I am a nutritional epidemiologist and straddle both the division of General Internal Medicine/Health Services Research in the Department of Medicine at UCLA and the Department of Biological Chemistry. This reflects my experience in human clinical and epidemiologic research and my focus on translation of new laboratory developments (specifically biomarkers) into the arena of strong, valid human etiologic and intervention studies. I have 30 years of experience in the study of diet and disease that spans two continents. Most pertinent to this proposal is my experience in training and translational cooperative research in Europe, as a PI of European Community collaborations, as the founder of a WHO Collaborating Center with a translational mission, as the developer and leader of a training grant that spanned three departments and 3 institutions in North Carolina (UNC, NIEHS and the EPA. I was recruited by Amgen to develop, as a senior director, its department of Global Epidemiology and translate pharmacologic effects in the context of the natural history of numerous diseases, and have a rare skill set, of value in the academic environment, that involves addressing to the need for rapid translation of new scientific findings into a clinical setting under inflexible and demanding timelines.  

Application of dietary assessment to the understanding of disease etiology especially in the areas of diet and brain function, anticarcinogens, heterocyclic amines and prostate and breast cancer incidence and survival, and the relationship of diet to atherosclerosis