A photo of our lab group at a lunch on campus.

Team members from left to right: Samir Gupta, Ranier Bustamante, Hanin Yassin, Shailja Shah, Eric Low, Ashley Earles, Mehul Trivedi, and Mark Lamm.



Team Members 

                                                                                                                                             

Samir Gupta, MD, MSCS, AGAF                                                                

Principal Investigator

Dr. Samir Gupta


Title(s): - Gastroenterologist

              - Professor, Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Internal

                Medicine

              - Co-Lead, Cancer Control Program, Moore's Cancer Center, UC 

                San Diego

              - Staff Physician, GI Section, San Diego Veterans Affairs

                Healthcare System

UCSD Profile:  https://profiles.ucsd.edu/samir.gupta

About

Samir Gupta, MD, MSCS, AGAF, is a gastroenterologist in San Diego, California, and is affiliated with multiple hospitals and healthcare centers including VA San Diego Healthcare System and UC San Diego Health-Jacobs Medical Center. Dr. Gupta earned his degree from the University of Michigan. He completed his medicine residency at the University of California, San Francisco, followed by fellowships in gastroenterology at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Gupta also holds a Master's of Science in Clinical Science from UT Southwestern Medical Center.

Research Interests

Dr. Gupta specializes in general gastroenterology and specifically in colorectal cancer detection and prevention. Specific work has included randomized controlled trials of strategies to increase screening rates for colorectal cancer, and observational studies seeking to identify novel methods for risk stratification of patients with polyps.

Dr. Gupta has specific expertise in the evaluation and management of individuals with a family history of colorectal cancer, including individuals with family cancer syndromes such as Lynch syndrome and Familial Adenomatous Polyposis. His expertise also includes the evaluation and management of patients with complex polyps, such as large adenoma polyps, sessile serrated adenomas, and hyperplastic polyposis syndrome.

Click here for Samir Gupta's complete publication list in PubMed.


            Section divider Dr. Shailja Shah

Shailja Shah, MD, MPH

Gastroenterologist

Title(s): - Associate Professor, Division of Gastroenterology, Department of

                 Medicine

              - Staff Physician, GI Section, San Diego Veterans Affairs Healthcare 

                 System            

UCSD Profile: https://profiles.ucsd.edu/shailja.shah

About

Shailja Shah, MD, MPH, is a gastroenterologist in San Diego, California, and is affiliated with VA San Diego Healthcare System. She received her medical degree from Drexel Univerisity of Medicine/Hahnemann University.

Research Interests

Dr. Shah's research interests are in inflammatory-associated carcinogenesis of the gastrointestinal tract, including the colon, and stomach, with a predominant focus on the latter. She is establishing a multidisciplinary research program that is anchored in defining non-genetic, genetic, and systems-level determinants of Helicobacter pylori treatment, and disease-related clinical outcomes among high-risk populations, including US Veterans and non-white racial/ethnic and immigrant groups. Dr. Shah is actively involved in research and public policy initiatives to promote gastric cancer prevention and early detection efforts, such as gastric cancer screening and preneoplasia surveillance, among high-risk populations.

                Section divider

Lin Liu, Ph.D.

Senior Biostatistician

Lin Liu 

Title(s): - Statistician, VA San Diego Healthcare System

              - Associate Professor of Biostatistics, University of California,

                San Diego

              - Director of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research

                Design, Altman Clinical and Translational Research

                Institute, University of California, San Diego

UCSD Profile: https://profiles.ucsd.edu/lin.liu

Research Interests

As a collaborative biostatistician, Dr. Liu has worked in many areas of research including cancer, cardiovascular disease, hepatitis C, chronic pain, HIV, infectious disease epidemiology, drug and alcohol abuse, sleep apnea, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Parkinson's disease, traumatic brain injury (TBI), psychiatric disorder, telemedicine, etc. In regards to colorectal cancer research, Dr. Liu's statistical methodology focuses on developing prognostic models in colorectal cancer research.

