Faculty and Postdoctoral Fellows
Caroline Himbert, PhD
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Dr. Caroline Himbert was a postdoctoral research fellow at MGH CTEU and worked under the mentorship of Dr. Konrad Stopsack. Prior to joining CTEU, she completed her PhD in Population Health Sciences with emphasis in Clinical and Translational Epidemiology at the University of Utah and Huntsman Cancer Institute. Her research interests focus on understanding the impact and underlying molecular mechanisms of obesity and physical activity on cancer prevention and prognosis. Caroline is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Population Health Sciences at the University of Utah and an investigator at Huntsman Cancer Institute.
Xinwei Hua, PhD, MPH
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Dr. Xinwei Hua is currently an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology in the Department of Cardiology at Peking University Third Hospital and a principal investigator at the State Key Laboratory of Vascular Homeostasis and Remodeling in Peking University. Trained in molecular and clinical epidemiology, Dr. Hua integrates electronic medical record (EMR) data, multi-omics technologies, and deep learning tools to investigate the mechanisms and precision management of cardiometabolic diseases. Her research focuses on identifying novel biomarkers and microbiota-medication interactions for heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), elucidating gene-environment interactions, and leveraging artificial intelligence to develop diagnostic, phenotyping, and risk prediction tools for early detection and individualized treatment of HFpEF. Dr. Hua earned her MPH at Emory and PhD at the University of Washington/ Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center, focusing on molecular epidemiology. She completed postdoctoral training as a Research Fellow at Harvard/MGH CTEU mentored by Dr. Hamed Khalili.
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Jonathan Chun-Han Lo
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Jonathan Chun-Han Lo is a former postdoctoral research fellow at the CTEU. He earned his MD from Chung Shan Medical University in Taichung, Taiwan, followed by an MPH in Quantitative Methods from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. During his time at the CTEU, he conducted research under the mentorship of Dr. Andrew T. Chan, Dr. Mingyang Song, and Dr. Ashwin N. Ananthakrishnan. His work focused on the role of diet, medications, and comorbid medical conditions in GI cancers and IBD. He completed his research fellowship at the CTEU in 2022 and went on to pursue an Internal Medicine residency at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV. He is currently a GI fellow at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
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Aditya Ashok, MD, MSc
Dr. Aditya Ashok was a gastroenterology fellow at BWH and currently works as an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine. Prior to medical school at Harvard Medical School, he obtained an MSc from King's College London on a Marshall Scholarship. He finished his internal medicine residency training in the Osler Medical Residency program at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Georgios Polychonidis, MD, Dr.med, M.sc.​​
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Dr. Georgios Polychronidis was a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Epidemiology in the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He was mentored by Dr. Mingyang Song. He graduated from the University of Ioannina Medical School and after joining the Heidelberg Transplantation Center for a research fellowship he completed his general surgery residency at the Department of General, Visceral and Transplant Surgery at the University Hospital Heidelberg. During his training he was a research scientist at the Study Center of the German Surgical Society and studied clinical trial management at the Beuth University of Applied Sciences. His research is mainly focused on evidence-based surgery and liver disease.
Liang Wang, MD
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Dr. Liang Wang is a gastrointestinal surgeon from the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, China. He joined the CTEU at MGH and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2018 as a research fellow under the mentorship of Dr. Mingyang Song. His research interests include risk factors of colorectal cancer and the relationship between biomarker of fatty acids and colorectal serrated polyp and conventional adenoma.
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Ming-ming He, MD
Dr. Ming-ming He is a postdoc in Dr. Mingyang Song’s group. She is an attending medical doctor from the Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center (SYSUCC), specializing in gastrointestinal (GI) cancer, both diagnosis / treatment and research, as well as a collaborative, studious medical oncologist with a strong medical background, passionate about cancer epidemiology, and translating cancer research into cancer prevention and control.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Sohee Kwon, MD, MPH
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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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