Starting date: January 2021
Work Programme
The Biostatistics and Data Integration Team (BDI):
- leads the development and application of biostatistical and bioinformatic methods for the analysis and integration of lifestyle and molecular data in cancer epidemiology studies;
- provides statistical support for research conducted within NME;
- oversees the management and sharing of epidemiological data within the EPIC cohort and other NME studies; and
- promotes research reproducibility through the sharing of relevant data and codes.
Specific current projects include research on:
- statistical methods for the analysis of molecular data, including the definition of procedures for data pre-processing and normalization of metabolomics, proteomics, genetic, and other molecular data, as well as supervised and unsupervised machine learning methods for the interrogation and integration of molecular data in cancer research;
- federated analyses to conduct multicentre collaborative studies and mitigate challenges related to data protection regulations when moving individual-level data across cancer institutes;
- molecular signatures of lifestyle factors and their relationship with cancer;
- lifestyle factors and cancer risk, including the definition of healthy lifestyle scores and the analysis of longitudinal data to investigate the impact of adopting healthy choices during adulthood;
- mediation analysis to investigate possible mechanisms underlying the carcinogenic effect of established cancer risk factors; and
- genetic epidemiological analyses, including genome-wide association studies (GWAS), Mendelian randomization, and co-localization, to investigate causal relationships between candidate risk factors and cancer risk.
Team Composition
Team Leader: Dr Vivian Viallon, Nutrition and Metabolism Branch (NME), IARC
Email: ViallonV@iarc.who.int
Team members:
Dr Alem Gebremariam Abraha (Postdoctoral Scientist, NME)
Ms Carine Biessy (Statistical Assistant, NME)
Dr Felix Boekstegers (Postdoctoral Scientist, NME)
Ms Géraldine Bocquet-Dumont (Research Assistant, NME)
Dr Elizabeth Considine (Visiting Scientist, NME; University College Cork)
Dr Leonie Courcoul (Postdoctoral Scientist, NME)
Dr Emeline Courtois (Visiting Scientist, NME; INSERM)
Dr Ali Farnudi (Postdoctoral Scientist, NME)
Dr Pietro Ferrari (Branch Head, NME)
Dr Heinz Freisling (Scientist, NME)
Mr Quan Gan (Doctoral Student, NME)
Dr Matthew Lee (Postdoctoral Scientist, NME)
Dr Komodo Matta (Postdoctoral Scientist, NME)
Dr Gael Poux-Medard (Postdoctoral Scientist, NME)
Mr Arthur Quenechdu (Research Assistant, NME)
Ms Fanélie Vasson (Doctoral Student, NME)
Ms Diana Wu (Doctoral Student, NME)
Ms Karina Zaluski (Administrative Assistant, NME)
Key networks: European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC), UK Biobank (UKB), National Cancer Institute (NCI) Cohort Consortium, Northern Sweden Health and Disease Study (NSDHS)
Key funding: Institut national du Cancer (INCa), Ligue nationale contre le Cancer (LNCC), United States National Institutes of Health (NIH), World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF), European Commission
Key publications
- Breeur M, Atkins J, Peruchet-Noray L, et al. (2026). Autoencoders reveal polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA)-related metabolic signature linked to cancer risk. EBioMedicine. (Forthcoming)
- Gan Q, Freisling H, Peruchet-Noray L, Fontvieille E, Matta K, Zhai Y, et al. (2025). Adiposity, mortality, and disease risk: insights from bioimpedance analysis and magnetic resonance imaging. BMC Med. 23(1):550. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-025-04356-9 PMID:41074136
- Lee MA, Hatcher CA, Hazelwood E, Goudswaard LJ, Tsilidis KK, Vincent EE, et al. (2024). A proteogenomic analysis of the adiposity colorectal cancer relationship identifies GREM1 as a probable mediator. Int J Epidemiol. 54(1):dyae175. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyae175 PMID:39846783
- Pittavino M, Plummer M, Johansson M, Riboli E, Ferrari P (2025). A Bayesian hierarchical framework to integrate dietary exposure and biomarker measurements into aetiological models. Appl Stat. 74(5):1427–43. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrsssc/qlaf029
- Ebrahimi E, Naudin S, Dimou N, Mayén AL, Wang M, Abnet CC, et al. (2025). Alcohol consumption and upper aerodigestive tract squamous cell carcinoma: evidence from 28 prospective cohorts. J Natl Cancer Inst. 117(12):2598–611. https://doi.org/10.1093/jnci/djaf230 PMID:40977057
- Matta K, Viallon V, Chatziioannou AC, Robinot N, Wedekind R, Dahm CC, et al. (2025). Can serum metabolic signatures inform on the relationship between healthy lifestyle and colon cancer risk? Cancer Metab. 13(1):30. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40170-025-00388-0 PMID:40524238
- Laskar RS, Murphy N, Ferrari P, Brennan P, Cross AJ, Guevara M, et al. (2025). A prospective investigation of early-onset colorectal cancer risk factors – pooled analysis of three large-scale European cohorts. Br J Cancer. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-025-03303-y PMID:41422343
- Matta K, Viallon V, Botteri E, Peveri G, Dahm C, Nannsen AØ, et al. (2024). Healthy lifestyle change and all-cause and cancer mortality in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition cohort. BMC Med. 22(1):210. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-024-03362-7 PMID:38807179
- Breeur M, Stepaniants G, Keski-Rahkonen P, Rigollet P, Viallon V (2024). Optimal transport for automatic alignment of untargeted metabolomic data. Elife. 12:RP91597. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.91597 PMID:38896449
- Viallon V, Freisling H, Matta K, Nannsen AØ, Dahm CC, Tjønneland A, et al. (2024). On the use of the healthy lifestyle index to investigate specific disease outcomes. Sci Rep. 14(1):16330. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-66772-w PMID:39009699