Mukesh Verma, PhD

Biography

Dr. Mukesh Verma is chief of the Epidemiology and Genomics Research Program's (EGRP) Methods and Technologies Branch (MTB) and oversees its research portfolio and initiatives that focus on methods to address epidemiologic data collection, study design and analysis, and to modify technological approaches developed in the context of other research endeavors for use as biomarkers and methods to understand cancer susceptibility.

He is responsible for stimulating research in implication of omics approaches to understand cancer etiology. He represents NCI in Common Fund Programs on Metabolomics, Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity, and the Congressionally-mandated program on Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcome (ECHO). Since joining the NCI, Dr. Verma has championed the visibility of and investment in cancer epigenetics research both within the Institute and across other federal and non-governmental agencies and to raise public awareness about controlling cancer. In this capacity, he was also involved with the former Common Fund Epigenomics Program’s NIH Working Group.

Dr. Verma is the contact person for the funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) “Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Use of Biological ‘High’ or ‘Medium’ Priority AIDS Research on Non-AIDS-defining or AIDS-defining Cancers” (NOT-CA-20-022), “Assay Validation of High Quality Markers for Clinical Studies in Cancer” (PAR-20-313, PAR-20-314), and “Exploratory Grants in Cancer Control” (PAR-21-341).

Dr. Verma joined EGRP as a program director in 2004. In 2005, he was appointed acting chief of EGRP's former Analytic Epidemiology Research Branch (AERB). When EGRP reorganized in 2007, he was appointed acting chief of MTB and of the former Host Susceptibility Factors Branch (HSFB), for which he served as acting chief through 2008. Before joining EGRP, he was a program director in NCI's Division of Cancer Prevention (DCP), where he worked in the areas of biomarkers, early detection, risk assessment, and prevention. He also was coordinator of DCP's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Programs. He was on the faculty in the Biochemistry Department of Georgetown University before joining NIH.

He has 181 publications and has edited 6 books in the field of epigenetics, biomarkers, and epidemiology.

Select Publications

Yu CT, Chao BN, Barajas R, Haznadar M, Maruvada P, Nicastro HL, Ross SA, Verma M, Rogers S, Zanetti KA. An evaluation of the National Institutes of Health grants portfolio: identifying opportunities and challenges for multi-omics research that leverage metabolomics data. Metabolomics. 2022 Apr 30;18(5):29.

Chang HY, Colby SM, Du X, Gomez JD, Helf MJ, Kechris K, Kirkpatrick CR, Li S, Patti GJ, Renslow RS, Subramaniam S, Verma M, Xia J, Young JD. A Practical Guide to Metabolomics Software Development. Anal Chem. 2021 Feb 2;93(4):1912-1923. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.0c03581. Epub 2021 Jan 19.

Yu B, Zanetti KA, Temprosa M, Albanes D, Appel N, Barrera CB, Ben-Shlomo Y, Boerwinkle E, Casas JP, Clish C, Dale C, Dehghan A, Derkach A, Eliassen AH, Elliott P, Fahy E, Gieger C, Gunter MJ, Harada S, Harris T, Herr DR, Herrington D, Hirschhorn JN, Hoover E, Hsing AW, Johansson M, Kelly RS, Khoo CM, Kivimäki M, Kristal BS, Langenberg C, Lasky-Su J, Lawlor DA, Lotta LA, Mangino M, Le Marchand L, Mathé E, Matthews CE, Menni C, Mucci LA, Murphy R, Oresic M, Orwoll E, Ose J, Pereira AC, Playdon MC, Poston L, Price J, Qi Q, Rexrode K, Risch A, Sampson J, Seow WJ, Sesso HD, Shah SH, Shu XO, Smith GCS, Sovio U, Stevens VL, Stolzenberg-Solomon R, Takebayashi T, Tillin T, Travis R, Tzoulaki I, Ulrich CM, Vasan RS, Verma M, Wang Y, Wareham NJ, Wong A, Younes N, Zhao H, Zheng W, Moore SC. The Consortium of Metabolomics Studies (COMETS): Metabolomics in 47 Prospective Cohort Studies. Am J Epidemiol. 2019 Jun 1;188(6):991-1012.

Beger RD, Dunn WB, Bandukwala A, Bethan B, Broadhurst D, Clish CB, Dasari S, Derr L, Evans A, Fischer S, Flynn T, Hartung T, Herrington D, Higashi R, Hsu PC, Jones C, Kachman M, Karuso H, Kruppa G, Lippa K, Maruvada P, Mosley J, Ntai I, O'Donovan C, Playdon M, Raftery D, Shaughnessy D, Souza A, Spaeder T, Spalholz B, Tayyari F, Ubhi B, Verma M, Walk T, Wilson I, Witkin K, Bearden DW, Zanetti KA. Towards quality assurance and quality control in untargeted metabolomics studies. Metabolomics. 2019 Jan 3;15(1):4.

Sinha R, Ahsan H, Blaser M, Caporaso JG, Carmical JR, Chan AT, Fodor A, Gail MH, Harris CC, Helzlsouer K, Huttenhower C, Knight R, Kong HH, Lai GY, Hutchinson DLS, Le Marchand L, Li H, Orlich MJ, Shi J, Truelove A, Verma M, Vogtmann E, White O, Willett W, Zheng W, Mahabir S, Abnet C. Next steps in studying the human microbiome and health in prospective studies, Bethesda, MD, May 16-17, 2017. Microbiome. 2018 Nov 26;6(1):210.

Verma M, Kumar V. Single cell epigenomics: technology and applications. In: Barh D, Azevedo V, eds. Single-Cell Omics. New York, NY: Elsevier Inc.; 2019: chap 11, 215- 229.

Verma M. Mechanistic and technical challenges in studying the human microbiome and cancer epidemiology. Technol Cancer Res Treat. 2017 Apr 27;16(2):150-158.