Faculty in the Department of Epidemiology conduct a wide range of investigations from molecular and genetic markers, plasma biomarkers, lifestyle factors to health informatics. Our faculty members have areas of expertise listed below:

• Cancer Epidemiology and Cancer Prevention
• Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology
• Clinical Epidemiology
• Metabolic Disease Epidemiology
• Infectious Disease Epidemiology
• Injury Epidemiology
• Genetic and Molecular Epidemiology
• Nutritional Epidemiology
• Pharmacoepidemiology
• Public Health Informatics

Associate Professor

Dr. Dixon’s research focuses on applying informatics methods and tools to improve population health in clinical as well as public health organizations. His work leverages clinical and administrative data in electronic health records to improve population outcomes, better understand threats to public health as well as care delivery processes, examine public health business processes, and make population surveillance more efficient.

Three Decades of Utilizing an Integrated Information Infrastructure for Outcomes Research: A Systematic Review

Integration of Provider, Pharmacy and Patient-reported Data to Improve Medication Adherence for Type 2 Diabetes: A Controlled Before-after Pilot Study

Characterizing Informatics Roles and Needs of Public Health Workers: Results from the Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey

Lecturer, Epidemiology Education Director

Thomas Duszynski’s research interests include infectious diseases and how they continue to shape the world and public health’s response.  This coupled with the rise of antimicrobial resistance and the resurgence of vaccine preventable diseases.  In addition, Thomas is interested in engaging students to develop strong epidemiological skills to address these and other challenges to ensure a competent public health workforce. 

Professor, Epidemiology Department Chair

Dr. Han is interested in understanding the influence of genetic and environmental factors on the etiology and prevention of skin lesions. His genetic epidemiological research started with the etiology of skin cancers and expanded to other skin lesions such as psoriasis, moles, and acne. Besides a series of genetic susceptibility investigation, he has also conducted a great deal of epidemiological research to identify lifestyle and environmental risk factors and comorbidities for skin cancers, psoriasis, and acne. 

Genome-wide Association Study Identifies Novel Susceptibility Loci for Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Genome-wide Association Study Identifies 14 Novel Risk Alleles Associated with Basal Cell Carcinoma

Visiting Lecturer

Timothy McFarlane's research interests are focused on the intersection of informatics, epidemiology, and public health - public health informatics. Within public health informatics, Timothy's research interests focus on development, implementation, and evaluation of methods for leveraging secondary data sources for robust epidemiological studies with measurable and sustainable public health impact.

Characterizing Informatics Roles and Needs of Public Health Workers: Results from the Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey

Health Information Exchange: Navigating and Managing a Network of Health Information Systems

Facility Registries: Metadata for Where Care is Delivered

Associate Professor, Epidemiology Concentration Core Director, IU Simon Cancer Center

Dr. Hongmei Nan’s major research interest is in the molecular and genetic epidemiology of cancer. Dr. Nan’s studies are focused on investigating the roles of genetic susceptibility; epigenetic factors, such as methylation; biomarkers; and environmental factors, and their potential interactions in the etiology and prevention of cancer.

Aspirin Use, the 8q24 Cancer Susceptibility SNP rs6983267, and Risk of Colorectal Cancer According to CTNNB1 (ß-catenin) Alterations

Prospective Study of Alcohol Consumption and the Risk of Colorectal Cancer by Folic Acid Fortification in the United States

Pre-diagnostic Leukocyte Genomic DNA Methylation and the Risk of Colorectal Cancer in Women

Professor, Epidemiology PhD Program Director

Dr. Song’s primary research area is the primary prevention and epidemiology of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. His research focus is to identify and investigate dietary and biochemical markers of nutrient metabolisms (e.g. magnesium and vitamin D) in the etiology of type 2 diabetes and other cardiometabolic diseases and to subsequently develop disease primary prevention strategies through nutritional interventions and evidence-based analytic methods.

Sodium-glucose Co-transporter-2 Inhibitors and Risk of Adverse Renal Outcomes Among Patients with Type 2 Diabetes: A Network and Cumulative Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Elevated Serum Magnesium Associated with SGLT2 Inhibitor Use in Type 2 Diabetes Patients: a Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Association Between Benign Cutaneous Nevi and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Men and Women: Results from Two Prospective Cohort Studies

Clinical Associate Professor

Dr. Steele's research interests include elevator and escalator injuries in older adults, gun violence, and toxic exposures to the constituents of exhaust emissions during automobile racing.

Ambulance Transport of Noncritical Children: Emergency Medical Service Providers' Knowledge, Opinions, and Practice

Blood Lead Levels in NASCAR Teams

Elevator-related Injuries to Older Adults in the United States, 1990 to 2006

Associate Professor

Dr. Wessel’s primary research area is cardiovascular genomic epidemiology. Her research involves identifying novel genomic risk factors for coronary heart disease and related outcomes, disease-gene associations for coronary heart disease pharmacologic endpoints, developing innovative public health interventions to promote healthy lifestyles through personalized interventions and risk communication based on individual’s genetic and lifestyle profiles, and developing epidemiologic and statistical methods for genomic data.

A Low-frequency Inactivating AKT2 Variant Enriched in the Finnish Population is Associated with Fasting Insulin Levels and Type 2 Diabetes Risk

SOS2 and ACP1 Loci Identified through Large-Scale Exome Chip Analysis Regulate Kidney Development and Function

Rare and Low-frequency Coding Variants Alter Human Adult Height

Associate Professor

Dr. Zhang’s primary research interest is nutritional and molecular epidemiology of cancer, with a focus on nutrient-gene interactions in the etiology of common cancers, particularly pancreatic and prostate cancers. Dr. Zhang is also interested in the identification and validation of dietary, hormonal, metabolic, and genetic factors that are predictive of precursors to invasive cancers and/or are valuable for early cancer detection.

Urinary Phytoestrogens and Cancer, Cardiovascular, and All-cause Mortality in the Continuous National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

Cholecystectomy, Gallstones, Tonsillectomy, and Pancreatic Cancer Risk: A Population-based Case-control Study in Minnesota

Genetic Variability in Energy Balance and Pancreatic Cancer Risk in a Population-based Case-control Study in Minnesota