Biography
Dr. Amos received a B.S. degree from Reed College in 1980. He earned M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Biometry and Genetics from Louisiana State University Medical Center in New Orleans in 1985 and 1988 respectively. He completed further training as a part of the Inter-Institute Medical Genetics Training program at the National Institutes of Health in 1991 and was board certified in Medical Genetics in 1992.
Personal Statement
I have focused much of my career on developing and implementing methods for understanding the genetic and environmental influences underlying the etiology of common cancers. I have authored or coauthored more than 800 peer reviewed papers, 20 reviews or book chapters, 2 books and has an H index of 139 with over 87,000 citations. I have developed and applied novel bioinformatical approaches for identifying genetic and environmental factors influencing lung, colon and brain cancer development. In 1995 I received my first NIH R01 to develop model-free linkage analysis methods to partition risk for diseases between genetic, environmental and gene-environmental interaction components. In 2004, in collaboration with Dr. Joan Bailey-Wilson and others, we identified a region of chromosome 6q23-25 that harbors a locus greatly increasing lung cancer risk, and showed in 2010 that this locus identifies individuals exquisitely sensitive to tobacco smoke. This collaboration led to the discovery that mutations in Park2 increase lung cancer risk. In 2008, I led large genetic studies that identified common variants in CHRNA5 (PMID 20554942 cited 1434 times) that have substantial impact on both lung cancer risk and smoking behavior, making it more difficult for smokers to quit. Because individuals carrying one or two copies of this variant become more heavily nicotine dependent and are at higher risk for lung cancer, we have subsequently studied using a genetically informed precision medicine approach to smoking cessation management. Results from a recent clinical trial (PMID: 32602170) showed that patients with higher risk genotypes benefitted from pharmacological support during smoking cessation but low risk individuals did not. This finding indicates that a targeted approach to smoking cessation based on genetic information is efficacious.
I led the OncoArray Consortium that completed genotyping of about 500,000 individuals using a customized array developed with Illumina that comprises 500,000 markers (PMID: 27697780). It was developed to decipher the genetic architecture of common cancers including prostate, colon, breast and ovarian cancers. Prior studies were genotyped in a heterogeneous manner precluding the identification of gene-environment interactions because of the complexities of managing analyses across different genotyping platforms. Managing population-based analysis of this very large study required the development of new analytical approaches for characterizing the ethnic origin of participants to avoid confounding and the approach (published in BMC Bioinformatics). Results of studies using this array have been published in Nature Genetics for Head and Neck, Glioma and Ovarian Cancer These papers have revealed the genetic architectures and more novel variants influencing Lung cancer. A recent publication identified a novel variant of ATM (L2307F, rs56009889, PMID: 32393777) that occurs most frequently in Ashkenazi populations and confers a 7-fold elevated risk for developing lung cancer among female never smokers. Subsequent studies using gene-smoking interaction analyses have identified additional genes that influence lung cancer risk differently in smokers versus nonsmokers (PMID: 29059373). For two of the three identified loci (AFAP1L2, rs475164 and ZNF462, rs17723637) genetic effects were protective among smokers, indicating a reason why some individuals may be protected from lung cancer even when they smoke.
My expertise is recognized nationally and internationally. I became the President of the International Genetic Epidemiology Society in 2002, and served as its Secretary/Treasurer from 2007 to 2012. I served on the board of external scientific advisors for the Centre Etude Polymorphism Humain from 2007-2014. I was elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2012. I served on the Board of Scientific Counselors for the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences from 2015-2021 and currently serves on the BSC for the National Human Genome Research Institute. I received the AACR/ACS award for Excellence in Cancer Prevention 2020. I have also served as a reviewer for NIH, Cancer Research UK, and Canadian Institute for Health Research and numerous other panels. I have served or am serving as an associate editor for the American Journal of Human Genetics, Genes and Immunity, Genetic Epidemiology and Human and Molecular Genetics, Cancer Biomarkers and as a statistical editor for the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
I am the communicating PI of the Integrative Analysis of Lung Cancer Risk and Etiology - Translation and Integration - U19CA203654, which identifies genetic, protein, clinical and radiomic predictors of increased risk for the development of lung cancer or its progression. We are capitalizing on over a decade of international collaborations that have yielded genotype data on over 100,000 individuals to assess lung cancer risk for project 1, similarly large studies of participants in cohort studies to identify protein biomarkers of preclinical lung cancer development and screening studies across North American and Europe that we use to evaluate predictors of lung cancer development related to lung CT screening. We are translating these findings for clinical application by studying the use of genetic and protein biomarkers to improve the yield of recruitment for screening and improvement of smoking cessation processes. I also lead a large grant studying familial lung cancer (R01CA243483). I serve as a multiple P.I. for a newly awarded grant studying genetic factors for the development of cholangiocarcinoma (R01CA275065) and as a multiple PI for a study evaluating variations in risk for cancer development among P53 carriers (1R01CA242218). I also am a multiple PI studying risk factors influencing serrated polyp development that uses data from virtually all individuals receiving colonoscopies in New Hampshire (R01CA250542). I served as the communicating PI of a new Clinical and Translational Science Award entitled Center for Translational and Precision Health, which was funded by the National Center for Advancing Translational Science.
