Nutritional Epidemiology Branch Fellows

Carrie R. Daniel, Ph.D., M.P.H.

Carrie R. Daniel joined the Nutritional Epidemiology Branch (NEB) as a post-doctoral fellow in October 2008. She came from Emory University with an M.P.H. in Epidemiology and a Ph.D. in Biological and Biomedical Science - Nutrition. She conducted her research and training in cancer and nutritional epidemiology with Dr. Robin Bostick of Emory University and Dr. Marji McCullough of the American Cancer Society (ACS). Her translational research background includes work at the Arizona Health Sciences Center, CDC, Emory Winship Cancer Institute, and ACS. With her mentor, Dr. Rashmi Sinha, she is investigating diet and nutrition in the etiology of renal cancer and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, as well as her involvement in methodological considerations for the Indian Health Study.

Leah M. Ferrucci, M.P.H.

Leah M. Ferrucci joined the Nutritional Epidemiology Branch (NEB) in September 2007 as a pre-doctoral fellow through the Yale University - National Cancer Institute Partnership Training Program in cancer epidemiology. Leah received a B.A. in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.P.H. with a concentration in the social and behavioral aspects of chronic disease epidemiology from Yale University. For her doctoral dissertation, Leah is working with Drs. Rashmi Sinha, Amanda J. Cross, and Barry I. Graubard examining meat, meat mutagens, and heme iron in relation to colorectal neoplasia and breast cancer. Leah is also collaborating with the Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch on several ongoing projects in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial on colorectal neoplasia.

Stephanie M. George, M.P.H., M.A.

Stephanie M. George joined the Nutritional Epidemiology Branch (NEB) as a pre-doctoral fellow in September 2008 and is currently a Ph.D. student in epidemiology at Yale University under the Yale University - National Cancer Institute Partnership Training Program. Stephanie is working with Drs. Demetrius Albanes, Susan Mayne, Melinda Irwin, and Mitch Gail, as well as others in DCEG and DCCPS, to better explore the association between energy balance and breast cancer among breast cancer survivors and healthy individuals, with a focus on evaluating specific aspects of diet, anthropometry, and physical activity.

Todd Gibson, M.S.

Todd Gibson joined the Nutritional Epidemiology Branch (NEB) as a pre-doctoral fellow in August 2007, as part of the Yale University - National Cancer Institute Partnership Training Program, and is currently working towards a Ph.D. in Epidemiology and Public Health with a focus on nutrition and cancer. He has a B.S. degree in nutrition from Cornell University and an M.S. degree in molecular biology from Lehigh University. Todd's mentors in NEB are Drs.Rachael Stolzenberg-Solomon, Stephanie Weinstein, Ruth Pfeiffer, and Lee Moore. His dissertation projects include: 1) studying biomarkers of one-carbon metabolism and risk of renal cell carcinoma in the Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta-Carotene Cancer Prevention (ATBC) Study; 2) genetic polymorphisms in one-carbon metabolism genes and risk of renal cell carcinoma in the Central and Eastern European Renal Cell Carcinoma case-control study; and 3) dietary intake of folate and risk of colorectal cancer in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study.

Li Jiao, M.D., M.S., Ph.D.

Li Jiao joined the Nutritional Epidemiology Branch (NEB) as a post-doctoral fellow in October 2006 after working in the Department of Gastrointestinal Oncology at the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Jiao's research interests lie principally in the field of molecular epidemiology of pancreatic cancer and understanding factors related to its etiology and outcomes using an integrated approach. Her research focus has been on genetic susceptibility and gene-environment interactions in smoking-related pancreatic cancer. Dr. Jiao is primarily working with her mentor, Dr. Rachael Stolzenberg-Solomon and is currently investigating the relationships of glycemic index, alcohol intake, and lifestyle with risk of pancreatic cancer in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study. She is leading a pooled analysis on body mass index and risk of pancreatic cancer using the DCEG maintained prospective cohort. She also developed an independent study investigating a dietary biomarker that may serve as an intermediate for insulin resistance and cancer development in the Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta-Carotene Cancer Prevention (ATBC) Study. Dr. Jiao won a NCI/DCEG Intramural Research Award in spring 2008. She has published more than 25 papers in peer-reviewed journals.

Samantha Jordan

Samantha Jordan joined the Nutritional Epidemiology Branch (NEB) as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute research fellow in September 2008 and is currently a dental student at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine. For her fellowship, Samantha is working with Dr. Christian Abnet on a study of tooth loss and cancer risk using data from the Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta-Carotene Cancer Prevention (ATBC) Study.

