Rayjean J. Hung, Ph.D., M.S.

Head, Prosserman Centre for Population Health Research

Associate Director of Population Health, Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health

Professor, Division of Epidemiology, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto

Dr. Rayjean Hung's research focuses on identifying individual molecular profiles related to cancer risk and progression. The overall goal is to reduce cancer death by early detection and improved patient management. Dr. Hung studies etiology and genomic architecture of adult and pediatric tumors and she integrates epidemiological and clinical data with molecular profile for comprehensive risk models in the population. She has been leading several large-scale international studies, including aero-digestive tract cancer, pancreatic cancer and Wilms tumor. Dr. Hung has substantial experience and expertise in analyzing data with high-dimensionality and published several high-impact papers on lung cancer genetics and cross-cancer pleiotropy. She has also led several seminal and highly-cited papers that quantified the risk factors for lung cancer beyond tobacco smoking. In addition, she has several long-standing collaborative projects with the World Health Organization and National Institutes of Health, and has advisory roles for several national and international organizations.

Related to children's health, in addition to Wilms tumor, Dr. Hung has been studying how early life determinants can affect children's health. She is the PI of the Childhood Brain Tumor Epidemiology in Ontario (CBREO) study and co-Lead of Ontario Birth Study-Kids, which is designed to be a research platform for research topics related to developmental origin of health and diseases. In addition, she is the co-PI of the Healthy Life Trajectories Initiative (HeLTI)- South Africa study. Dr. Hung's research program helps to advance knowledge on why specific complex diseases occurs, identify high risk population for targeted screening for early detection and improved prognosis.