2011 WCRF International Fellowships

International Course in Nutritional Epidemiology 5 September -16 September 2011

In 2011 WCRF International awarded six Fellowships to high calibre applicants to the International Course in Nutritional Epidemiology. The Fellows represented the continents of Asia, Africa & Europe and were at different levels of their academic careers, ranging from PhD students to University faculty. They all had a strong interest and background in cancer prevention and attended the course to enhance their understanding of nutritional epidemiology and apply what they learn to their present and future research

2011 WCRF International Fellows.

Learn more about the WCRF International 2011 Fellows:

Dr. Daniel Commane, Lecturer, University of Reading, UK.

Dr. Daniel Commane is a newly appointed lecturer in Human Nutrition at the University of Reading. His current research interests are in exploring diet - gene interactions in relation to biomarkers of bowel cancer risk and also in elucidating dietary influences on gastro-intestinal barrier function; he currently supervises one PhD student and one MSc student on projects in this area.

Daniel developed his teaching skills at the University of Chester where he contributed to the Nutrition and Dietetics programmes between 2009 and 2010.

His post-doctoral work was conducted at the University of Newcastle, where he coordinated the BORICC study. This was a multi-centre human observational study, which set out to develop diet related biomarkers of bowel cancer risk.

For his PhD, Daniel used in vitro models of the colon to explore the potential anti-carcinogenic activities of pro and prebiotics (University of Ulster, 2004).

Daniel has several publications in peer-reviewed journals; he has been awarded some funding to study the effects of enterolactone on markers of post-menopausal health. He has served as peer reviewer of journal publications and grant applications and is also a registered nutritionist with the UKVRN.

Daniel’s motivation for doing the Imperial College London Nutritional Epidemiology course is to deepen his understanding of nutritional epidemiology, which will benefit his research and also his students. He hopes that that course will serve as an excellent networking opportunity.

Dr. Dominique Scherer, Postdoctoral fellow, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Preventive Oncology, Heidelberg, Germany.

Dr. Dominique Scherer is a Postdoctoral fellow at the Division of Preventive Oncology at the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT), Heidelberg, Germany. She is involved in a number of projects. These aim to identify genetic as well as environmental risk factors that predispose individuals to colorectal cancer or influence survival or therapy response in colorectal cancer patients. Dominique’s special interest is the molecular link between obesity, inflammation and colorectal cancer pathogenesis.

Before her current position, Dominique held postdoctoral positions in the USA & Germany. At Stanford University in the USA, she analyzed lymphoblastoid cell lines to identify genetic variants that associate with inter-individual differences in drug response. While at the Division of Molecular Genetic Epidemiology, Würzburg, she worked on the identification of genetic and genomic markers, which associate with risk of melanoma or with survival and therapy response in melanoma patients.

Her PhD work was awarded with summa cum laude by the University of Heidelberg (2009) and was on the role of polymorphisms in pigmentation related and DNA repair genes in basal cell carcinoma of the skin (BCC) and melanoma.

Dominique’s doctoral and postdoctoral research have resulted in 14 scientific publications, mainly addressing the association between pigmentation related genetic variants and risk of BCC or melanoma.

Dominique’s motivation for doing the Imperial College London Nutritional Epidemiology course is for improving her knowledge of nutritional epidemiology. She is motivated to learn more about the methods that are being used to assess the impact of nutrition on public health.

Dr. Elima Jedy-Agba, Fogarty Coordinator at the Office of Research, Strategic Information and Training, Institute of Human Virology Nigeria.

Dr. Elima Jedy-Agba is the Fogarty Coordinator at the Office of Research, Strategic Information and Training, Institute of Human Virology Nigeria and is in charge of coordinating the National Cancer Registry Program recently initiated by the Institute. She obtained her M.B.B.CH (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery) degree from the University of Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria and has subsequently attained an MSc in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London.

Elima is certified in Cancer Registration and Cancer Epidemiology by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and has facilitated at several cancer registration workshops in Nigeria organised by the Institute of Human Virology in collaboration with IARC and the Federal Ministry of Health. She is also certified in the Principles and Practice of Clinical Trials and is a member of the Society of Oncology and Cancer Research of Nigeria. Her special interests are in Cancer Registration, Epidemiology and Research into HIV associated malignancies. She is also keenly interested in dietary and lifestyle factors and their role in cancer prevention.

