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Yin Cao, ScD, MPH

Dr. Yin Cao is currently an Assistant Professor of Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Siteman Cancer Center. She has extensive training and research experience in genetic, molecular, and nutritional epidemiology, and was an Instructor in Medicine in the Clinical and Translational Epidemiology Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School (2015-2017). She is a cancer epidemiologist focusing on risk prediction, screening and early detection, and chemoprevention of gastrointestinal malignancies. Her current research areas include the etiology of young-onset colorectal cancer, the biological basis for colorectal cancer disparity, the role of microbiome and host immunity in carcinogenesis, and the development of precision aspirin chemoprevention guidelines. She will utilize -omic technologies, informatics tools, and methods in decision and implementation sciences, to develop personalized cancer prevention and control strategies.

Dr. Cao earned a ScD in Epidemiology from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2013. Prior to that, she obtained her MPH degree from Columbia University.

Xiasheng He, MD, PhD


Dr. Xiasheng He is a colorectal surgeon from China. His research focus is on colorectal inflammation and carcinogenesis. He joined the CTEU in 2017 as a research fellow and is currently working in the Department of Colorectal Surgery, the Six Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, P.R. China. His current project includes dietary fiber and risk of colorectal adenoma.

Stuart Pong-Hong Liu, MD, MPH


Dr. Stuart Po-Hong Liu is a clinical investigator focusing on gastrointestinal and liver diseases. He earned his MPH degree at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health with concentration in biostatistics and epidemiology. He worked at the Clinical Translational Epidemiology Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital, investigating diverticular disease, colorectal cancer, and inflammatory bowel disease and volunteered at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, aiming to improve the outcome of liver cancer. He is currently a trainee in Physician-Scientist Training Program in Internal Medicine in UT Southwestern Medical Center.

Manol Jovani, MD, MPH


Dr. Jovani was a Research Fellow in the Clinical and Translational Epidemiology Unit, Division of Gastroenterology, at the MGH and Harvard Medical School.

His research projects include identification of risk factors for Barrett’s esophagus, identification of risk factors for diverticulitis, identification of early biomarkers of cancer incidence and cancer-related death, novel technologies for the identification of gastrointestinal malignancies, and quality improvement in colonoscopy.

Dr. Jovani earned an MD from the University of Bologna (Italy), specialized in Gastroenterology in Milan (Italy), and obtained an MPH from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He is currently a Therapeutic Endoscopy Fellow at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

Sohee Kwon, MD, MPH

Dr. Sohee Kwon was a Research Fellow co-mentored by Dr. Andrew Chan and Dr. Kyle Staller. Her research focuses on the prevention of GI cancers using chemopreventive agents and lifestyle modifications and identifying risk factors for GI motility disorders. She earned her MD from Pusan National University in South Korea and an MPH from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She is currently a resident physician at UCLA Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine. 

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