Dr. Lauren C. Houghton specializes in the intersection of gender, chronic disease, and hormonal mechanisms. Her work focuses on how gendered norms and culture get under the skin to influence health across the life course, particularly through the lens of hormonal changes and their impact on breast cancer risk. Dr. Houghton is also a leading expert in the hormonal mechanisms of pubertal development and menstruation.

Her background in anthropology informs her approach, driving her interest in integrating mixed methods into epidemiological research to capture both biological and cultural determinants of health disparities. Her research extends across diverse populations, including extensive studies with migrant communities in Bangladesh, the UK, and Mongolia, to elucidate hormonal factors affecting females. Dr. Houghton also investigates the effects of gender-affirming hormone therapy on the steroid metabolome in cisgender men, transgender individuals, and nonbinary populations. She has conducted fieldwork in various settings, including Native Americans in the U.S., menopausal adults in the UK, school children in Bangladesh, and parents in New York City. Dr. Houghton is currently the principal investigator of two significant studies: Free Time 4 Wellness and SPECTRUM. Free Time 4 Wellness delivers and evaluates a co-designed intervention, by mothers for mothers, addressing childcare access. SPECTRUM analyzes gender affirming hormone use and the steroid metabolome in LGBTQIA+ people to better inform breast/ chest cancer screening.
 

Dr. Houghton earned her Bachelor of Arts from Ithaca College, followed by a Master of Science from Durham University, a PhD from Durham University, and post-doctoral training at the National Cancer Institute.
 

Michelle Lui, MPH, is a second-year pre-doctoral student in the department of Epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Michelle received her BA in Public Health and Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley in 2015, and her MPH in Epidemiology from Columbia University in 2021. Before beginning her doctoral training, she worked as a research associate at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where she was part of a research team that focused on interventions for smoking cessation among cancer patients. Currently her research projects examine disparities in cancer screening among historically marginalized populations, breast cancer risk prediction, and environmental impacts on breast cancer with a focus on gene-environment interactions. Her research interests focus on cancer epidemiology, particularly in prevention and detection, life course epidemiology, environmental health, and social epidemiology.