Applying Epidemiologic Methods to Study the Factors in Liver Diseases and Cancer Prevention 

This past installment of the Division of Occupational Medicine grand rounds, on Friday 15-March-2024, focused on biological and modifiable factors in both liver diseases and cancer prevention as described by Dr. Xiaotao Zhang.
Xiaotao ‘Rony’ Zhang, MD, PhD, is Assistant Professor in the Institute for Translational Epidemiology and Division of Liver Diseases, Department of Medicine, and Cancer Prevention and Control, Tisch Cancer Institute. Rony earned his medical degree in Preventive Medicine in China. With a growing interest in disease prevention at the level of population health, he emigrated to the U.S to continue his education and training in Biostatistics and Epidemiology at Tulane University in New Orleans and The University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. This academic path set the stage for his next venture into the advanced field of integrative cancer epidemiology. Rony was awarded a post-doctoral fellowship by the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas to conduct integrative cancer epidemiology research at Baylor College of Medicine and MD Anderson Cancer Center. His research and experience are primarily focused on nutrition, the microbiome, liver diseases and cancer prevention. By merging epidemiologic methods with innovative techniques and bioinformatic/statistical strategies, his current research examines the role of biological and modifiable factors in fatty liver diseases and liver cancers. He hopes to unravel risk factors and mechanisms to inform the development of new preventive interventions and clinical strategies in this area.