Investigators in the Department of Population Health’s Molecular Epidemiology Research Program conduct innovative and high-impact research focusing on the discovery and validation of novel human microbiome and genomic contributors to cancer development and progression. We also investigate how these interact with racial, social, and environmental factors in carcinogenesis, and how established cancer-causing microbes, including oral pathogens and H. pylori, can be detected by screening. Our faculty members are leaders in collaborative team science, with strong scientific partnerships across NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center and externally with partners globally in academia.

Below are some of our federally funded projects:

• identifying novel oral microbiome (bacteria, fungi, and virus) influencing the development of head and neck cancer development and understanding the role of these oral microbes in the carcinogen metabolism (grant R01CA159036)
• identifying novel oral microbiome influencing the development of pancreatic cancer and understanding the role of oral and pancreatic tumor microbiomes in the tumor immune microenvironment (grant U01CA250186)
• understanding the foregut microbiome and risk of gastric intestinal metaplasia, and gastric cancer risk (grant R01CA204113)
• identifying novel gut microbiota in the racial and social disparities of chemotherapy outcomes in patients with colorectal cancer (grant P20CA252728)
• identifying gut microbial and host immune biomarkers that predict the immunotherapy treatment outcomes in patients with melanoma (grant P50CA225450)
• identifying genomic profiling of the T-cell regulome that predicts the immunotherapy treatment outcomes in patients with melanoma (grant P50CA225450)
• identifying genomic determinants of the T-cell regulome in immune checkpoint blockade (grant R01CA227505)

Our faculty also study the biologic and social drivers of cancer health disparities in the National Cancer Institute (NCI)–supported Cancer Health Disparities Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) at NYU Langone.