Farin Kamangar, M.D., Ph.D.

Farin Kamangar is a Research Fellow in the Nutritional Epidemiology Branch (NEB). He received his M.D. (1996) and M.P.H. (2000) from Tehran University of Medical Sciences, and his Ph.D. in epidemiology (2005) and M.H.S. in biostatistics (2005) from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Dr. Kamangar has been working at the National Cancer Institute since 2002 and his research is focused on the etiology of esophageal and gastric cancers. He has been the author or co-author of over 50 publications, and has received several awards, including the NIH Merit Award, NCI Director's Innovation Award, and two NIH Intramural Research Awards.

Steven C. Moore, Ph.D.

Steven C. Moore joined the Nutritional Epidemiology Branch (NEB) as a pre-doctoral fellow in 2005. He received his Ph.D. in cancer epidemiology from Yale University in 2007 and continued his stay in NEB as a post-doctoral fellow. His dissertation examined the epidemiologic relationships linking adiposity with mortality and cancer incidence, particularly emphasizing how novel analytic strategies might be used to resolve long-standing controversies.

Under the primary mentorship of Drs. Michael Leitzmann and Arthur Schatzkin, Dr. Moore has researched the epidemiologic relationships between physical activity and incidence of cancers of the prostate, kidney, and brain. Dr. Moore also has helped initiate efforts to improve the measurement of physical activity in epidemiologic studies and to use measurement error modeling techniques to correct questionnaire-based physical activity measures. To that end, Dr. Moore facilitated the development of the Shanghai Physical Activity Study, a subcohort of 600 men and women from the Shanghai Men's and Women's cohorts where physical activity levels are measured using objective monitoring by accelerometer. In addition, Dr. Moore also played a key role in initiating, developing, and piloting an internet-based assessment of physical activity based upon a 24 hour recall paradigm (ACT24). During his time in the DCEG, Dr. Moore has been awarded the DCEG Fellowship Achievement Award and served as a NIH Fellows representative (FELCOM). Dr. Moore was the co-chair of the Mentoring Sub-Committee of NIH FELCOM.

Nataša Tasevska, M.D., Ph.D., M.Sc.

Nataša Tasevska joined the Nutritional Epidemiology Branch (NEB) as a post-doctoral fellow in January 2008. After receiving her M.D. from the University "Sv. Kiril i Metodij", Skopje, Republic of Macedonia, Dr. Tasevska joined the Department for Nutrition at the National Institute of Public Health in Skopje, where she worked in the area of public health nutrition policy, developing tools for nutritional status assessment and was involved in various public health nutrition projects. She holds a M.Sc. in Human Nutrition and Metabolism from the University of Aberdeen, UK (2000) and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, UK (2005). Her Ph.D. research focused on developing biological markers for sugars and thiamine intake. After her doctoral studies, Dr. Tasevska was a Lecturer in the Department of Nutrition & Dietetics at King's College in London, UK, where she taught nutritional epidemiology and public health nutrition and continued her research on biomarker development. Dr. Tasevska is currently working with Dr. Amanda Cross, and Dr. Rashmi Sinha to investigate the relation between meat intake and lung cancer in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study, and the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial. She is also working on biomarker development to improve meat-related exposure assessment and following-up her previous sugars biomarker research using the Observing Protein and Energy Nutrition (OPEN) Study. Her other current projects include investigating the relation between dietary sugars and cancer risk in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study. Dr. Tasevska also continues her interests in methodological issues in nutritional epidemiology and acts as a Coordinator of the NCI Measurement Error Working Group.

Joanne Watters, Ph.D., M.P.H.

Joanne Watters is a Cancer Prevention Fellow at the National Cancer Institute. She joined the Nutritional Epidemiology Branch as a post-doctoral fellow in October 2007 under the mentorship of Dr. Demetrius Albanes. Dr. Watters earned her Ph.D. in nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her M.P.H. at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her dissertation research examined racial differences in antioxidant nutrients and oxidative DNA damage in a sample of healthy African American and White adults living in North Carolina. After earning her Ph.D., she worked with the department of Epidemiology at MD Anderson Cancer Center examining carotenoid intake and lung cancer. Prior to attending graduate school, she worked as a consultant with Exponent (formerly Novigen Sciences, Inc.). Currently, Dr. Watters' primary research focus involves dietary exposures, which may influence the risk of developing prostate cancer, and/or affect disease progression and survival.