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Julie Dutil, PhD

Research Program: Cancer Epidemiology Program

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  • Overview

    Associations

    • Cancer Epidemiology Program

    Education & Training

    Graduate:

    • University of Montreal, PhD - Molecular Biology

    Continuing Education:

    • City of Hope - Certificate - Cancer Risk Management

    Fellowship:

    • Osaka University Hospital - SNPs
  • Research Interest

    The overall goal of my research program is to understand the contribution of genetic variations to disease susceptibility in the population of Puerto Rico. Breast cancer genetics and genomics: Our team established a breast cancer genetics and genomics program in Puerto Rico. Through this work, we were the first to describe the BRCA mutation spectrum in hereditary breast cancer in this population. In addition, we identified single nucleotide polymorphism conferring increased breast cancer risk in non-hereditary breast cancer cases. Ongoing projects include understanding the role and functional significance of copy number variants in DNA repair candidate genes that are determining the risk of breast cancer, next-gen sequencing of candidate gene for non-BRCA hereditary breast cancers, and the role of ancestry in breast cancer risk and the molecular characteristics of breast cancers in Puerto Rico. Population genetics: We also participated to several collaborative projects aimed at characterizing genetic variation in various populations with the purpose of 1) using this information for improving the design of genetic studies; and 2) understand how population characteristics and migrations shaped the genetic variation spectrum, shared and private of different populations or ethnic groups. In addition, as a result of our participation in the 1000 Genomes project, whole genome sequence data from Puerto Rican individuals and cells lines are publically available to the scientific community for genetics and molecular studies.   

