Adam de Smith, PhD

Assistant Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences

 

Health Equity Interests

Understanding the causes of childhood leukemia, with a special focus on high risk groups including Hispanic/Latinos and children with Down syndrome

Biography

Adam de Smith is an Assistant Professor in the USC Center for Genetic Epidemiology in the Department of Preventive Medicine, and is a member of the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. He is a genetic epidemiologist with a research focus on identifying the causes of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common childhood cancer. Dr. de Smith leads studies investigating the role of common and rare genetic variants in ALL etiology, with a particular interest in elucidating the increased ALL risk in Latinos. He also leads a study of leukemia in children with Down syndrome, the International Study of Down Syndrome Acute Leukemia (IS-DSAL), investigating genetic and epigenetic variation associated with risk of DS-ALL. In addition, Dr. de Smith utilizes whole genome sequencing of tumors to examine potential causative agents, i.e. DNA mutational signatures as molecular footprints of environmental exposures.

Research Interests

  • Disparities
  • Ethnic Disparities
  • Risk Factors
  • Cancer
  • Molecular Epidemiology
  • Genetic
  • Genetics
  • Cancer Epidemiology
  • Epidemiological Factors
  • Exposures
  • Genomic Data Sciences