When you include the American Institute for Cancer Research in your estate plans, you make a major difference in the fight against cancer.

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40 Years of Progress: Transforming Cancer. Saving Lives.

The AICR Lifestyle & Cancer Symposium addresses the most current and consequential issues regarding diet, obesity, physical activity and cancer.

The Annual AICR Research Conference is the most authoritative source for information on diet, obesity, physical activity and cancer.

Cancer Update Program – unifying research on nutrition, physical activity and cancer.

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Whether you are a healthcare provider, a researcher, or just someone who wants to learn more about cancer prevention, we’re here to help.

Read real-life accounts of how AICR is changing lives through cancer prevention and survivorship.

We bring a detailed policy framework to our advocacy efforts, and provide lawmakers with the scientific evidence they need to achieve our objectives.

AICR champions research that increases understanding of the relationship between nutrition, lifestyle, and cancer.

Are you ready to make a difference? Join our team and help us advance research, improve cancer education and provide lifesaving resources.

AICR’s resources can help you navigate questions about nutrition and lifestyle, and empower you to advocate for your health.

AICR Leadership

AICR Grant Panel

Ivan Vechetti Jr., PhD
University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE

Dr. Vechetti is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. His research focuses on extracellular vesicles, exercise physiology, skeletal muscle biology and intercellular communication. His group is particularly interested in understanding how extracellular vesicles regulate whole-body adaptation in the context of exercise and human diseases, such as obesity.

Henry Thompson, PhD
Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO

Dr. Thompson is the Director of the Cancer Prevention Laboratory and a Professor of Human Nutrition and Cancer Prevention at Colorado State University. His areas of expertise are in human nutrition and breast cancer prevention.

Kathleen Sturgeon, PhD, MTR
Penn State Cancer Institute, Hershey, PA

Dr. Sturgeon is an Assistant Professor in the division of epidemiology within the department of public health at the Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Kathleen Sturgeon’s research has focused on elucidating the mechanisms of exercise-induced protection against chronic diseases.

Paul Spagnuolo, PhD
University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada

Paul Spagnuolo  PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Food Science at the University of Guelph. His research focuses on the development of nutraceuticals as novel therapeutics and understanding cellular mechanisms by which nutraceuticals influence cell biology.

Kenneth Schwartz, MD
Michigan State University, Lansing, MI

Kenneth Schwartz, M.D., is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Medicine at Michigan State University. He has an interest in hematology, oncology and internal medicine.

Daniel Rosenberg, PhD
University of Connecticut, Farmington, CT

Dr. Rosenberg is a Professor of Medicine and Health Net Inc., Endowed Chair in Cancer Biology Investigator in the Center for Molecular Oncology at the University of Connecticut and the Director of the Colon Cancer Prevention Program at the Carole and Ray Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center. His research interests are in the molecular events that accompany early gastrointestinal neoplasia.

Connie Rogers, PhD
Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA

Dr. Connie Rogers ia an Associate Professor in the Nutritional Sciences department at the Pennsylvania State University. Her research interests are in the role of changes in energy balance and related nutritional factors on inflammation as well as in immune regulation and cancer risk .

Bonnie Qin, PhD
Cancer Institute of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ

Dr. Qin is a tenure-track assistant professor at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School within the Division of Medical oncology and the Section of Cancer Epidemiology and Health Outcomes at the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey. The goal of her research program is to integrate multidisciplinary components into cancer epidemiology research to advance our understanding of cancer etiology and prevention, survivorship and survival, and cancer health disparities.

Karteek Popuri, PhD
Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Canada

Dr. Popuri is a University Research Associate in the School of Engineering Science at Simon Fraser University. His research interests are in medical image analysis, computation anatomy, machine learning and computer vision.

Yikyung Park, ScD
Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO

Dr. Park is an Associate Professor of Surgery at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Her work focuses on the role of diet, obesity, physical activity and other lifestyle factors in cancer development and survival. She also conducts research on measurement errors in dietary assessment methods and its impact on estimation of diet and cancer relation in epidemiologic studies.

