Dr. Cheng, Assistant Professor, is a cancer and nutritional epidemiologist who joined UF in 2016. His studies have two main elements: 1) studying the role of genetic susceptibility, environmental exposure, and their interactions; and 2) investigating molecular markers in cancer subtypes to elucidate cancer etiologies. Current efforts emphasize molecular pathological markers that can not only classify cancer subtypes but also elucidate carcinogenic mechanisms and etiology. He is funded by a NIH/NCI K07 Career Development Award (2016-2021) focusing on the mTOR pathway in relation to obesity and breast cancer subtypes by race (mTOR pathway in breast cancer subtypes by race: A molecular pathology study). He received training in immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization, and tissue microarray construction as part of his NIH K07 award this summer.