Lucas Salas

Dr. Lucas Salas is a Physician Scientist and Molecular Epidemiologist at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine, affiliated with the Department of Epidemiology. He leads a translational research program focusing on cellular heterogeneity in urogenital cancers (e.g., renal and ovarian cancers) and integrates epigenomic profiling, single-cell technologies, and computational modeling to study immune mechanisms and biomarker discovery.

Educations:

• MD: Universidad Nacional de Colombia (2001)
• Master’s in Epidemiology: Universidad de Antioquia (2007)
• MPH and PhD: Universitat Pompeu Fabra/ISGlobal, Barcelona (2011 & 2015)
• Postdoctoral Training: Dartmouth in Molecular Epidemiology

Research Interests:

• Epigenetic mechanisms (DNA methylation, hydroxymethylation, miRNA)
• Cancer outcomes and immune cell alterations
• Biomarker development for chronic inflammation and fetal health impacts

Key Contributions:

• Developer of epigenetic deconvolution tools like FlowSorted.Blood.EPIC and HiTIMED
• Lead developer of tumor profiling platforms HiTAIC and GIMiCC

Awards & Grants:

• Neukom Research Prize (2022)
• NIH/NIGMS Grant P20 GM104416 (2020–2023)
• DoD Grant W81XWH-20-1-0778 (2020–2024)

Labs & Teams:

• Salas Lab at Geisel School of Medicine
• Collaborations on kidney cancer research advocacy