                 Section divider Joshua Demb

Joshua Demb, Ph.D., MPH

Postdoctoral Scholar

Title(s): Postdoctoral Scholar, Moore's Cancer Center, UC San Diego

              Health Science Research Specialist, VA San Diego Healthcare System

UCSD Profile: https://profiles.ucsd.edu/joshua.demb

Research Interests

Dr. Demb is a Cancer Epidemiologist with a focus on cancer screening, particularly for breast, colorectal, and lung cancers. He has extensive experience in public health research, particularly disparities in cancer screening uptake and follow-up. His postdoctoral research focused on cancer screening utilization as a result of patient-, provider-, institution-, and policy-level factors. Dr. Demb is also focused on decision support in cancer screening, specifically helping eligible individuals make informed decisions about potentially undergoing cancer screening.

                    Section divider

Kathleen Curtius, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Title(s): Assistant Professor in the Division of Biomedical Informatics, Department of Medicine

             Associate Member of the Cancer Control Program at UCSD Moore's Cancer Center

UCSD Profile: https://profiles.ucsd.edu/kathleen.curtius

Research Interests

The research aim of Dr. Curtius's interdisciplinary group, the Quantitative Cancer Control laboratory, is to improve the ability to detect and prevent cancers at their earliest stages.

                                                       Section divider                  

Eric Low, MD, MPH

Resident Physician

UCSD Profile: https://profiles.ucsd.edu/eric.low

About

Eric Low, MD, MPH, is a current NIH T32 gastroenterology fellow at UCSD with clinical and scientific career interests in esophageal disorders.


                                                       Section divider            

Mehul Trivedi, MD

Resident Physician

UCSD Profile: https://profiles.ucsd.edu/mehul.trivedi

About

Mehul Trivedi, MD, is a gastroenterology resident at UCSD with clinical and scientific career interests in gastrointestinal diseases.


                                                       Section divider                   

Joseph Toth, MD

Resident Physician

UCSD Profile: https://profiles.ucsd.edu/joseph.toth

About

Joseph Toth, MD, is a gastroenterology resident at UCSD with clinical and scientific career interests in gastrointestinal diseases.

                                                        Section divider

Kushagra Mathur, MD

Resident Physician


About

Kushagra Mathur, MD, is a gastroenterology resident at UCSD with clinical and scientific career interests in gastrointestinal diseases.


                                                        Section divider

Ashley Earles, MPH, PMPAshley Earles

Project Manager

 

About

Ashley Earles, MPH, PMP, received her Master's degree in Public Health from SDSU in 2014. She has been with the research group since 2015.       She earned her Project Management Professional certification in 2020.

                    Section divider

Jiyue Qin, MS

Pre-Doctoral Student


About

Jiyue Qin, MS, received her Master's degree in Biostatistics from Columbia University, New York in 2020. Jiyue is currently a Biostatistics pre-Doctoral student at UCSD and has been with the research group since 2023.

          



                                                       Section divider                  

Cindy Huang, MS

Statistician



About

Cindy Huang, MS, received her Master's degree in Biostatistics from the University of California, San Diego in 2023. Cindy has been with the research group since 2023.

                                                                

                                                        Section divider               


Tyler Bath, BS

Data Manager/Analyst

UCSD Profile: https://profiles.ucsd.edu/tyler.bath


About

Tyler Bath, BS, is a software engineer at the UCSD Division of Biomedical Informatics who works with Dr. Kit Curtius’s team. He received a B.S. in Computer Science from UCSD in 2014. His recent research focuses on protecting patient privacy, distributed analytics, and automation of pipelines and workflows via intuitive web interfaces. Tyler has been with the research group since 2023.

     

                                                        Section divider                           

Mark Lamm, MPH

Research Associate

About

Mark Lamm, MPH, received his Master's degree in Public Health from USC in 2016. He has been with the research group since 2020.

                               

      

                     Section divider

Hanin Yassin 

Hanin Yassin, BS

Research Associate

About

Hanin Yassin, BS, received her Bachelor's degree in Public Health Sciences from UCI in 2018. She has been with the research group since 2018.





Affiliated Investigators and Labs