Harvard Catalyst Profiles

Dr. Ogino is Chief, Program in MPE Molecular Pathological Epidemiology of Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital. He has been expanding the integrative interdisciplinary science of molecular pathological epidemiology (MPE). He is an Affilate Member of Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. He has been serving as the Chair or Co-Chair for The International MPE Meeting Series since 2013 (www.mpemeeting.org).

Leveraging my unique interdisciplinary expertise, I have been developing transdisciplinary science of MPE (Ogino et al. J Natl Cancer Inst 2010; Gut 2011; Annu Rev Pathol 2019) to unleash the full potential of the integrated research approach. Based on the paradigm of the seamlessly unified field of MPE, several new concepts and fields have emerged as below. Our proof-of-principle project utilized the prospective cohort design including a longitudinal exposure data collection integrated with data on colorectal cancer (CRC) incidence plus tumor phenotypes/subtypes. That has been possible only with our establishment of a tumor database of cancer cases that had occurred in prospective cohort studies. There were substantial challenges in establishing such a biobank, as incident tumors in the prospective cohort studies (the Nurses’ Health Studies and Health Professionals Follow-up Study) had happened in different (U.S.-wide) geographic areas at variable unpredictable time points. There exist few similar biobanks that have collected incident tumor tissue from persons who have developed tumors during prospective follow-up of a large population. Our proof-of-principle project utilized the prospective cohort design including a longitudinal exposure data collection integrated with data on colorectal cancer (CRC) incidence subtyped by a tumor tissue biomarker. Our first study (Chan et al. New Engl J Med 2007) successfully linked long-term aspirin use with decreased incidence of PTGS2-positive CRC and drew much attention. As of 2024 (17 years later), no other group has conducted a similar analysis.

Our unique contribution starting 2007 has been possible with the prospective cohort incident-tumor biobank method (PCIBM), which is an unconventional study design concept encompassing the entirety of a prospective cohort study with an incident tumor biobank. The PCIBM is generalizable to any prospective cohort study. The importance of long-term influence of exposures on tumor development is increasingly recognized (Ugai et al. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 2022; Ogino et al. Ann Oncol 2024). Our creation of the PCIBM has enabled the novel style of studies using worldwide prospective cohort studies.

We could also link long-term low folate intake with increased incidence of LINE-1 hypomethylated CRC (Schernhammer et al. Gut 2010). In the list of my innovations below, we also successfully linked high-level vitamin D status with decreased incidence of tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL)-high colorectal carcinoma (Song et al. Gut 2016). Furthermore, we could link the prudent diet pattern with decreased incidence of CRC containing abundant Fusobacterium nucleatum, a pathogenic bacterial species (Mehta et al. JAMA Oncol 2017). All of these and other MPE studies that examined tumor incidence (by subtypes) in relation to long-term exposure measures can be duly called unprecedented. Despite the fact that these studies have drawn much attention, no other (very few if any) group has been able to conduct similar analyses using the prospective cohort design. My contribution to these scientific innovations has been unique and unparalleled.

• Molecular Pathological Epidemiology
• Molecular Pathology, Diagnostic
• Epidemiology, Molecular
• Immunology
• Microbiology
• Pharmacology, Clinical
• Genomics
• Immuno-MPE (Molecular Pathological Epidemiology)
• Pharmaco-MPE (Molecular Pathological Epidemiology)
• Immunotherapy
• Immunomodulators
• Immunoprevention
• Nutrition
• Nutritional Epidemiology
• Nutritional MPE (Molecular Pathological Epidemiology)
• Bioinformatics
• Immunogenomics
• Molecular Pathologic Epidemiology
• Causal Inference-MPE (Molecular Pathological Epidemiology)
• Colorectal Cancer