Geraldine Mineau, PhD, director of Population Sciences at Huntsman Cancer Institute, provides oversight and directs the continued development of the Utah Population Database (UPDB). Her experience with the UPDB dates back to its conception in the mid-1970s. This database contains more than six million records and includes computerized genealogies beginning in about 1800 with the founders of Utah. This information has been extended to comprise nine generations, which have been cross-linked to the Utah Cancer Registry and death records. This makes it possible to follow cancer patterns in very large families. This combination of family information and medical information is the key for finding familial clustering of diseases such as cancer. When family clusters of cancer are found over several generations, this suggests that the family may carry a genetic mutation in one of their genes that predisposes them to the disease. Such families are often involved in research studies to better understand cancer inheritance.

Mineau earned her PhD in sociology from the University of Utah. She has been a member of the University of Utah faculty since 1979 and was recruited to Huntsman Cancer Institute in 1996.