Brant Imhoff promoted to senior biostatistician
We are pleased to announce the promotion of Brant Imhoff to senior biostatistician, effective October 1. Imhoff earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in statistics at Miami University (Ohio), where he won the Teradata Analytics Challenge in 2020 for COVID-19 time series modeling and completed his thesis, "Evaluating Scores for Comparing Powerlifters." He worked as a statistician for the Army National Guard and credit risk analyst for Macy's prior to joining our department in 2022. His support for projects at the Vanderbilt Biostatistics Data Coordinating Center, Pragmatic Critical Care Research Group, and other teams has included leading DSMB (data and safety monitoring board) closed session meetings for multiple clinical trials; constructing, maintaining, and monitoring electronic data captures; generating statistical analyses, custom reports, and billing; and working on manuscripts and study analysis plans, with co-authorship of peer-reviewed papers published in the New England Journal of Medicine, American Heart Journal, and BMJ Open. A certified personal trainer and competitive powerlifter, Imhoff's other interests include sports science, and he is proficient in Spanish as well as R, Python, and Java. Click his name to view his staff profile.
Aaron Lee promoted to senior biostatistician
We are pleased to announce the promotion of Aaron Lee to senior biostatistician, effective September 27. A 2021 graduate of our MS program, Lee is supervised by professor Tatsuki Koyama and supports investigators across the medical center and beyond by planning and conducting statistical analyses, plus preparing formal reports and presentations about those analyses using RStudio, LaTeX, and R Markdown. He has applied regression modeling and other biostatistical tools to studies of overactive bladder syndrome and other urinary conditions, COVID, cancer, kidney disease, HIV, liver disease, workplace violence, lung transplant outcomes, and more, with co-authorship of peer-reviewed papers in The American Surgeon, Clinical Neurophysiology, BMC Cancer, British Journal of Cancer, and Pan African Medical Journal. Click his name to view his staff profile.
Margaret Cullum promoted to program manager
We are pleased to announce the promotion of Margaret Cullum to program manager, in effect as of August 1. A graduate of the University of North Carolina, with a bachelor's degree in journalism and internships at POPSUGAR and Giadzy, Cullum joined the department in 2023 and has provided crucial administrative support for special events (including ICSA 2024 and our 20th anniversary festivities), seminars and short courses (including the CQS Summer Institutes, last October's ASA traveling course, MSCI 5044, and other offerings), the summer internship program for underrepresented undergraduates, the Bellevue Community Food Bank drive, and more. She's also heavily involved with website and bulletin board maintenance, social media updates, and other promotional endeavors, including the coordination of department-branded clothing and swag.
Yajing Li promoted to senior biostatistician
We are pleased to announce the promotion of Yajing Li to senior biostatistician, in effect as of June 28. Li earned a bachelor's degree in statistics at East China Normal University in Shanghai, followed by her MS in statistics at the University of Michigan. Since joining our department in 2021, Li has contributed her analytical expertise to studies of the correlation between genetic/environmental factors and the risk of clonal hematopoiesis (CH) transformation; the likelihood of CH mutations among patients undergoing radiation therapy; genotypic-phenotypic links; the interplay between JAK2-V617F mutation and aUPD and their impact on blood cancers; the correlation between human leukocyte antigens, CHIP mutations, and specific diseases in BioVU and UK Biobank cohorts, and more. Her programming experience includes the creation of an R package to facilitate the efficient extraction and processing of data from large data platforms, and her peer-reviewed publications include papers in Blood Cancer Journal, Genetics in Medicine Open, and Transplantation and Cellular Therapy.
Figure 5 from Li's recent paper in Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology: Adrenal steroid metabolites associated with childhood asthma within Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes molecular pathways. Metabolites that were significantly associated with childhood asthma are highlighted in yellow. Green diamonds indicate enzymes involved in the pathway and gray boxes indicate progenitor or downstream steroid metabolites.
Cara Lwin promoted to biostatistician
We are pleased to announce the promotion of Cara Lwin to biostatistician, in effect as of June 1. Lwin earned a bachelor's degree in microbiology from the University of Pittsburgh in 2017, with minors in chemistry, computer science, neuroscience, and economics, followed by three years as a senior research associate at eyeGENE and the Ophthalmic Genetics Laboratory at the National Eye Institute. Lwin entered our graduate training program in 2020, began working for the department as an associate biostatistician in 2022, and earned her master's degree in biostatistics this May. Her thesis was titled "Bayesian Survival Analysis Using Data from Electronic Health Records: A Study on Cardiovascular Outcomes Leveraging Information from Randomized Clinical Trials" and can be accessed via Vanderbilt's Institutional Repository. Her activities as a student included serving as Biostatistics Graduate Student Association vice president As a staff biostatistician, she is a member of the Vanderbilt Biostatistics Data Coordinating Center Design & Analysis Unit. See her staff profile for links to her peer-reviewed publications on influenza and COVID-19.