Elima’s motivation for doing the Imperial College London Nutritional Epidemiology course is to broaden her knowledge of nutritional epidemiology particularly as it affects cancer prevention, to apply this to future research and to use this opportunity to network with major players in the field of nutrition and cancer.

Ms. Renate Heine-Bröring, PhD student, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands.

Ms. Renate Heine-Bröring is a PhD student working on dietary supplements in colorectal tumour recurrence and survival at Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands. Her PhD is supervised by Professor Ellen Kampman and financially supported by WCRF NL. One of the aims of her PhD project is to set up a prospective observational cohort study among 1000 colorectal cancer survivors. Her work will involve systematic literature reviews including meta-analyses. It will also include analysis and interpretation of data from other on-going cohort studies in sporadic colorectal adenoma patients and Lynch Syndrome patients.

Renate is a dietician by training and has a Master’s degree in Nutrition and Epidemiology (Wageningen University). Her Master’s degree involved an internship in cancer prevention at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, USA. Her MSc thesis focused on the role of fish and marine n-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA on coronary calcification and was published in a high-impact peer-reviewed journal in the field of nutrition.

Renate’s motivation for doing the Imperial College Nutritional Epidemiology course is to extend her knowledge and methodological skills in aspects related to nutritional epidemiology and to interact with other professionals in this research area. She expects to get a lot of new ideas, which she can apply to her current PhD project and in future research.

Dr. Salome A. Rebello, Post doctoral Research associate, Department of Epidemiology & Public Health, National University of Singapore, Singapore.

Dr. Salome A Rebello is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Life Sciences Institute, National University of Singapore. She is interested in understanding the relationship between dietary exposures and chronic disease prevention in Asian populations. Salome is part of an initiative that uses a cross-disciplinary multi-sectoral approach in understanding the increasing prevalence of obesity and Type-2 diabetes in Asia. These diseases have been predicted to lead to an increasing burden of other chronic diseases including certain cancers. She is also engaged in departmental efforts to refine dietary capture tools and to update the local dietary database with regards to important chemopreventive nutrients including folate and vitamin-D.

Salome‘s doctoral work (PhD in Nutrition from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, USA. 2009) focussed on the metabolism of soy isoflavonoids and its role in prostate cancer prevention in men at higher risk of developing the disease. She was awarded the University of Minnesota Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship (2007-2008) to support her research work and a graduate student teaching award from the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture for her work as a Teaching Assistant (2005).

The structured training programme offered by the Imperial College London Nutritional Epidemiology course is one of the reasons for Salome’s motivation for doing the course. She is also excited about the possibility of meeting some of the leading figures in this field and understanding best practices and learning analytical approaches from them.

Mr. Tony Ka Chun Yung, Instructor, School of Public Health and Primary Care, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Tony Yung is an Instructor and a PhD candidate working in public health nutrition in the School of Public Health and Primary Care of the Chinese, University of Hong Kong. Tony’s research relates to nutritional aspect of public health. His research interests focus on dietary behaviours of vulnerable populations and nutrition promotion by using setting based approaches. He worked on a study supported by WCRF UK, which investigated food avoidance behaviour among Chinese cancer survivors, the findings of which were presented in the 8th WCRF HK Health Professional Conference in May 2011. He teaches public health nutrition to undergraduate and postgraduates.

Tony has a Master’s degree in Nutrition and Dietetics from the University of Sydney (2002) and is registered as an accredited practicing dietitian in Australia. He is also a sports dietitian and an accredited nutritionist.

Tony’s motivation for doing the Imperial College London Nutritional Epidemiology course is due to its relevance in his current position as well as his research. He hopes that the course will strengthen his skills in nutrition epidemiology and contribute to the proposed study of his team on diet in rehabilitation phase of cancer survivors and making breakthroughs in the area. As a junior teaching staff, he is looking forward to learning more about setting up lectures and formulating state of the art curriculum.