Faculty Member
Jennifer Brooks
- Email Address(es)
- jennifer.brooks(at)utoronto.ca
- Office Phone
- 416-978-1785
- Office Address
- 155 College St. HSB 676 Toronto, Ontario M5T 3M7
- Website(s)
- CanPath Website
- Division(s)/Institute(s)
- Epidemiology Division
- Position
- Associate Professor
- SGS Status
- Full Member
- Appointment Status
- Tenure Stream
- Currently Accepting Doctoral Students?
- Yes
Research Interests
- breast cancer epidemiology
- genetic epidemiology
- breast cancer survivorship
- imaging biomarkers of breast cancer risk and response to treatment
- risk prediction
- breast cancer screening
CanPath, the Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow’s Health
Dr. Jennifer Brooks is the Executive Director of CanPath, a centre at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and Canada’s largest population Health Study. CanPath has collected data from over 330,000 Canadian participants, including information about health, lifestyle, environment, and behaviour. This rich dataset is helping researchers solve some of Canada’s largest health problems, including understanding chronic diseases and predicting cancer earlier.
Education & Training History
- PhD Epidemiology – New York University
- MSc Nutritional Sciences – University of Toronto
- BSc Biological Sciences – University of Guelph
Professional Summary & Appointments
- Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto
- 2021–Present: Associate Professor of Epidemiology
- 2014–2021: Assistant Professor of Epidemiology
- 2014: Assistant Attending Level 1 – Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, NY NY USA
- 2012–2014: Instructor – Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, NY NY USA
- 2009–2012: Research Scholar – Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, NY NY USA
Primary Teaching Responsibilities
- Categorical Data Analysis for Epidemiologists (CHL5407)
- Supervision of graduate students
Research Projects
- 10/01/2023 – 09/30/2026: Principal Investigator – Life After Breast Cancer: Generating real-world estimates to inform survivorship care. RN190148. Principal Investigator: Brooks JD.
- 04/01/2020 – 03/31/2025: Co-Principal Investigator – Using MR imaging to develop a personalized risk-based screening strategy. Canadian Institutes for Health Research. RN402051-427876. Principal Investigators: Martel A and Brooks JD. Collaborators: Astley S, Briollais L, Curpen B, Warner E. $925,650 CAD. Project grant.
- 10/2021 – 03/2026: Co-Investigator – Adaptive Oncology. Ontario Hereditary Cancer Research Network (OHCRN). Ontario Institute for Cancer Research. Principal Investigators: Kim R. Co-Investigators: Bartlett J, Stein L, Pugh T, Feilotter H, Aronson M, Awadalla P, Pollett A, Goodhand P, Yung C, Yaffe M, Narod S, Lerner-Ellis J, Malkin D, Parulekar W, Spears M, Bayani J, Panabaker K, Sawyer S, Brooks JD, Andrulis I, Bell K, Eisen A, Androich C, Brazas M, Hughes L. $4,500,000 CAD.
- 05/01/20 – 04/30/2024: Co-Investigator – A unified polygenic risk score analytics platform for risk prediction, causal inference and discovery. McLaughlin Centre Accelerator Grants in Genomic Medicine. Principal Investigators: Gagnon F, Sun L, Briollais L, Bull SD, Goncalves V, Paterson A, Wang L. Co-Investigators: Brooks JD, Kong D, Strug L, Sun Q. $300,000. Team Grant.
- Prediction of risk of cardiovascular disease in women diagnosed with early stage breast cancer. (CIHR funded: 2017-2019)
- Developing tools that predict use of breast cancer screening and stage at breast cancer diagnosis. (CIHR funded: 2017-2019)
- Personalized risk assessment for prevention and early detection of breast cancer: Integration and Implementation (PERSPECTIVE I&I) (Genome Canada, Genome Quebec, Ontario Research Fund funded: 2018-2022)
- MRI parenchymal enhancement and risk of breast cancer: A population-based study of women screened in the Ontario Breast Screening Program. (CIHR funded: 2017-2021)
- Molecular pathoepidemiology of contralateral breast cancer. (US NCI funded: 2017-2021)
- MRI background parenchymal enhancement as a risk factor for breast cancer. (US NCI funded: 2014-2017)
- CYP2D6 phenotype, tamoxifen treatment and risk of contralateral breast cancer in the WECARE Study Population (Chanel Endowment to Fund Survivorship Research funded: 2014-2016)
- Histopathologic Characteristics of MRI Background Parenchymal Enhancement as a Biomarker of Breast Cancer Risk (Survivorship Outcomes And Risk (SOAR) Developmental Funds Award (MSK) funded: 2015)
- Tumor effects on the measurement of enhancement on breast MRI: Implications for study design. (MSK/Goldstein Family Foundation funded: 2014)