Thomas O’Connell, PhD
Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN

Dr. O’Connell is an Associate Professor of Otolaryngology at the Indiana University School of Medicine. His research program focuses on the application of advanced metabolic profiling technologies to understand the metabolic drivers of cancer associated cachexia and other wasting conditions.

Elena Ladas, PhD
Columbia University, New York, NY

Dr. Elena is the Sid and Helaine Lerner Associate Professor for Global Integrative Medicine in Epidemiology, Pediatrics, and in the Institute of Human Nutrition at the Columbia University Medical Center. She specializes in supportive care in pediatric oncology and hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT). Her clinical and research expertise lies in the application of novel therapies to enhance the current armamentarium of supportive care interventions in pediatric oncology and HCT.

Jennifer Ligibel, MD
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA

Dr. Ligibel is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an Attending Physician of Adult Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. She is interested in studying the biological impact of exercise on the body, as well as further studying the impact of diet and exercise on breast cancer prognosis.

Stephen Hursting, PhD
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC

Dr. Hursting is Professor in the Department of Nutrition and the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is also Professor at the UNC Nutrition Research Institute in Kannapolis, NC. An international leader in the area of nutrition, obesity, metabolism and cancer, his lab focuses on the molecular and metabolic mechanisms underlying obesity-cancer associations, and the impact of obesity- energy balance modulation (eg, calorie restriction and exercise) or pharmacologic agents on cancer development, progression, and responses to chemotherapy.

Jeanine Genkinger, PhD
Columbia University, New York, NY

Dr. Genkinger is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Her research looks at the prevention of rare, fatal cancers through determining modifiable risk factors, and how improved early detection through identifying markers of risk and molecular pathways can reduce morbidity and mortality of these diseases.

Stephen Freedland, MD
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA

Stephen Freedland, MD, is director of the Center for Integrated Research in Cancer and Lifestyle, co-director of the Cancer Genetics and Prevention Program and associate director for Faculty Development at the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute. He is a faculty physician in the Division of Urology at the Cedars-Sinai Department of Surgery. His research interests include urological diseases and the role of diet, lifestyle and obesity in prostate cancer development and progression, as well as prostate cancer among racial groups and risk stratification for men with prostate cancer.

Veronika Fedirko, PhD, MPH
Emory University, Atlanta, GA

Dr. Fedirko is an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology within the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. Her research interests include etiology, epidemiology and outcomes of gastrointestinal cancers. She is also interested in nutrition and cancer prevention.

Joanne Elena, PhD, MPH
National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD

Joanne Elena, Ph.D., M.P.H., is an Epidemiologist and Program Director in the Clinical and Translational Epidemiology Branch of the Epidemiology and Genomics Research Program, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS) at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). She is responsible for developing, managing, and promoting a research portfolio of grants focused on diet and lifestyle factors that influence cancer progression, recurrence and survival, and the development of second primary cancers.

Richard Eckert, PhD
University of Maryland, College Park, MD

Richard Eckert, PhD, is a John F.B. Weaver Professor and Chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Dr. Eckert is an internationally recognized investigator who has made pioneering discoveries in the area of surface epithelial biology – specifically focusing on the human epidermis.  His studies have led to enhanced understanding of normal skin biology and to insights regarding the mechanisms that drive skin diseases including cancer.  He also has a long-term interest in the prevention of skin cancer by natural biological agents.

Christina Dieli-Conwright, PhD, MPH
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA

Christina Dieli-Conwright , PhD, MPH is an Assistant Professor of Research with the Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy at the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry at the University of Southern California. She is an expert in exercise oncology, metabolic syndrome and obesity in cancer survivors, cancer health disparities.

