Ping Yang, M.D., Ph.D., is a staff member in the Division of Epidemiology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Her primary research interest is in genetic epidemiology of cancer, and she is leading three NIH R01 grants and co-leading two other NIH grants on lung cancer.

She initiated in 1997 and has been leading the Epidemiology and Genetics of Lung Cancer research program, which has been designed to accomplish the following goals with a multidisciplinary approach:

1) Identify low-penetrant yet high frequency genes that are involved in lung carcinogenesis, cancer progression and prognosis;

2) Investigate the roles of chronic and non-cancerous lung diseases including inherited disorders in lung cancer risk;

3) Evaluate the health and quality of life among long-term lung cancer survivors;

4) Search for high-penetrant but rare lung cancer susceptibility gene(s) by family based methods; and

5) In the framework of the Rochester Epidemiology Project, continue to monitor the trends in lung cancer morbidity and mortality to provide new leads as to causes; to estimate the attributable risks of high and/or low penetrant genes and their interactions with known carcinogens; and to evaluate the effectiveness of screening/early detection efforts.

Dr. Yang also co-leads three NIH-funded research studies in human glioma, one is within the Mayo Clinic SPORE in Brain Cancer, the other is within the GLIOGENE (An International Brain Tumor Family Study), and an International Glioma Case-Control Study.