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You are here: Home / Unhee Lim PhD, MS » Faculty

Unhee Lim PhD, MS » Faculty


Unhee Lim  , PhD, MS
Full Member, Population Sciences in the Pacific Program (Cancer Epidemiology)University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center

Work Email: ulim@cc.hawaii.eduINTERNET

Photo of Unhee Lim PhD, MS

Research Interests

Dr. Lim's research involves the epidemiologic investigation of nutrition and lifestyle risk factors and related racial/ethnic heterogeneity in cancer etiology. In particular, she is interested in understanding the carcinogenic effects of obesity and body fat distribution and how they vary across racial/ethnic populations. Obesity is becoming the leading risk factor for cancer, contributing to the development of over a dozen types of cancer. Combined disease burden of obesity or excess body fatness is estimated to be responsible for $150 billion in annual medical care and about 20% of all deaths in the U.S. Additionally, the detrimental metabolic effects of excess body fat is known to be greater when it is stored in the abdominal and intra-abdominal regions than in peripheral and sub-cutaneous regions. In the Multiethnic Cohort Study, Dr. Lim and colleagues have observed that Asian Americans, along with Latinos and Native Hawaiians, have a greater propensity to accumulate intra-abdominal fat in the viscera, liver, and pancreas, compared to whites or African Americans. In collaboration with multidisciplinary researchers, Dr. Lim is investigating additional disease burden from the high-risk fat depots, biomarkers for understanding their metabolic effects, and lifestyle interventions to improve the adiposity and metabolic profiles.

Recent Publications

  • Lim U, Monroe KR, Buchthal S, Fan B, Cheng I, Kristal BS, Lampe JW, Hullar MA, Franke AA, Stram DO, Wilkens LR, Shepherd J, Ernst T, Le Marchand L. (2019). Propensity for intra-abdominal and hepatic adiposity varies among ethnic groups. Gastroenterology; 156:966-975. PMC6409195.
  • Song MA, Ernst T, Tiirikainen M, Tost J, Wilkens LR, Chang L, Kolonel LN, Le Marchand L, Lim U. (2018). Methylation of imprinted IGF2 regions is associated with total, visceral and hepatic adiposity in postmenopausal women. Epigenetics; 13:858-865. PMC6224210.
  • Setiawan VW, Lim U, Lipworth L, Lu SC, Shepherd J, Ernst T, Wilkens LR, Henderson BE, Le Marchand L. (2016). Sex and racial/ethnic differences in the association of obesity with risk of hepatocellular carcinoma. Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, 14:309-16. PMC4718778.
  • Lim U, Kocarnik JM, Bush WS, Matise TC, Caberto C, Park SL, Carlson CS, Deelman E, Duggan D, Fesinmeyer M, Haiman CA, Henderson BE, Hindorff LA, Kolonel LN, Peters U, Stram DO, Tiirikainen M, Wilkens LR, Wu C, Kooperberg C, Le Marchand L. (2014). Pleiotropy of cancer susceptibility variants on the risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma: the PAGE Consortium. PLoS ONE, 9(3):e89791. PMC3943855.
Lim U, Turner SD, Franke AA, Cooney RV, Wilkens LR, Ernst T, Albright CL, Novotny R, Chang L, Kolonel LN, Murphy SP, Le Marchand L. (2012). Predicting total, abdominal, visceral and hepatic adiposity with circulating biomarkers. PLoS ONE, 7(8):e43502. PMC3422255.

Recent Grants

U. Lim, Contact PI; Lampe, MPIs NCI R01 CA204368 "TMAO, the Gut Microbiome, and Colorectal Cancer Risk in the Multiethnic Cohort" 05/01/2016-04/30/2020

Pathway to degree completion *FOR STUDENTS ADMITTED FALL 2020 OR LATER *

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Degree program faculty

Cheryl Lynn Albright, PhD, MPH
Mapuana Antonio, DrPH
Jinan Banna, PhD, RD, CDN
Marla J. Berry, PhD
Carol J. Boushey, PhD, MPH, RDN
Jean Butel, PhD
Monica Esquivel, PhD RDN CSSD
Adrian Franke, PhD
Yanghua “Sunny” He, PhD
Kacie K.H.Y. Ho, PhD
Rajesh Jha, PhD
Rachel Johnson, PhD, MPH, RD
Soojin Jun, PhD
Yong Soo Kim, PhD, MS
Iris Fumiko Kimura, PhD, AT.Ret, PT
Janet Latner, PhD
Loic Le Marchand, MD, PhD
Rachael Leon Guerrero, PhD, RDN, LD
Qing X. Li, PhD
Yong Li, PhD
Unhee Lim, PhD, MS
Gertraud Maskarinec, MD PhD
Birendra Mishra, PhD, MS, DVM
Pratibha Nerurkar, PhD
Rachel Novotny, PhD RDN
Jenee Odani, DVM
May Okihiro, MD
Marie Kainoa Fialkowski Revilla, PhD RDN LD IBC
Andre P. Seale, PhD
John A Shepherd, PhD
Mark Thorne, PhD
Lynne Wilkens, DrPH, MS
Jinzeng Yang, PhD
Halina M Zaleski, PhD

Contact

Department of Human Nutrition, Food and Animal Sciences
College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources
1955 East-West Road,
Ag Sci 216
Honolulu, Hawai‘i 96822
Phone: (808) 956-7095
Fax: (808) 956-4024
Email: nutrphd@hawaii.edu

UH Graduate Division

Address: 2540 Maile Way Spalding 354 Honolulu, HI 96822 Phone: (808) 956-8544 Email: gradss@hawaii.edu Website: https://manoa.hawaii.edu/graduate/

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