Wendy Demark-Wahnefried, PhD, RD
University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL

Dr. Demark-Wahnefried is an Associate Director for Cancer Prevention and Control for the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at University of Alabama at Birmingham as well as Professor and Webb Endowed Chair of Nutrition Sciences and an American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professor. Her research career has spanned basic science studies focused on determining mechanisms of action of food-related components on neoplastic progression, to clinical research that involves nutrition-related concerns of cancer patients, as well as determining effective lifestyle interventions that improve the overall health of cancer survivors and their families.

Carrie Daniel-MacDougall, PhD
MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX

Dr. Daniel-MacDougall is an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology, Division of OVP, Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The primary goal of her research program is to refine and inform evidence-based dietary recommendations for cancer prevention, cancer patients, and cancer survivors.

Linda Cook, PhD
University of New Mexico, Alberquerque, NM

Linda Cook is the co-leader of the Cancer Control Research Program at the University of New Mexico Comprehensive Cancer Center. Her areas of research include general cancer epidemiology with a particular focus on identifying ways to reduce the occurrence of, and mortality from, ovarian, endometrial and breast cancer.

Justin Brown, PhD
Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, LA

Dr. Brown is an Assistant Professor in the Cancer Metabolism Program at Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University. His research focuses on discovering the mechanisms through which weight management, diabetes control, optimal nutrition, and physical activity prevent the development and progression of cancer.

Ximena Bustamante-Marin, PhD
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC

Dr. Bustamante-Marin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research aims to understand how the cells perceive signals from the microenvironment to control cellular functions and cell fate decisions; a fundamental goal in stem cell and cancer cell biology. Currently Dr. Bustamante-Marin is investigating the role of primary cilia underlying the impact of obesity on cancer.

Vickie Baracos, PhD
University of Alberta Alberta, Canada

Dr. Baracos is a Professor in the Department of Oncology, Division of Palliative Care Medicine, at the University of Alberta. Her research is focused on the underlying causes of muscle wasting in cancer patients: the role of tumor progression, of specific drugs used in cancer therapy such as sorafenib and of a putative muscle proteolysis-inducing factor.

Tessa Andermann, MD, MPH
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, NC

Dr. Andermann is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research focus on how intestinal microbiome-host interactions impact infectious complications and other outcomes in patients with hematologic malignancies. Her goal is to develop microbiome-targeted therapies for the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases in these and other immunocompromised patient populations.

Scott Bultman, PhD

Scott Bultman, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor with the Department of Genetics and School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He uses gnotobiotic models to investigate the role of dietary fiber and colorectal cancer and is also using intestinal organoids that more accurately model intestinal crypts.

Andrew T. Chan, MD, MPH

Andrew T. Chan is a Gastroenterologist at Massachusetts General Hospital with clinical interests in cancer prevention, gastroenterology, colon and rectal cancer, hereditary colorectal cancer, and gastrointestinal cancer.

Robert Chapkin, PhD

Robert Chapkin is an Allen Endowed Chair in Nutrition and Chronic Disease Prevention in the Department of Nutrition and Food Science at Texas A&M University. Research in the Chapkin lab focuses on dietary/microbial modulators related to the prevention of cancer and chronic inflammatory diseases.

Linda S. Cook, PhD

Linda Cook is the co-leader of the Cancer Control Research Program at the University of New Mexico Comprehensive Cancer Center. Her areas of research include general cancer epidemiology with a particular focus on identifying ways to reduce the occurrence of, and mortality from, ovarian, endometrial and breast cancer.

Christina Dieli-Conwright, PhD, MPH

Christina Dieli-Conwright , PhD, MPH is an Assistant Professor of Research with the Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy at the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry at the University of Southern California. She is an expert in exercise oncology, metabolic syndrome and obesity in cancer survivors, cancer health disparities.

