Project Title: Identifying unique biological factors as potential targets to mitigate colorectal cancer health disparities in Native Hawaiians
Position: Bioinformatics Data Scientist
Institution: University of Hawaii at Manoa
Funding NIH Institution/Center: National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities
Grant ID: K99MD019294
Dr. Yuanyuan Fu is a bioinformatics data scientist at the University of Hawai‘i’s John A. Burns School of Medicine (UH JABSOM), where she works in the Bioinformatics Core of the Department of Quantitative Health Sciences. She earned her PhD in Cancer Epidemiology from the Department of Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. During her time as a Graduate Research Assistant in the Cancer Epidemiology Program at the University of Hawai‘i Cancer Center, she focused on the biological significance and clinical applications of novel molecular markers in cancer. Following the completion of her doctorate in 2019, Dr. Fu joined UH JABSOM as a postdoctoral researcher, where she was awarded the prestigious 2022 AACR (American Association for Cancer Research) Cancer Disparities Fellowship, one of only two recipients that year.
Dr. Fu’s dedication to addressing cancer disparities is rooted in her belief in equitable healthcare and her commitment to developing inclusive strategies for accessible cancer care for all individuals, irrespective of background or socio-economic status. This passion led her to investigate the risk factors that drive health disparities across diverse racial and ethnic groups. She has also been actively involved in the NIMHD’s RCMI program, provided bioinformatics data science workshops, and recently received a clinical research pilot funding (RCC-004UHI-Pilot) for her project titled “Deciphering Exosomal Circulating ncRNA Signature for Lung Cancer Early Detection and Functional Networks Regulating Glutamine Metabolism in Diverse Populations.”
As a MOSAIC scholar, Dr. Fu is dedicated to advancing research on biomedical and health disparities through collaborations with researchers from diverse backgrounds. She is also committed to mentoring and including more minority students in the biomedical sciences, with the ultimate goal of improving health outcomes for underrepresented populations.