Somdat Mahabir, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Program Director, Modifiable Risk Factors Branch
Contact Information
Epidemiology and Genomics Research Program
Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences
National Cancer Institute
6130 Executive Blvd., Rm. 5138, MSC 7393
Bethesda, MD 20892-7393
(For express delivery, use Rockville, MD 20852)
telephone: (301) 496-0270
fax: (301) 435-6609
e-mail: mahabir@mail.nih.gov
Interest Areas
Mechanisms of obesity/adiposity characteristics, energy balance, diet, alcohol, and other modifiable environmental exposures in cancer etiology, prevention, treatment, and survival; Early life events/exposures and cancer later in life; Birth cohorts; Multi-ethnic cohorts; Childhood cancers
Degrees
Ph.D. - Nutrition
New York University
M.P.H. - Epidemiology
New York Medical College
M.S. - Clinical Nutrition
New York Institute of Technology
Biography
Dr. Mahabir is a Nutritional Epidemiologist and Program Director in the Epidemiology and Genomics Research Program's (EGRP) Modifiable Risk Factors Branch (MRFB). His responsibilities include the scientific management of a research portfolio that focuses on modifiable cancer risk factors, such as diet and nutrition, alcohol, physical activity, and energy balance.
He is the scientific contact for NCI's Funding Opportunity Announcements for Studies of Energy Balance and Cancer in Humans and is the EGRP representative to the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS) initiative for Transdisciplinary Research on Energetics and Cancer
(TREC). Dr. Mahabir is also the EGRP’s scientific point of contact for the International Childhood Cancer Cohort Consortium (I4C) and he organized the Expert Panel Workshop on Early-Life Events and Cancer in May 2011.
Prior to joining EGRP in 2009, Dr. Mahabir was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology, Division of Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences, at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. He also was an Associate Member of the Center for Research on Environmental Disease and an Affiliated Faculty member of the Center for Research on Minority Health. Dr. Mahabir was a member of the Psychosocial, Behavioral, and Health Services Research Committee Institutional Review Board (IRB) section at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. He was also a member of the American Cancer Society's (ACS) Institutional Research Grant (IRG) program and the Clinical, Translational, and Population-Based Research Projects review committees at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.
Dr. Mahabir has been the Principal Investigator and Co-Investigator on grants funded by NIH, the ACS-M.D. Anderson Cancer Center IRG, and the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Before joining the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, he was a Cancer Prevention Fellow at NCI, a Project Director with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center's Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and an Adjunct Assistant Professor with the New York Institute of Technology.
He is the recipient of an NCI Cancer Prevention Research Training Merit Award and academic awards from New York Medical College and New York Institute of Technology.
Selected Publications
Mahabir S, Frenkel K, Brady MS, Coit D, Lewis JJ, Leibes L, Karkoszka J, Roush G, Berwick M. Randomized, placebo-controlled trial of alpha-tocopherol supplementation on levels of autoantibodies against 5-hydroxymethyl-2-deoxyuridine (anti-HMdU aAbs) in melanoma patients: A pilot study. Melanoma Research, 2004; 14:49-56.
Mahabir S, Baer DJ, Giffen C, Campbell WS, Hartman TJ, Clevidence BA, Albanes D, Taylor PR. Calorie intake misreporting by diet record and food frequency questionnaire compared to doubly labeled water among postmenopausal women. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2006;60:561-565.
Mahabir S, Baer DJ, Giffen C, Hartman TJ, Campbell WS, Clevidence B, Taylor PR. Comparison of energy expenditure estimates from four physical activity questionnaires to doubly labeled water among postmenopausal women. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2006;84:230-236.
Mahabir S, Baer DJ, Johnson LL, Hartman TJ, Dorgan JF, Campbell WS, Clevidence BA, Taylor PR. Usefulness of body mass index (BMI) as a sufficient adiposity measurement for sex hormone concentration associations in postmenopausal women. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, 2006;15(12):2502-2507.
Mahabir S, Ettinger S, Johnson L, Baer D, Clevidence BA, Hartman TJ, Taylor PR. Measures of adiposity and body fat distribution in relation to serum folate levels in postmenopausal women in a feeding study. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2008; 62:644-650.
