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Headlines featuring UW Biostatistics people and research.
Headshot of Xihong Lin
Headshot of Xihong Lin
L. Adrienne Cupples Award Goes to Harvard Biostatistics Professor Xihong Lin
Boston University School of Public Health,

Biostatistics alum Xihong Lin (MS ’92, PhD ’94) is the recipient of the 2021 L. Adrienne Cupples Award for Excellence in Teaching, Research, and Service in Biostatistics. The award is presented by the Department of Biostatistics at the Boston University School of Public Health. Lin, a pioneer in statistical methods for analysis of whole genome sequencing studies, was also recently named one of 50 Changemakers of Public Health by the UW School of Public Health.

Headshot of Sarah Monsell
Headshot of Sarah Monsell
Association of the Intensity of Diagnostic Evaluation With Outcomes in Incidentally Detected Lung Nodules
JAMA Internal Medicine,

UW Center for Biomedical Statistics (CBS) staff member Sarah Monsell co-authored this recently published study.

Photo of Charles Kooperberg
Photo of Charles Kooperberg
Democratizing DNA-based health risk scores
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Hutch News,

The Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) consortium at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center received a $9.8M grant to improve genetic risk prediction for cardiovascular disease in racially and ethnically diverse populations. “The goal is to create risk scores for cardiovascular and related diseases that work equally well in people of color as in European Americans,” said Charles Kooperberg, head of the Hutch’s Biostatistics Program and one of the principal investigators of the study. Kooperberg is also an affiliate professor of biostatistics with the University of Washington School of Public Health.

Photo of Holly Janes
Photo of Holly Janes
HIV vaccine trials are complicated by the availability of PrEP
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Hutch News,

Affiliate Professor of Biostatistics and Fred Hutch biostatistician Holly Janes participated in discussions about the design of HIV vaccine trails in the era of oral PrEP. “There are a lot of people who are interested in PrEP, but cannot sustain that over time,” she said. “One reason has to do with the usual challenges of getting people to change their behaviors when they are healthy. An analogy might be the difficulty in getting people to floss their teeth on a daily basis. It’s difficult for all of us,” said Janes.

Hands of CDC scientist as they prepare to test a patient’s sample for SARS-CoV-2
Hands of CDC scientist as they prepare to test a patient’s sample for SARS-CoV-2
Placebo-Controlled Trials of Covid-19 Vaccines — Why We Still Need Them
New England Journal of Medicine,

Biostatistics faculty members Tom Fleming and Betz Halloran sit on the WHO Ad Hoc Expert Group on the Next Steps for COVID-19 Vaccine Evaluation. In a recent New England Journal of Medicine article, the group notes that even though the efficacy of some COVID-19 vaccines appears to be high, reliable information will still be needed on longer-term safety and duration of protection.

Word Aducanumab superimposed over graphic of human brain
Word Aducanumab superimposed over graphic of human brain
No Love for Aducanumab From FDA Advisers — Panel rejects mixed findings for controversial Alzheimer's drug
Medpage Today,

"This analysis seems to be subject to the Texas sharpshooter fallacy," where someone first fires a shot at a barn then paints a target around the bullet hole, said panelist and biostatistician Scott Emerson, MD, PhD, of the University of Washington in Seattle.

Headshot of Jon Wakefiled
Headshot of Jon Wakefiled
Design- and Model-Based Approaches to Small-Area Estimation in A Low- and Middle-Income Country Context: Comparisons and Recommendations
Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology,

Professor of Biostatistics Jon Wakefield is co-author of a recent paper that notes the explosion in geographic studies in low- and middle-income countries and investigates the extent to which accounting for the sample design affects the predictive performance at the aggregate level of interest for health policy decisions.

Historical sketch of measuring cranial capacity
Historical sketch of measuring cranial capacity
How Eugenics Shaped Statistics. Exposing the damned lies of three science pioneers.
Nautilus,

Daniela Witten, professor of biostatistics and statistics, is quoted in this piece that examines how statistical thinking and eugenicist thinking are intertwined and delves into the difficulty of breaking the legacy of eugenics and false objectivity.