Gastric adenocarcinoma is a leading cause of cancer-related death in the world. Unfortunately, gastric cancer is typically not diagnosed until late in the course of disease and in the United States, the five-year survival rates for gastric cancer are less than 30 percent.  

Helicobacter pylori infection is the strongest identified risk factor for this malignancy and represents a strategic target for chemoprevention; however, only a subset of colonized persons ever develop neoplasia.

Outcomes of H. pylori infection are mediated by precise interactions between bacterial determinants, host responses, the exposome, as well as the gastrointestinal microbiota.

Our laboratory has ongoing NIH-funded research projects in each of these areas which utilize novel ex vivo and in vivo models and unique prospectively-acquired human samples to generate translationally actionable targets.