  • Publications

    • Cragun D, Manso G, Arcusa SA, Zuniga B, Dutil J, Cruz M, Pal T. Piloting a Spanish-Language Web-Based Tool for Hereditary Cancer Genetic Testing. Curr Oncol. 2023 Sep.30(9):8352-8362. Pubmedid: 37754521. Pmcid: PMC10529239.
    • Rivera Rivera JN, Conley CC, Castro-Figueroa EM, Moreno L, Dutil J, García JD, Ricker C, Quinn GP, Soliman H, Vadaparampil ST. Behavioral beliefs about genetic counseling among high-risk Latina breast cancer survivors in Florida and Puerto Rico. Cancer Med. 2023 Feb.12(4):4701-4706. Pubmedid: 35941731. Pmcid: PMC9972095.
    • Ottman R, Ganapathy K, Lin HY, Osterman CD, Dutil J, Matta J, Ruiz-Deya G, Wang L, Yamoah K, Berglund A, Chakrabarti R, Park JY. Differential Expression of miRNAs Contributes to Tumor Aggressiveness and Racial Disparity in African American Men with Prostate Cancer. Cancers (Basel). 2023 Apr.15(8). Pubmedid: 37190259. Pmcid: PMC10136561.
    • Conley CC, Rivera Rivera JN, Castro-Figueroa EM, Moreno L, Dutil J, García JD, Ricker C, Quinn GP, Soliman H, Vadaparampil ST. Provider discussion of genetic counseling among high-risk Spanish-preferring Latina breast cancer survivors. Transl Behav Med. 2022 Oct.12(9):900-908. Pubmedid: 36205471. Pmcid: PMC9540969.
    • Peres LC, Colin-Leitzinger C, Teng M, Dutil J, Alugubelli RR, DeAvila G, Teer JK, Du D, Mo Q, Siegel EM, Hampton O, Alsina M, Brayer J, Blue B, Baz R, Siqueira Silva A, Nishihori T, Shain KH, Gillis N. Racial and ethnic differences in clonal hematopoiesis, tumor markers, and outcomes of patients with multiple myeloma. Blood Adv. 2022 Jun.6(12):3767-3778. Pubmedid: 35500227. Pmcid: PMC9631567.
    • Ossa Gomez CA, Achatz MI, Hurtado M, Sanabria-Salas MC, Sullcahuaman Y, Chávarri-Guerra Y, Dutil J, Nielsen SM, Esplin ED, Michalski ST, Bristow SL, Hatchell KE, Nussbaum RL, Pineda-Alvarez DE, Ashton-Prolla P. Germline Pathogenic Variant Prevalence Among Latin American and US Hispanic Individuals Undergoing Testing for Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer: A Cross-Sectional Study. JCO Glob Oncol. 2022 Jul.8:e2200104. Pubmedid: 35867948. Pmcid: PMC9812461.
    • Aquino-Acevedo AN, Knochenhauer H, Castillo-Ocampo Y, Ortiz-León M, Rivera-López YA, Morales-López C, Cruz-Robles ME, Hernández-Cordero ER, Russell S, Whitaker R, Bonilla-Claudio M, Chen DT, Dutil J, Gaillard SL, Yi JS, Previs RA, Armaiz-Pena GN. Stress hormones are associated with inflammatory cytokines and attenuation of T-cell function in the ascites from patients with high grade serous ovarian cancer. Brain Behav Immun Health. 2022 Dec.26:100558. Pubmedid: 36439058. Pmcid: PMC9694096.
    • Rivera-Rivera Y, Vargas G, Jaiswal N, Núñez-Marrero A, Li J, Chen DT, Eschrich S, Rosa M, Johnson JO, Dutil J, Chellappan SP, Saavedra HI. Ethnic and racial-specific differences in levels of centrosome-associated mitotic kinases, proliferative and epithelial-to-mesenchymal markers in breast cancers. Cell Div. 2022 Dec.17(1):6. Pubmedid: 36494865. Pmcid: PMC9733043.
    • Zavala VA, Casavilca-Zambrano S, Navarro Vásquez J, Castañeda CA, Valencia G, Morante Z, Calderón M, Abugattas JE, Gomez H, Fuentes HA, Liendo-Picoaga R, Cotrina JM, Monge C, Neciosup SP, Huntsman S, Hu D, Sanchez SE, Williams MA, Nunez-Marrero A, Godoy L, Hechmer A, Olshen AB, Dutil J, Ziv E, Zabaleta J, Gelaye B, Vasquez J, Galvez-Nino M, Enriquez-Vera D, Vidaurre T, Fejerman L. Association between Ancestry-Specific 6q25 Variants and Breast Cancer Subtypes in Peruvian Women. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2022 Aug.31(8):1602-1609. Pubmedid: 35654312. Pmcid: PMC9662925.
