Harvard Catalyst Profiles

This NIH-funded project has two ongoing components - a clinical trial and a genome-wide association study: 1. We are conducting a crossover trial among women with previous breast cancer receiving aromatase inhibitors to determine whether alcohol increases circulating estrogens and androgens in this setting. Alcohol is known to increase estrone and DHEA sulfates among women, but whether it does so in the setting of AI therapy is unknown. This will help direct implications for recommendations to women with breast cancer and will elucidate the pathways by which alcohol increases risk of breast cancer. 2. We are conducting genome-wide interaction studies (GWIS) to determine which genes modify the alcohol-breast cancer association. We are using a direct GWIS approach, a candidate gene approach using SNPs known to be related to alcohol consumption or to breast cancer, and a modified two-stage GWIS that leverages a first-stage GWIS on alcohol and estrogens. Students can participate in either of these components. No previous experience is necessary for students who wish to gain experience with the conduct of clinical trials in a vulnerable population or learn more about breast cancer or alcohol consumption. Students wishing to participate in GWIS analyses should have previous experience in genetic epidemiology and/or coding in R.

We have a number of ongoing analyses of risk factors for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, dementia, and related chronic diseases in epidemiological studies. Current projects include analyses of non-esterified fatty acids, biomarkers of brain injury, and novel lipoprotein species, but many other biomarkers are available. Students with biostatistical programming skills (e.g., STATA or SAS) can examine associations of novel or established risk factors with disease endpoints leading to an abstract and/or paper. Students without such skills can typically gain sufficient practice to conduct straightforward analyses on their own.