Professor Wei-hua Jia obtained her PhD in Medicine in Epidemiology from Peking Union Medical College. After her PhD training, she joined the Department of Experimental Research at Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in Southern China. Prof. Jia has long been dedicated to research on cancer epidemiology, cancer genetics and genomics, especially on the interactive effects among Epstein Barr virus (EBV), genetics and the environment in nasopharynx carcinoma. She has published more than 150 SCI papers in world renowned journals such as Nature Genetics, J Natl Cancer I and Am J Human Genet. She has investigated the long-term trend and risk factors of nasopharynx carcinoma in high-incidence areas. She first reported a relationship between smoking and reactivation of EBV and proposed its potential etiological role for nasopharynx carcinoma. Besides, she has discovered new susceptible genes of nasopharynx carcinoma, including DNA repair genes, metabolism genes for exogenous compounds and series of genes related to immune response, and established a predictive model for onset risk of nasopharynx carcinoma. Her other research interests include discovering new susceptible genes of colorectal cancer and lymphoma, and identifying the genomic characteristics that contribute to the tumorigenesis and prognosis of multiple cancers. She was awarded the National Ten-thousand Talents in Scientific and Technological Innovation (2016), and the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (2013). At present, she is Vice-chair of Chinese Anti-Cancer Association Cancer Epidemiology Professional Committee, Vice-chair of the Tissue Biological Samples Branch for Chinese Medicine Biotechnology Association, Chair of Guangdong Anti-Cancer Association Cancer Epidemiology Professional Committee.

Molecular epidemiology of Cancer

Cancer genetics and genomics

Cancer risk prediction and individual intervention

1995.09 - 1998.07  Doctor of medicine in epidemiology, Peking Union Medical College

1995.07 - 1992.09  Master of medicine in epidemiology, Peking Union Medical College

1992.07 - 1987.09  Bachelor of preventive medicine, Shanxi Medical University

Selected publications

[1] Genome-wide association study of B cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma identifies 3q27 as a susceptibility locus in the Chinese population. Tan DE, Foo JN, Bei JX, Chang J, Peng R, Zheng X, Wei L, Huang Y, Lim WY, Li J, Cui Q, Chew SH, Ebstein RP, Kuperan P, Lim ST, Tao M, Tan SH, Wong A, Wong GC,Tan SY, Ng SB, Zeng YX, Khor CC, Lin D*, Seow AL*, Jia WH*, Liu J*. Nat Genet. 2013 Jul;45(7):804-7.

[2] Genome-wide association analyses in east Asians identify new susceptibility loci for colorectal cancer. Jia WH#, Zhang B#, Matsuo K, Shin A, Xiang YB, Jee SH, Kim DH, Ren Z, Cai Q, Long J, Shi J, Wen W, Yang G, Delahanty RJ; Genetics and Epidemiology of Colorectal Cancer Consortium (GECCO); Colon Cancer Family Registry (CCFR), Ji BT, Pan ZZ, Matsuda F, Gao YT, Oh JH, Ahn YO, Park EJ, Li HL, Park JW, Jo J, Jeong JY, Hosono S, Casey G, Peters U, Shu XO, Zeng YX, Zheng W. Nat Genet. 2013 Feb;45(2):191-6.

[3] Identification of risk loci and a polygenic risk score for lung cancer: a large-scale prospective cohort study in Chinese populations. Dai J, Lv J, Zhu M, Wang Y, Qin N, Ma H, He YQ, Zhang R, Tan W, Fan J, Wang T, Zheng H, Sun Q, Wang L, Huang M, Ge Z, Yu C, Guo Y, Wang TM, Wang J, Xu L, Wu W, Chen L, Bian Z, Walters R, Millwood IY, Li XZ, Wang X, Hung RJ, Christiani DC, Chen H, Wang M, Wang C, Jiang Y, Chen K, Chen Z, Jin G, Wu T, Lin D, Hu Z*, Amos CI*, Wu C*, Wei Q*, Jia WH*, Li L*, Shen H*. Lancet Respir Med 2019;7:881-91

[4] Genome-Wide Association Study of Susceptibility Loci for Radiation-Induced Brain Injury. Wang TM, Shen GP, Chen MY, Zhang JB, Sun Y, He J, Xue WQ, Li XZ, Huang SY, Zheng XH, Zhang SD, Hu YZ, Qin HD, Bei JX, Ma J, Mu J, Yao Shugart Y, Jia WH*.J Natl Cancer Inst. 2018 Oct 8.