At the University of New Mexico, I will continue to be very actively engaged in research initiatives. I am serving as the Associate Director for Cancer Prevention and Data Science. I am also leading the Data Science Initiatives for the UNM Health Science Center.
Achievements & Awards
2025-present Victor and Ruby Hansen Surface Endowed Chair in Cancer Population and Data Science, University of New Mexico
2021 Fellow of the International Genetic Epidemiology Society
2020 AACR/ACS Award for Excellence in Cancer Prevention
2017-9/30/2024 Selzman Endowed Chair of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine
2013 Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science
2006?2012 Annie Laurie Howard Endowed Professor, MD Anderson Cancer Center
2011 Jeffrey Trent Lecturer, National Human Genome Research Institute
2005 James C. Hunt Visiting Professor of Pediatrics, University of Tennessee Medical School, Memphis, TN
2003 Leadership Award, International Genetic Epidemiology Society
2001?2005 Ashbel Smith Professor, U.T. M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
2000 The Margaret and James A. Elkins Jr. Faculty Achievement Award, UT M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
1996 Best Paper in Genetic Epidemiology for 1995, International Genetic Epidemiology Society
1991 L.I.F.E. Award, Lancet
1989 Visiting Scientist, Division of Biostatistics and Research and Informatics, International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France
1988 Student Award Winner, Eastern North American Region of the International Biometric Society
Key Publications
Journal Article
Bossé, Y, Amos, Christopher, 2018 A Decade of GWAS Results in Lung Cancer. Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology, vol. 27, Issue 4, 363-379
Journal Article
van Zandwijk, N, Frank, A, L Reid, G, Dimitri Røe, O, Amos, Christopher, 2024 Asbestos-Related lung Cancer: An underappreciated oncological issue. Lung cancer (Amsterdam, Netherlands), vol. 194
Journal Article
Thrift, A, P Kanwal, F, Lim, H, Duong, H, Liu, Yitong, Albert Singal, A, G Khaderi, S, Asrani, S, K Amos, Christopher, El-Serag, H, B 2024 PNPLA3, Obesity, and Heavy Alcohol Use in Cirrhosis Patients May Exert a Synergistic Increase Hepatocellular Carcinoma Risk. Clinical gastroenterology and hepatology : the official clinical practice journal of the American Gastroenterological Association, vol. 22, Issue 9, 1858-1866.e4
Journal Article
Shaw, V, R Byun, Jinyoung, Pettit, R, W Han, Younghun, Hsiou, D, A Nordstrom, L, A Amos, Christopher, 2023 A comprehensive analysis of lung cancer highlighting epidemiological factors and psychiatric comorbidities from the All of Us Research Program. Scientific reports, vol. 13, Issue 1, 10852
Journal Article
Gorman, B, R Ji, S, G Francis, M, Sendamarai, A, K Shi, Y, Devineni, P, Saxena, U, Partan, E, DeVito, A, K Byun, Jinyoung, Han, Younghun, Xiao, X, Sin, D, D Timens, W, Moser, J, 2024 Multi-ancestry GWAS meta-analyses of lung cancer reveal susceptibility loci and elucidate smoking-independent genetic risk. Nature communications, vol. 15, Issue 1, 8629
Gender
Male
Research and Scholarship
The most highly cited publications relate to work I have done on genetic risk for complex diseases. Most recently, with Hoda Badr we complete a study of attitudes towards polygenic risk score analysis for many populations (PMC12012679). We identified a three-way interaction that greatly increases risk for liver cancer if individuals have a high risk variant for PNPLA3, are obese and drink heavily (PMC9530967). We have led several large studies identifying risk for lung cancer (PMC9373844;