Gabriel Lai, Ph.D.

Program Director
Division of Integrative Biological and Behavioral Sciences
gabriel.lai@nih.gov

Dr. Gabriel Lai is a program director in the Division of Integrative Biological and Behavioral Sciences. His work promotes research to understand and address factors contributing to health disparities among various populations, including cancer and other chronic diseases, obesity, diabetes, the microbiome, and the environment. He is particularly interested in evaluating and promoting research on immigrants, and Asian American and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander populations.

Previously, he was a program director in the Epidemiology and Genomics Research Program at the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, where he managed a research portfolio and developed initiatives on a spectrum of modifiable factors and environmental exposures associated with cancer.

Dr. Lai served as a point of contact for several scientific areas and initiatives, including epidemiologic research on emerging risk factors and liver cancer susceptibility, basic and translational research on adducts in cancer risk, methodologic research on the microbiome in epidemiologic studies, environmental exposure assessment, and the trans-NIH Human Health Exposure Analysis Research program.

He has helped organize workshops on data harmonization, nutrition and physical activity epidemiology, human microbiome and health, and cancer systems epidemiology. With his interest in health disparities research, Dr. Lai has also given presentations on the importance and status of research on historically underrepresented groups.

Dr. Lai earned his Ph.D. in epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He later joined the Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program at NCI. As a fellow, he conducted research in the former Nutritional Epidemiology Branch (now known as the Metabolic Epidemiology Branch) within NCI’s Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics.

Selected Publications

• Elena J. W., Gallicchio, L., Pottinger, C. A., Akif, K. E., Hanisch, R., Kennedy, A. E., Lai, G. Y., Mahabir, S., Martin, D. N., Srinivasan, S., Yu, C.T., & Lam, T. K. (2023). Cancer epidemiology in Hispanic populations: An analysis of funded observational research at the National Cancer Institute. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers, & Prevention, 32(5), 653-658. https://doi:10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-22-0815.
• Goon, C., Bruce, T. A., Lun, J., Lai, G. Y., Chu, S., Le, P. T. (2022). Examining the Asian American leadership gap and inclusion issues with federal employee data: Recommendations for inclusive workforce analytic practice. Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics. https://doi.org/10.3389/frma.2022.958750.
• Ammons, S., Aja, H., Ghazarian, A. A., Lai, G. Y., Ellison, G. L. (2022). Perception of worry of harm from air pollution: results from the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS). BMC Public Health, 22(1),1254. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35752789/.
• Barajas, R., Hair, B., Lai, G., Rotunno, M., Shams-White, M. M., Gillanders, E. M., Mechanic, L. E. (2021). Facilitating cancer systems epidemiology research. PLoS One, 16(12). https://doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0255328.
• Ghazarian, A.A., Simonds, N. I., Lai, G. Y., Mechanic, L. E. (2021). Opportunities for Gene and Environment Research in Cancer: An Updated Review of NCI's Extramural Grant Portfolio. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers, & Prevention, 30(3), 576-583. https://doi:10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-20-1264.
• Sinha, R., Ahsan, H., Blaser, M., Caporaso, J. G., Carmical, J. R., Chan, A. T., Fodor, A., Gail, M. H., Harris, C. C., Helzlsouer, K., Huttenhower, C., Knight, R., Kong, H. H., Lai, G. Y., Hutchinson, D. L. S., Le, Marchand, L., Li, H., Orlich, M. J., Shi, J., Truelove, A., Verma, M., Vogtmann., E., White, O., Willett, W., Zheng, W., Mahabir, S., Abnet, C. (2018). Next steps in studying the human microbiome and health in prospective studies, Bethesda, MD, May 16-17, 2017. Microbiome, 6(1), 210. https://doi:10.1186/s40168-018-0596-z.
• Lai, G. Y., Wang, J. B., Weinstein, S. J., Parisi, D., Horst, R. L., Taylor, P. R., McGlynn, K. A., Mannisto, S., Albanes, D., Freedman, N. D. (2018). Association of 25-hydroxyvitamin D with liver cancer incidence and chronic liver disease mortality in a cohort of Finnish men. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers, & Prevention, 27(9), 1075-1082. https://doi:10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-17-0877.

Page published March 29, 2024