[5] An epidemiological and molecular study of the relationship between smoking, risk of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, and epstein-barr virus activation. Xu FH, Xiong D，Xu YF, Cao SM, Xue WQ, Qin HD, Liu WS, Cao JY, Zhang Y, Feng QS, Chen LZ, Li MZ, Liu ZW, Liu Q, Hong MH, Shugart YY, Zeng YX , Zeng MS*, Jia WH*. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2012 Sep 19;104(18):1396-410.

[6] Genome-wide association study identifies new susceptibility loci for epithelial ovarian cancer in Han Chinese women. Chen K* ,Ma H ,Li L ,Zang R , Wang C , Song F ,Shi T ,Yu D,Yang M,Xue W,Dai J, Li S, Zheng H, Wu C, Zhang Y, Wu X,Li D, Xue F,Li H, Jiang Z, Liu J, Liu Y, Li P, Tan W, Han J, Jie J, Hao Q, Hu Z, Lin D, Ma D*,Jia W*,Shen H*,Wei Q*. Nat Commun. 2014 Aug 19;5:4682.

[7] Genomic Characterization of Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Reveals Critical Genes Underlying Tumorigenesis and Poor Prognosis. Qin HD, Liao XY, Chen YB, Huang SY, Xue WQ, Li FF, Ge XS, Liu DQ, Cai Q, Long J, Li XZ, Hu YZ, Zhang SD, Zhang LJ, Lehrman B, Scott AF, Lin D, Zeng YX, Shugart YY*, Jia WH*. Am J Hum Genet. 2016 Apr 7;98(4):709-27.

[8] Non-viral environmental risk factors for nasopharyngeal carcinoma: A systematic review. Jia WH*, Qin HD. Semin Cancer Biol. 2012 Apr;22(2):117-26.

[9] Comprehensive Pathway-Based Association Study of DNA Repair Gene Variants and the Risk of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma. Qin HD, Shugart YY, Bei JX, Pan QH, Chen L, Feng QS, Chen LZ, Huang W, Liu JJ, Jorgensen TJ, Zeng YX, Jia WH*. Cancer Res. 2011, 71(8):3000-8.

[10] Global trends in incidence and mortality of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Tang LL, Chen WQ, Xue WQ, He YQ, Zheng RS, Zeng YX, Jia WH*.Cancer Lett 2016;374: 22-30.

[11] The Relationship Between Environmental Factors and the Profile of Epstein-Barr Virus Antibodies in the Lytic and Latent Infection Periods in Healthy Populations from Endemic and Non-Endemic Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Areas in China. He YQ, Xue WQ, Xu FH, Xu YF,  Zhang JB, Yu HL, Feng QS, Chen LZ, Cao SM, Liu Q, Mu JB, Zeng YX, Jia WH*. EBiomedicine 2018 (30): 184-191.

[12] Natural Variations in BRLF1 Promoter Contribute to the Elevated Reactivation Level of Epstein-Barr Virus in Endemic Areas of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma. Zhang JB, Huang SY, Wang TM, Dong SQ, He YQ, Zheng XH，Li XZ, Wang F, Mu JB, Jia WH*. EBioMedicine. 2018 Nov 9.

[13] Association Between Environmental Factors and Oral Epstein-Barr Virus DNA Loads: A Multicenter Cross-sectional Study in China.  He YQ, Liao XY, Xue WQ, Xu YF, Xu FH, Li FF, Li XZ, Zhang JB, Wang TM, Wang F, Yu HL, Feng QS, Chen LZ, Cao SM, Liu Q, Mu J, Jia WH*. J Infect Dis. 2018 Oct 11.

[14] Human genetic variants of homologous recombination repair genes first found to be associated with Epstein-Barr virus antibody titers in healthy Cantonese. Shen GP, Pan QH, Hong MH, Qin HD, Xu YF, Chen LZ, Feng QS, Jorgensen TJ, Shugart YY, Zeng YX, Jia WH*. Int J Cancer. 2011 Sep 15;129(6):1459-66.

Updated May 2020