My research is mainly focused on better understanding the causes of pancreatic and brain cancers with the goal of providing means to prevent these deadly cancers. I work primarily with large cohort studies and examine risk factors such as diet, BMI, allergies, infection and genetic susceptibility.

My research focuses on understanding the etiology of bladder, pancreas and brain cancers. I am interested in how the immune response to common infections or allergens, possibly through differences in genetic susceptibilities, may be related to cancer etiology. I am currently funded to examine this relationship in brain cancer. In addition, to examine the role of infection, I have recently contributed several papers on periodontal disease and cancer risk and have funding from NIH to examine this relationship using biomarkers. This project will use banked plasma samples from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer (EPIC) cohort to examine antibodies to periodontal disease bacteria in relation to pancreatic cancer using a nested case-control study design.