Center for Translational and Public Health Genomics
Director: Xifeng Wu, MD, PhD, Chair and Professor, Epidemiology
Mission
The mission of this Center is to bridge the gap between epidemiologic discoveries and their translation into clinical and public health applications to benefit cancer patients, individuals at elevated risk for cancer and the general population. With the rapid development of new high-throughput biomedical technologies that generate genomic information at an unprecedented pace, we have the opportunity to make major breakthroughs in the pursuit of personalized risk prediction, prevention and therapy.
Leveraging MD Anderson’s large patient population and its well established foundation of epidemiologic research, the Center will serve as an institutional hub for investigators in translational epidemiology, public health genomics, pharmacogenomics, and clinical outcomes research with an emphasis on inherited genetic variations. The Center also will provide translational genomics support and expertise to studies of behavioral genetics, health disparities and survivorship. Research priorities will be focused on studies to systematically assess multiple layers of information, including epidemiologic, genomic and clinical data, across the continuum of cancer development and care to provide an integrative view of cancer development, prognosis and interventive response.
Blood Specimen Research Resource
To facilitate research within the Center, MD Anderson is creating an institutional Blood Specimen Research Resource (BSRR), which will operate within the Center and under the direction of the Center director - Xifeng Wu, PhD, Chair of Epidemiology and Stanley Hamilton, MD, Division Head of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. The BSRR is planned as a repository of blood samples of all newly diagnosed patients at MD Anderson. This initiative will be a tremendous resource for investigators across the institution.
Seminar Series
In an effort to bring in distinguished outside speakers with a translational research focus, each month a guest speaker will come in as part of a series to share information about their work and promote excellence through the exchange of knowledge. Guest speakers will introduce topics and concepts important to the development of Translational and Public Health Genomics throughout the year.
Membership
The Center is currently establishing its membership.
Seminar Series
All seminars are from 9am - 10am unless otherwise indicated
- 3/30/2011
Michele Carbone, MD, PhD
Center Director
University of Hawai'i Cancer Center - 4/21/2011
Gordon Mills, MD, PhD, Chair
Systems Biology, Co-director IPCT
MDAnderson Cancer Center - 5/27/2011
Ping Yang, MD, PhD
Professor, Epidemiology
Mayo Clinic - 6/23/2011 - CPB8, Rm 5 & 6
Richard Weinshilboum, MD
Professor, Molecular Pharmacology
Mayo Clinic - 8/25/2011 - CPB8, Rm 5 & 6
Thomas Sellers, PhD
Director
Moffitt Research Institute - 9/8/2011 - CPB8, Rm 7 & 8
Jason Moore, PhD
Professor, Genetics
Dartmouth Medical School - 10/27/2011 - CPB8, Rm 5 & 6
Mary Relling, PharmD
Chair, Pharmaceutical Sciences
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
&
William Evans, PharmD
Director and CEO
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital - 11/10/2011 - FCT3, Rm 3 & 6
Francesco Marincola, MD
Chief, Infectious Disease and Immunogenetics Section
NCI - (to be rescheduled)
Thomas Kosten, MD
Professor, Neuroscience
Baylor College of Medicine
Institute Faculty in the News
- "Use caution before starting a daily aspirin regimen" Therese Bevers, M.D.
- "Risk for Some Cancers Rises with US Obesity Rate" Powell Brown, M.D., Ph.D.
- "Rice-MD Anderson study: anti-smoking efforts have saved 800,000 lives" Olga Gorlova, Ph.D.
- "11 Symptoms Women Shouldn’t Ignore. Gynecological cancer symptoms can be easy to miss" Therese Bevers, M.D.