Wen-yi Huang

Biography

Dr. Huang received a Ph.D. in epidemiology from the University of North Carolina in 1998, with concentrations on gene-environment interactions and etiologic heterogeneity of breast cancer, defined by molecular markers. She completed two years of postdoctoral research in the Epidemiology Department at Glaxo Wellcome, and joined the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics (DCEG) of NCI as a Staff Scientist in 2000. Dr. Huang provides scientific consultations for nation-wide research on cancer etiology and early markers in the NCI Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial; she attends various steering, review, and management meetings for the Trial and participates in several cohort consortium and data pooling efforts. As a cancer molecular epidemiologist, her studies focus on cancer risk related to genetic, epigenetic, and other molecular markers in DNA repair, metabolic, infection, and inflammation pathways, with primary interests on colorectal and prostate tumors. Since joining NCI, Dr. Huang received the NCI DCEG Award for the Outstanding Research Paper by a Staff Scientist in 2003 and an NIH Award of Merit in 2014.

Research Interest

Genetic variants in DNA repair genes and susceptibility to various cancer outcomes; Sexually transmissible infections, inflammation markers, and genetics in relation to prostate cancer risk; Epidemiology of colorectal tumor sub-types based on tumor molecular characterization; relating epigenetic alterations with genomic instability; Smoking-related colorectal adenoma risk modifications by genetic variants in polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) metabolism-related genes