Joanne Elena, PhD, MPH

Joanne Elena, Ph.D., M.P.H., is an Epidemiologist and Program Director in the Clinical and Translational Epidemiology Branch of the Epidemiology and Genomics Research Program, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS) at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). She is responsible for developing, managing, and promoting a research portfolio of grants focused on diet and lifestyle factors that influence cancer progression, recurrence and survival, and the development of second primary cancers.

Heather Eliassen, ScD

Heather Eliassen, ScD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health at Harvard University. Dr. Eliassen conducts research focusing on the etiology of breast cancer, examining associations between lifestyle factors, biomarkers of lifestyle and hormones, and breast cancer risk.

James Fleet, PhD

James Fleet, Ph.D., is a faculty member at Purdue University with the Department of Nutrition Science whose laboratory is focused on two major themes: (1) the molecular regulation and genetics of bone and mineral metabolism, (2) mechanisms of carcinogenesis and cancer prevention. Many, but not all, of their projects revolve around the role of vitamin D in health.

Terryl Hartman, PhD, MPH, RD

Terryl Hartman, PhD, MPH, RD, is a Professor of Epidemiology in the Department of Epidemiology at Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University. Her research is focused on the role of diet and nutrition in the etiology and prevention of chronic diseases—especially cancer—and the development and application of improved dietary assessment methods in chronic disease research.

Rishi Jain, MD

Rishi Jain, M.D., is a medical oncologist specializing in cancers of the gastrointestinal tract at Fox Chase Cancer Center. His research focus is related to the intersections between diet, nutrition, physical activity, and cancer therapy, and he specializes in Colorectal Cancer, Esophageal Cancer, Liver, Gall Bladder, and Bile Duct Cancer, Neuroendocrine Tumors, Pancreatic Cancer, and Stomach Cancer.

Johanna Lampe, PhD, RD

Johanna Lampe, PhD, RD, is an experimental nutritionist and cancer prevention researcher at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. She studies how one’s diet, particularly the consumption of plant foods, affects cancer risk. Her work includes using nutrition-intervention studies to investigate differences in how people respond to various foods and using such feeding studies to search for biomarkers, or molecular signals, of dietary exposure.

 

Fayth Miles, PhD

Fayth Miles, PhD is an investigator in the Loma Linda University School of Public Health with a secondary appointment in the School of Medicine. She is conducting research examining the interplay of lifestyle factors with alterations in biomarkers in the Adventist Health Study-2 cohort and examining the association of diet patterns with metabolic and epigenetic signatures using omics data to uncover novel mechanisms for diet-disease relationships.

Erik Nelson, PhD

Erik Nelson, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of molecular and integrative physiology in the School of Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research focuses on how endocrine and metabolic factors impact the progression of breast and ovarian cancers.

Kimberly Robien, PhD, RD, CSO, FAND

Kimberly Robien, PhD, RD, CSO, FAND is a nutrition scientist and cancer epidemiologist at George Washington University Milken Institute of Public Health whose research focuses on diet and body composition in relation to cancer prevention and survivorship. She is also a member of the GW Cancer Center, and a fellow with the Sumner M. Redstone Global Center for Prevention and Wellness.

Daniel Rosenberg, PhD

Daniel Rosenberg, PhD, is a Professor of Medicine andHealth Net Inc. Endowed Chair in Cancer Biology; Investigator at the Center for Molecular Oncology at UConn Health. His laboratory has a longstanding interest in the molecular events that accompany early gastrointestinal neoplasia. A major effort of their laboratory is to develop natural products that may be used to interrupt the processes of cancer initiation and progression.

Kenneth Schwartz, MD

Kenneth Schwartz, M.D., is a Professor Emeritus in the department of medicine at Michigan State University. He has an interest in hematology, oncology and internal medicine.

Paul Spagnuolo, PhD

Paul Spagnuolo  PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Food Science at the University of Guelph. His research focuses on the development of nutraceuticals as novel therapeutics and understanding cellular mechanisms by which nutraceuticals influence cell biology.

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