Developing New Methods to Detect Cancer, Cardiovascular Disease, and Age-Related Diseases Earlier

Brian Joyce, PhD, is a research assistant professor of Preventive Medicine in the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention. His research employs epidemiologic methods to identify epigenetic biomarkers of health-related environmental exposures and behavior, for social determinants of health, with age-related chronic diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease.   

What are your research interests? 

Broadly, my interests are molecular biomarkers of chronic diseases, particularly cancer and cardiovascular disease. I’m interested in how these biomarkers are influenced by our environment and behavior, particularly social drivers of health and health disparities, and how they impact aging. I was trained in cancer epidemiology, and most of my work involves prospective cohort data that examines molecular factors in blood years before patients develop disease. 

What is the goal of your research? 

The goal of my research is to develop new ways to detect cancer, cardiovascular disease, and other age-related diseases much earlier in their progression and ideally intervene to prevent them.  

How did you become interested in this area of research? 

I was in graduate school when I first heard about the new ‘omics’ technologies that were being developed and was very excited for their potential to revolutionize public health and research. Around the same time, I lost two acquaintances tragically young to cancer, which inspired me to focus my study of epidemiology on cancer. Since then, I’ve learned a lot about epigenomics and health disparities, which have inspired me to focus on those fields specifically and led me to my mentor, Lifang Hou. 

How is your research funded? 

Primarily by NIH grants but I have also been funded by the Prostate Cancer Foundation and mechanisms within Northwestern through the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University and the Robert J. Havey, MD Institute for Global Health.  

Where have you recently published papers?  

My work has been published in journals such as Circulation, Clinical Epigenetics, the International Journal of Epidemiology, and The Journals of Gerontology. 

What types of collaborations are you engaged in across campus (and beyond)? 

I do a lot of work with large, national cohort studies (most notably CARDIA) which usually involves a large team of investigators both within and outside of Northwestern. I’m part of a team in the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention, but we work with other faculty in the Department of Preventive Medicine a lot. I’ve also collaborated on studies of cancer with the Institute for Global Health and with physicians at the Lurie Cancer Center on studies of cancer epidemiology and health disparities.