obesity is associated with biliary tract cancer mortality and incidence: A pooled analysis of 21 cohort studies in the Asia Cohort Consortium.
Obesity is associated with biliary tract cancer mortality and incidence: A pooled analysis of 21 cohort studies in the Asia Cohort Consortium. Int J Cancer. 2024 Apr 01; 154(7):1174-1190.
PMID: 37966009
Lung Cancer Risk Prediction Models for Asian Ever-Smokers.
Lung Cancer Risk Prediction Models for Asian Ever-Smokers. J Thorac Oncol. 2024 Mar; 19(3):451-464.
PMID: 37944700
Member
ASCO Annual Meeting Planning Committee
2015 - 2017
Member
NAEHSC-National Advisory Environmental Health Sciences Council (NIEHS Council)
2015 - 2019
Member
NAS Scientific Panel on Toxicological Assessment of Arsenic
2012 - 2016
Associate Editor
Genetic Epidemiology
2006 - 2011