Kimberly Badal, PhD

Kimberly Badal, PhD

Assistant Adjunct Professor of Surgery, Dept. of Surgical Oncology, UCSF; Community Engagement Liaison, Breast Oncology Program, Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center

Cancer Center Program Membership

Breast Oncology

Phone: 415-885-7691

35 Medical Center Way, #6357
San Francisco, CA 94143

UCSF Profiles

Research Summary

I was born and raised in the beautiful Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago. My experience working in limited-resource and high-resource settings has guided my research interests. My research program is united by a commitment to addressing disparities in breast cancer incidence and outcomes through a comprehensive approach that combines computational methods, community engagement, and health policy analysis. By focusing on the continuum of care—from understanding risk factors to improving access to treatment and assessing economic implications—I aim to bridge gaps in precision health and promote health equity globally. My research program has three key areas:

1. Understanding Environmental Drivers of Breast Cancer Risk. We aim to investigate how cumulative environmental exposures at work and at home contribute to disparities in breast cancer risk using machine learning.

2. Economic Implications of Breast Cancer Screening. We aim to analyze the costs of different age-based and risk-based breast cancer screening algorithms in the USA to inform policy and ensure sustainable, equitable screening interventions.

3. Implement Programs and Tools to Reduce Cancer Treatment Disparities in the Caribbean. We aim to implement and evaluate cancer patient navigation, and diagnostic AI tools to improve cancer management. This research is done through the Caribbean Cancer Research Institute, an NGO I founded in 2016, and in collaboration with various hospitals and NGOs in the Caribbean.

Research Funding

  • August 1, 2024 - July 31, 2029 - WISDOM: A platform to optimize subtype-specific screening and prevention , Co-Investigator . Sponsor: NIH/NCI, Sponsor Award ID: P0572751
  • April 1, 2024 - March 31, 2028 - Leveraging the WISDOM cohort to improve genetic, epigenetic, and environmental contributions to breast cancer risk assessment , Project Lead . Sponsor: Department of Defense, Sponsor Award ID: GRANT13922076-BC230196
  • March 1, 2024 - March 31, 2027 - Investigating the relationship between chemical exposures, DNA methylation, and breast cancer risk. , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: California Breast Cancer Research Program, Sponsor Award ID: B30CM8458
  • November 1, 2023 - October 31, 2024 - Characterizing the chemical exposome and examining its role in breast cancer risk prediction using the Athena Breast Health Network cohor , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH/NCI, UCSF Breast Oncology Program, Sponsor Award ID: P30CA082103
  • November 1, 2023 - October 31, 2024 - Elucidating the epigenomic alterations associated with toxic environmental chemical exposures and breast cancer risk in the Athena Breast Health Network using machine learning , Mentored Postdoctoral Scolar Award . Sponsor: NIH/NCI, UC San Francisco-UC San Diego Cancer Cell Map Initiative, Sponsor Award ID: U54CA274502
  • July 1, 2023 - February 29, 2024 - A pilot study of non-targeted chemical screening analysis in archived blood samples from participants in the Athena Breast Health Network , Mentored Postdoctoral Scolar Award . Sponsor: NIH/NIEHS, UCSF Environmental Research and Translation for Health (EaRTH), Sponsor Award ID: P30ES030284

Education

  • York University, Toronto, Canada, BSc, 2012, Biomedical Science
  • Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, MSc, 2014, Biomedical Science
  • The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago, PhD, 2022, Molecular Genetics

Honors & Awards

  • 2023
    Columbia University Environmental Justice Bootcamp Travel Award
  • 2019
    York University Bryden Alumni “One to Watch” Awardee 2019
  • 2018
    American Association for Cancer Research Scientist Survivor Program Scholarship
  • 2017
    Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative Fellowship
  • 2017
    Sustainable Development Goals Youth Advocacy Campaign’s Short Film

