Research Areas
Department of Epidemiology & Population Health
Sidebar
Breast Cancer
Breast cancer and gaining a better understanding of the relationship of risk and prognosis with ethnicity, obesity, diet, genetic susceptibility and admixture, physical activity and quality of life.
Cardiovascular Disease
Genetic and environmental influences & their interaction on cardiovascular disease and reproductive traits, gene-environment interactions, women's health, examination of genetic influences across populations.
Carcinogenesis and Cancer Progression
The role of environmental factors and their biological mechanisms that influence carcinogenesis and cancer progression in humans by combining expertise across cancer, environmental and molecular epidemiology
Drug Overdose Epidemic
Risk factors and health outcomes associated with the drug overdose epidemic and injection drug use, as well as eating disorders.
Environmental and Occupational Agents
Health effects of environmental/occupational agents; Toxicity and genotoxicity of nanoparticles
Environmental Lead Exposure
The associations between environmental lead exposure and human health and behavior.
Health Disparities Along the Cancer Continuum
Determinants of health disparities along the cancer continuum, including screening, early detection, risk, survival and survivorship.
Infectious Diseases
Infectious diseases particularly respiratory illnesses and COVID-19, reproductive and maternal child health and gene-environment interactions.
Maternal and Infant Health
Maternal and infant health, maternal death, neonatal death, the social position and health of women, societal-level influences on health, how we can use policy and science to remedy health disparities
Nutritional and Molecular Epidemiology
Current research interests include body composition (obesity, sarcopenia and osteopenia) in relation to aging, chronic disease and disability and nutritional, hormonal and inflammatory biomarkers in the molecular epidemiology of breast cancer.
RURAL Study
Led by Stephanie Boone, the Risk Underlying Rural Areas Longitudinal Study (RURAL) is a prospective cohort study that will focus on 10 rural counties in Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi. The goal is to bridge the rural research gap by concentrating on communities and geographic areas not adequately studied previously.