    • Scliar MO, Sant'Anna HP, Santolalla ML, Leal TP, Araújo NM, Alvim I, Borda V, Magalhães WCS, Gouveia MH, Lyra R, Machado M, Michelin L, Rodrigues MR, Araújo GS, Kehdy FSG, Zolini C, Peixoto SV, Luizon MR, Lobo F, Naslavsky MS, Yamamoto GL, Duarte YAO, Hansen MEB, Norris SA, Gilman RH, Guio H, Hsing AW, Mbulaiteye SM, Mensah J, Dutil J, Yeager M, Yeboah E, Tishkoff SA, Choudhury A, Ramsay M, Passos-Bueno MR, Zatz M, O Connor TD, Pereira AC, Barreto ML, Lima-Costa MF, Horta BL, Tarazona-Santos E. Admixture/fine-mapping in Brazilians reveals a West African associated potential regulatory variant (rs114066381) with a strong female-specific effect on body mass and fat mass indexes. Int J Obes (Lond). 2021 May.45(5):1017-1029. Pubmedid: 33633342.
    • Grant AH, Ayala-Marin YM, Mohl JE, Robles-Escajeda E, Rodriguez G, Dutil J, Kirken RA. The Genomic Landscape of a Restricted ALL Cohort from Patients Residing on the U.S./Mexico Border. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Jul.18(14). Pubmedid: 34299796. Pmcid: PMC8307122.
    • Ruiz-Deya G, Matta J, Encarnación-Medina J, Ortiz-Sanchéz C, Dutil J, Putney R, Berglund A, Dhillon J, Kim Y, Park JY. Differential DNA Methylation in Prostate Tumors from Puerto Rican Men. Int J Mol Sci. 2021 Jan.22(2). Pubmedid: 33450964. Pmcid: PMC7828429.
    • Zavala VA, Bracci PM, Carethers JM, Carvajal-Carmona L, Coggins NB, Cruz-Correa MR, Davis M, de Smith AJ, Dutil J, Figueiredo JC, Fox R, Graves KD, Gomez SL, Llera A, Neuhausen SL, Newman L, Nguyen T, Palmer JR, Palmer NR, Pérez-Stable EJ, Piawah S, Rodriquez EJ, Sanabria-Salas MC, Schmit SL, Serrano-Gomez SJ, Stern MC, Weitzel J, Yang JJ, Zabaleta J, Ziv E, Fejerman L. Cancer health disparities in racial/ethnic minorities in the United States. Brit J Cancer. 2021 Jan.124(2):315-332. Pubmedid: 32901135. Pmcid: PMC7852513.
    • Berglund A, Matta J, Encarnación-Medina J, Ortiz-Sanchéz C, Dutil J, Linares R, Marcial J, Abreu-Takemura C, Moreno N, Putney R, Chakrabarti R, Lin HY, Yamoah K, Osterman CD, Wang L, Dhillon J, Kim Y, Kim SJ, Ruiz-Deya G, Park JY. Dysregulation of DNA Methylation and Epigenetic Clocks in Prostate Cancer among Puerto Rican Men. Biomolecules. 2021 Dec.12(1). Pubmedid: 35053153. Pmcid: PMC8773891.
    • Conley CC, Castro-Figueroa EM, Moreno L, Dutil J, García JD, Burgos C, Ricker C, Kim J, Graves KD, Ashing KT, Quinn GP, Soliman H, Vadaparampil ST. A pilot randomized trial of an educational intervention to increase genetic counseling and genetic testing among Latina breast cancer survivors. J Genet Couns. 2021 Apr.30(2):394-405. Pubmedid: 32936981. Pmcid: PMC7960565.
    • Lynce F, Schlam I, Geng X, Peshkin BN, Friedman S, Dutil J, Nahleh Z, Campos C, Ricker C, Rodriguez P, Denduluri N, Ahn J, Isaacs C, Graves KD. BRCA1/2 mutations and risk-reducing bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy among Latinas: The UPTAKE study. J Genet Couns. 2021 Apr.30(2):383-393. Pubmedid: 33010199.
    • Núñez-Marrero A, Arroyo N, Godoy L, Rahman MZ, Matta JL, Dutil J. SNPs in the interleukin-12 signaling pathway are associated with breast cancer risk in Puerto Rican women. Oncotarget. 2020 Sep.11(37):3420-3431. Pubmedid: 32973967. Pmcid: PMC7500104.
    • Smit AK, Collazo-Roman M, Vadaparampil ST, Valavanis S, Del Rio J, Soto B, Flores I, Dutil J, Kanetsky PA. MC1R variants and associations with pigmentation characteristics and genetic ancestry in a Hispanic, predominately Puerto Rican, population. Sci Rep. 2020 Apr.10(1):7303. Pubmedid: 32350296. Pmcid: PMC7190662.
    • Dutil J, Teer JK, Golubeva V, Yoder S, Tong WL, Arroyo N, Karam R, Echenique M, Matta JL, Monteiro AN. Germline variants in cancer genes in high-risk non-BRCA patients from Puerto Rico. Sci Rep. 2019 Nov.9(1):17769. Pubmedid: 31780696. Pmcid: PMC6882826.
    • Zavala VA, Serrano-Gomez SJ, Dutil J, Fejerman L. Genetic Epidemiology of Breast Cancer in Latin America. Genes (Basel). 2019 Feb.10(2). Pubmedid: 30781715. Pmcid: PMC6410045.
    • Dutil J, Chen Z, Monteiro AN, Teer JK, Eschrich SA. An Interactive Resource to Probe Genetic Diversity and Estimated Ancestry in Cancer Cell Lines. Cancer Res. 2019 Apr.79(7):1263-1273. Pubmedid: 30894373. Pmcid: PMC6445675.
