The Division of Public Health Sciences is home to the nation's oldest and largest program devoted to cancer-prevention research - an important endeavor, considering that many cancers may be avoidable by changes in lifestyle. The Division was originally established within the Hutchinson Center in 1975 as the Program in Epidemiology and Biostatistics. In 1983, it gained Division status coincident with the creation of the Cancer Prevention Research Program – the first NCI funded cancer prevention research unit. Since its inception, the Division has grown to be the largest of the Hutchinson Center’s four scientific Divisions with over 125 faculty and 775 staff working towards the Division’s mission of identifying strategies that will ultimately reduce the incidence of and mortality from cancer and other diseases.
The PHS Division is organized into five administrative programs. Each of these programs has a faculty with a wide range of interests and an interactive and interdisciplinary research orientation. These programs and their respective program heads are as follows:
A new program in Computational Biology is being developed under the direction of Dr. Robert Gentleman. Faculty of the PHS Division also actively participate in several of the Hutchinson Center’s interdisciplinary scientific programs, including leadership of the Center’s gastroenterology, prostate, and breast cancer initiatives.
Research in the PHS Division focuses on determining causes of cancer, helping to identify and assess effective screening and treatment methods, developing prevention strategies that reduce the risk of cancer, and developing research strategies to assist people to change behaviors toward healthier lifestyles. This prevention-oriented research also extends to other diseases, including HIV/AIDS, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and fractures.
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