Titles and Affiliations
Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Health Sciences
Mailman School of Public Health
Faculty Director, Biomarkers Laboratory
Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center
Co-director, Translational Research Facility Core
Columbia’s NIEHS Center for Environmental Health and Justice
Research Area
Developing better risk prediction models by identifying and incorporating biomarkers of environmental exposures.
Impact
Environmental chemicals such as polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and dichlorodiphenyltrichloro-ethane (DDT) cause DNA damage that can lead to cancer. The severity of the damage and the ability to repair it influences the risk for development of breast cancer. Women with an already high risk of breast cancer, due to inherited factors or strong family history, may be more vulnerable to environmental pollutant exposure. Previous studies include investigating how environmental exposures and genetic susceptibility—specifically as it relates to the ability to repair DNA damage—are related to breast cancer risk. Using the data from two established registries of high-risk families, Drs Wu and Terry have examined the impact of environmental exposures in young girls. Their work is particularly relevant as breast cancer incidence rates are rising in women under 50. They found that this increase cannot be explained by changes in fertility patterns, suggesting that environmental factors may be contributing in ways we do not yet fully understand. Understanding which factors matter, when they matter, and for whom they matter is critical for preventing early onset breast cancer. Drs. Wu and Terry are identifying those environmental chemicals that contribute to breast cancer risk and uncovering early biological markers that can guide prevention, screening, and policy in this population.
Progress Thus Far
Most research has measured environmental chemical exposures outside key “windows of susceptibility,” such as puberty, pregnancy, and menopause, when the breast undergoes major biological changes. So, these studies often produce inconsistent or null findings. Drs. Wu and Terry found that when exposures are measured during these critical windows, the links to breast cancer risk become stronger and more consistent. They are taking a deeper dive into this finding.
What’s Next
In the coming year, the team will employ high resolution mass spectrometry to measure more than 1,000 environmental chemicals in biological samples—this technology detects a broad range of known and suspected carcinogens. They will then link these chemical profiles to participants’ breast density measurements. Breast density will be measured by optical spectroscopy—a non-invasive tool refined by the team over the past decade to evaluate how exposures shape breast tissue composition at different life stages. Their comprehensive analyses could yield robust and reliable biomarkers that are critically needed to improve risk assessment, diagnostic routines, and clinical outcomes.
Biography
Hui-Chen Wu, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University Medical Center. She is also the Faculty Director of the Biomarkers Laboratory, a shared resource for the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center and co-director of the P30 Translational Research Facility Core at Columbia’s NIEHS Center for Environmental Health and Justice in Northern Manhattan. She received her PhD in Environmental Health Sciences from Columbia University.
Dr. Hui-Chen Wu is an environmental health scientist and molecular epidemiologist who investigates how environmental carcinogens drive cancer development through molecular mechanisms. She develops and applies ‘omics-based biomarkers—including DNA methylation, microRNA expression, and extracellular vesicle profiling—to detect early signals of breast and liver cancers, particularly in populations exposed to toxins such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and mycotoxins. Leveraging high-throughput platforms like Illumina methylation arrays, targeted bisulfite sequencing, and next-generation sequencing, her work uncovers epigenetic alterations and DNA repair phenotypes that reveal individual susceptibility to toxic exposures and cancer initiation.
