Jia Chen received her Sc.D. in 1994 in the fields of Toxicology and Environmental Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Since 1995 she has been working as a Research Associate in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a Research Fellow at Harvard School of Public Health. She is interested in an academic research career in molecular epidemiology studying genetic susceptibility to cancer. David J. Hunter, MBBS, MPH, ScD, has extensive experience in chronic disease and molecular epidemiology. He has mentored numerous graduate students and postdoctoral fellows; two graduate students he co- supervised are now postdoctoral fellows in the NCI Genetic Epidemiology Program. He is a co-investigator of the Nurses' Health Study I and Health Professionals Follow-Up Study based at Harvard. Dr. Hunter is familiar with the research methods proposed in this project and he will oversee Dr. Chen's research activities and education. Dr. Chen proposes to use the resources of three large well-characterized cohort studies (the Nurses' Health Study I, the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, and the Physicians Health Study) to prospectively assess gene-nutrient and other gene-environment interactions in the etiology of colorectal adenoma and carcinoma. Specifically, she will assess whether polymorphisms in the alcohol dehydrogenase type 3 (ADH3), cytochrome P450IIE1 (CYP2E1), and methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) genes are associated with these cancers and whether they modify associations with intake of folate, methionine and alcohol, as well as other potentially carcinogenic or anticarcinogenic nutrients on risk of colon cancer and polyps. In addition, she will modify the existing PCR- RFLP based genotyping methods and adapt more flexible and efficient technologies while maintaining high accuracy. The proposed study would be valuable as positive associations would clearly implicate the substrates of the gene product as environmental carcinogenic exposures, clarifying colon cancer etiology and pointing to preventive dietary and other lifestyle modifications.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Type
Academic/Teacher Award (ATA) (K07)
Project #
1K07CA081750-01
Application #
2865471
Study Section
Subcommittee G - Education (NCI)
Program Officer
Gorelic, Lester S
Project Start
1998-09-21
Project End
2003-06-30
Budget Start
1998-09-21
Budget End
1999-08-31
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
1998
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Department
Public Health & Prev Medicine
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
114400633
City
New York
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
10029
Chen, Jia; Chan, Wendy; Wallenstein, Sylvan et al. (2005) Haplotype-phenotype relationships of paraoxonase-1. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 14:731-4
Chen, Jia; Kyte, Charles; Chan, Wendy et al. (2004) Polymorphism in the thymidylate synthase promoter enhancer region and risk of colorectal adenomas. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 13:2247-50
Giovannucci, Edward; Chen, Jia; Smith-Warner, Stephanie A et al. (2003) Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase, alcohol dehydrogenase, diet, and risk of colorectal adenomas. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 12:970-9
Chen, Jia; Hunter, David J; Stampfer, Meir J et al. (2003) Polymorphism in the thymidylate synthase promoter enhancer region modifies the risk and survival of colorectal cancer. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 12:958-62
Chen, Jia; Kumar, Madhu; Chan, Wendy et al. (2003) Increased influence of genetic variation on PON1 activity in neonates. Environ Health Perspect 111:1403-9
Chen, Jia; Germer, Soren; Higuchi, Russell et al. (2002) Kinetic polymerase chain reaction on pooled DNA: a high-throughput, high-efficiency alternative in genetic epidemiological studies. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 11:131-6
Chen, Jia; Ma, Jing; Stampfer, Meir J et al. (2002) Linkage disequilibrium between the 677C>T and 1298A>C polymorphisms in human methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase gene and their contributions to risk of colorectal cancer. Pharmacogenetics 12:339-42
Chen, J; Ma, J; Stampfer, M J et al. (2001) Alcohol dehydrogenase 3 genotype is not predictive for risk of colorectal cancer. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 10:1303-4