    • Diaz-Zabala HJ, Ortiz AP, Garland L, Jones K, Perez CM, Mora E, Arroyo N, Oleksyk TK, Echenique M, Matta JL, Dean M, Dutil J. A Recurrent BRCA2 Mutation Explains the Majority of Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer Syndrome Cases in Puerto Rico. Cancers (Basel). 2018 Nov.10(11). Pubmedid: 30400234. Pmcid: PMC6266560.
    • Reverón D, López C, Gutiérrez S, Sayegh ZE, Antonia T, Dutil J, Malafa M, Coppola D. Frequency of Mismatch Repair Protein Deficiency in a Puerto Rican Population with Colonic Adenoma and Adenocarcinoma. Cancer Genomics Proteomics. 2018 Jul.15(4):265-271. Pubmedid: 29976631. Pmcid: PMC6070705.
    • Dutil J, Godoy L, Rivera-Lugo R, Arroyo N, Albino E, Negrón L, Monteiro AN, Matta JL, Echenique M. No Evidence for the Pathogenicity of the BRCA2 c.6937 + 594T>G Deep Intronic Variant: A Case-Control Analysis. Genet Test Mol Biomarkers. 2018 Feb.22(2):85-89. Pubmedid: 29356578. Pmcid: PMC5806076.
    • Cruz-Correa M, Pérez-Mayoral J, Dutil J, Echenique M, Mosquera R, Rivera-Román K, Umpierre S, Rodriguez-Quilichini S, Gonzalez-Pons M, Olivera MI, Pardo S. Clinical Cancer Genetics Disparities among Latinos. J Genet Couns. 2017 Jun.26(3):379-386. Pubmedid: 27957667. Pmcid: PMC5418082.
    • Matta J, Ortiz C, Encarnación J, Dutil J, Suárez E. Variability in DNA Repair Capacity Levels among Molecular Breast Cancer Subtypes: Triple Negative Breast Cancer Shows Lowest Repair. Int J Mol Sci. 2017 Jul.18(7). Pubmedid: 28704967. Pmcid: PMC5535995.
    • Cruz-Correa M, Pérez-Mayoral J, Dutil J, Echenique M, Mosquera R, Rivera-Román K, Umpierre S, Rodriguez-Quilichini S, Gonzalez-Pons M, Olivera MI, Pardo S. Hereditary cancer syndromes in Latino populations: genetic characterization and surveillance guidelines. Hered Cancer Clin Pract. 2017 Jan.15:3. Pubmedid: 28127413. Pmcid: PMC5251307.
    • Gimbrone NT, Sarcar B, Gordian ER, Rivera JI, Lopez C, Yoder SJ, Teer JK, Welsh EA, Chiaporri AA, Schabath MB, Reuther GW, Dutil J, Garcia M, Ventosilla-Villanueva R, Vera-Valdivia L, Yabar-Berrocal A, Motta-Guerrero R, Santiago-Cardona PG, Muñoz-Antonia T, Cress WD. Somatic Mutations and Ancestry Markers in Hispanic Lung Cancer Patients. J Thorac Oncol. 2017 Dec.12(12):1851-1856. Pubmedid: 28911955. Pmcid: PMC5701827.
    • Matta J, Morales L, Ortiz C, Adams D, Vargas W, Casbas P, Dutil J, Echenique M, Suárez E. Estrogen Receptor Expression Is Associated with DNA Repair Capacity in Breast Cancer. PLoS One. 2016.11(3):e0152422. Pubmedid: 27032101. Pmcid: PMC4816515.
    • Dutil J, Golubeva VA, Pacheco-Torres AL, Diaz-Zabala HJ, Matta JL, Monteiro AN. The spectrum of BRCA1 and BRCA2 alleles in Latin America and the Caribbean: a clinical perspective. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2015 Dec.154(3):441-453. Pubmedid: 26564481. Pmcid: PMC4661195.
    • Gravel S, Zakharia F, Moreno-Estrada A, Byrnes JK, Muzzio M, Rodriguez-Flores JL, Kenny EE, Gignoux CR, Maples BK, Guiblet W, Dutil J, Via M, Sandoval K, Bedoya G, Oleksyk TK, Ruiz-Linares A, Burchard EG, Martinez-Cruzado JC, Bustamante CD. Reconstructing Native American migrations from whole-genome and whole-exome data. PLoS Genet. 2014 Aug.9(12):e1004023. Pubmedid: 24385924. Pmcid: PMC3873240.
    • Matta J, Morales L, Dutil J, Bayona M, Alvarez C, Suarez E. Differential expression of DNA repair genes in Hispanic women with breast cancer. Mol Cancer Biol. 2013 Feb.1(1):54. Pubmedid: 25309843. Pmcid: PMC4189824.
    • Moujahidine M, Lambert R, Dutil J, Palijan A, Sivo Z, Ariyarajah A, Deng AY. Combining congenic coverage with gene profiling in search of candidates for blood pressure quantitative trait loci in Dahl rats. Hypertens Res. 2004 Mar.27(3):203-212. Pubmedid: 15080379.

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