Program Directors
Xiao-Ou Shu, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine
Dr. Xiao-Ou Shu is an Ingram Professor of Cancer Research, Professor in the Department of Medicine at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, co-leader for the Cancer Epidemiology Program, and Associate Director for Global Health at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center. She is a fellow of American College of Epidemiology and Association for Advancement of Science as well as an elected member of the American Epidemiology Society. Dr. Shu’s research has primarily focused on investigating the contributions of the environment, lifestyle factors, and host susceptibility on the etiology and prognosis of cancer and other chronic diseases applying a multi-disciplinary approach. Another line of her research focuses on discovery of biomarkers for cancer early detection and risk assessment. She has been consistently funded by US National Institute of Health since 1996, serving as the principal investigator for more than 26 major research grants and 5 training grants. Currently, she serves as the contact PI for two R01/U01 grants focusing on discovery of biomarkers for pancreatic cancer and biliary track cancer. She is also a joint PI for an R01 grant to investigate the role of gut microbiome in colorectal cancer etiology after a bariatric surgery, an UG3/UH3 grant to establish a sarcoma patient cohort for a longitudinal investigation of the contribution of genetic, cancer treatment and lifestyle factors on disease prognosis and survivorship and an R01 grant searching for protein biomarkers for breast cancer risk assessment. In addition, she is the PI/co-PI for the Vanderbilt Genetic and Molecular Epidemiology of Cancer (MEGEC, T32 CA160056) training program, the Vanderbilt-Zambia Cancer Research (VZCARE, D43 CA270474) training grant and the Vanderbilt-Vietnam Training Program in Genetic Epidemiology (V2GENE, D43 TW012727). Dr. Shu is the recipient of the 2023 F. Peter Guengerich, Ph.D., Award - For Mentoring Postdoctoral Fellows or Residents in the Research Setting from the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. She also received an award for Outstanding Contributions in Research from Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 2023.
Dr. Martha Shrubsole, PhD, Research Professor of Medicine
Martha J. Shrubsole, PhD, is an Ingram Professor of Cancer Research, Research Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine, co-leader for the Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center Cancer Epidemiology Program, Director of the International Epidemiology Field Station at Vanderbilt University Medical Cancer, and Scientific Director of the Survey Research Shared Resource. She leads a research portfolio of molecular, environmental, nutritional, health disparities and interventional epidemiology. She seeks to identify and evaluate modifiable factors, biomarkers, and molecular mechanisms for the prevention, early detection, and precision-based interception of cancer and its precursor lesions. Some of these areas of study include environmental exposures, nutrients such as one-carbon metabolism, inflammatory markers, gut microbiome, molecular landscape of colorectal polyps, and predictors of metachronous adenomas as well as work across multiple cancer types and the cancer continuum. She is PI of multiple grants such as the NCI Moonshot Human Tumor Atlas Network and the NCI Translational and Basic Research Program in Early Lesions and two large NCI-funded cohort studies seeking to understand and ameliorate cancer health disparities in the US South, the Southern Community Cohort Study and the Southern Environmental Health Study. She has also been co-investigator for more than 30 other NIH-funded studies of cancer and precancer in the US and globally. She has mentored over 30 graduate or medical students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty.
Program Staff
Kathleen Harmeyer is the Associate Program Manager for the MAGEC program at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.