Selected Publications

  1. Badal K, Moore M, Thomas M. The Repository for Caribbean Cancer Publications (ReCCaP): Database Development and Publication Trends 2004-2019. Cancer Manag Res. 2021;13:5433-5442. doi: 10.2147/CMAR.S314853. eCollection 2021. Review. PubMed PMID: 34262351; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8275050.
  2. Badal K, Ali R, Warner WA, Maniam A, Carrington A, Foster JE, Haraksingh R. Factors associated with breast cancer recurrence and survival at Sangre Grande Hospital, Trinidad. Cancer Causes Control. 2021 Jul;32(7):763-772. doi: 10.1007/s10552-021-01427-z. Epub 2021 Apr 9. PubMed PMID: 33835281.
  3. Melosky B, Juergens R, McLeod D, Leighl N, Brade A, Card PB, Chu Q. Immune checkpoint-inhibitors and chemoradiation in stage III unresectable non-small cell lung cancer. Lung Cancer. 2019 Aug;134:259-267. doi: 10.1016/j.lungcan.2019.05.027. Epub 2019 May 29. Review. PubMed PMID: 31319991.
  4. de Taeye SW, Go EP, Sliepen K, de la Peña AT, Badal K, Medina-Ramírez M, Lee WH, Desaire H, Wilson IA, Moore JP, Ward AB, Sanders RW. Stabilization of the V2 loop improves the presentation of V2 loop-associated broadly neutralizing antibody epitopes on HIV-1 envelope trimers. J Biol Chem. 2019 Apr 5;294(14):5616-5631. doi: 10.1074/jbc.RA118.005396. Epub 2019 Feb 6. PubMed PMID: 30728245; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6462529.
  5. Warner WA, Lee TY, Badal K, Williams TM, Bajracharya S, Sundaram V, Bascombe NA, Maharaj R, Lamont-Greene M, Roach A, Bondy M, Ellis MJ, Rebbeck TR, Slovacek S, Luo J, Toriola AT, Llanos AAM. Cancer incidence and mortality rates and trends in Trinidad and Tobago. BMC Cancer. 2018 Jul 4;18(1):712. doi: 10.1186/s12885-018-4625-x. PubMed PMID: 29973176; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6032795.
  6. Warner WA, Lee TY, Fang F, Llanos AAM, Bajracharya S, Sundaram V, Badal K, Sookdeo VD, Roach V, Lamont-Greene M, Ragin C, Slovacek S, Ramsoobhag K, Brown J, Rebbeck TR, Maharaj R, Drake BF. The burden of prostate cancer in Trinidad and Tobago: one of the highest mortality rates in the world. Cancer Causes Control. 2018 Jul;29(7):685-697. doi: 10.1007/s10552-018-1038-8. Epub 2018 May 17. PubMed PMID: 29774450; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5999193.
  7. Kerbel B, Badal K, Sundarrajan L, Blanco A, Unniappan S. Xenin is a novel anorexigen in goldfish (Carassius auratus). PLoS One. 2018;13(5):e0197817. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0197817. eCollection 2018. PubMed PMID: 29791497; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5965858.
  8. Badal K, Rampersad F, Warner WA, Toriola AT, Mohammed H, Scheffel HA, Ali R, Moosoodeen M, Konduru S, Russel A, Haraksingh R. A situational analysis of breast cancer early detection services in Trinidad and Tobago. Cancer Causes Control. 2018 Jan;29(1):33-42. doi: 10.1007/s10552-017-0937-4. Epub 2017 Aug 11. PubMed PMID: 28801763.
  9. Sahadeo N, Mohammed H, Allicock OM, Auguste AJ, Widen SG, Badal K, Pulchan K, Foster JE, Weaver SC, Carrington CV. Molecular Characterisation of Chikungunya Virus Infections in Trinidad and Comparison of Clinical and Laboratory Features with Dengue and Other Acute Febrile Cases. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2015 Nov;9(11):e0004199. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0004199. eCollection 2015 Nov. PubMed PMID: 26580074; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4651505.

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