Elisa Yazdani and Cara Lwin listen to speeches in their honor at the department reception for MS graduates, April 16, 2024
Afan Swan promoted to senior research data specialist
We are delighted to announce the promotion of Afan Swan to senior research data specialist, in effect as of June 1. Swan earned a bachelor's degree in microbiology and master's degree in public health from the University of Alabama, joining our department in 2021 as a health services research analyst. Swan's expertise has been vital to multicenter collaborations with the Investigating Respiratory Viruses in the Acutely Ill (IVY) Network, the Vanderbilt Biostatistics Data Coordinating Center, and elsewhere, and she has co-authored multiple peer-reviewed publications as a VUMC analyst, including the following:
- Surie D et al. Severity of Respiratory Syncytial Virus vs COVID-19 and Influenza Among Hospitalized US Adults. JAMA Netw Open. 2024 Apr 1;7(4):e244954. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.4954. PMID: 38573635.
- Raglow Z et al. SARS-CoV-2 shedding and evolution in patients who were immunocompromised during the omicron period: a multicentre, prospective analysis. Lancet Microbe. 2024 Mar;5(3):e235-e246. doi: 10.1016/S2666-5247(23)00336-1. Epub 2024 Jan 26. PMID: 38286131.
- DeCuir J et al. Interim Effectiveness of Updated 2023-2024 (Monovalent XBB.1.5) COVID-19 Vaccines Against COVID-19-Associated Emergency Department and Urgent Care Encounters and Hospitalization Among Immunocompetent Adults Aged ≥18 Years - VISION and IVY Networks, September 2023-January 2024. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2024 Feb 29;73(8):180-188. doi: 10.15585/mmwr.mm7308a5. PMID: 38421945; PMCID: PMC10907041.
- Lewis NM et al. Vaccine Effectiveness Against Influenza A-Associated Hospitalization, Organ Failure, and Death: United States, 2022-2023. Clin Infect Dis. 2024 Apr 10;78(4):1056-1064. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciad677. PMID: 38051664.
- Kojima N et al. Changing Severity and Epidemiology of Adults Hospitalized With Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the United States After Introduction of COVID-19 Vaccines, March 2021-August 2022. Clin Infect Dis. 2023-08-22; 77(4):547-557. doi:10.1093/cid/ciad276. PubMed PMID: 37255285
- Dimcheff DE et al. Total and Subgenomic RNA Viral Load in Patients Infected With SARS-CoV-2 Alpha, Delta, and Omicron Variants. J Infect Dis. 2023 Aug 11;228(3):235-244. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiad061. PMID: 36883903; PMCID: PMC10420395.
- Surie D et al. Comparison of mRNA vaccine effectiveness against COVID-19-associated hospitalization by vaccination source: Immunization information systems, electronic medical records, and self-report-IVY Network, February 1-August 31, 2022. Vaccine. 2023 Jun 29;41(29):4249-4256. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2023.05.028. Epub 2023 May 15. PMID: 37301704; PMCID: PMC10183633.
- Tenforde MW et al. Vaccine Effectiveness Against Influenza A(H3N2)-Associated Hospitalized Illness: United States, 2022. Clin Infect Dis. 2023 Mar 21;76(6):1030-1037. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciac869. PMID: 36327388; PMCID: PMC10226741.
- Surie D et al. Effectiveness of Monovalent mRNA Vaccines Against COVID-19-Associated Hospitalization Among Immunocompetent Adults During BA.1/BA.2 and BA.4/BA.5 Predominant Periods of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant in the United States - IVY Network, 18 States, December 26, 2021-August 31, 2022. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2022 Oct 21;71(42):1327-1334. doi: 10.15585/mmwr.mm7142a3. PMID: 36264830; PMCID: PMC9590291.
Afan Swan (center) reports on a breakout discussion during a VBDCC meeting, May 2024
Andrew Spieker promoted to associate professor
We are pleased to announce the promotion of Dr. Andrew Spieker to associate professor of biostatistics (investigator track, with tenure), effective as of June 1. A graduate of Northeastern University (BS, mathematics) and the University of Washington (PhD, biostatistics), with postdoctoral work at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Spieker joined our department in 2018. His primary research interests involve the development of causal inference approaches in observational studies and randomized trials. He has sought to address a wide array of causal inference challenges in his research, including endogeneity bias, censoring of cost outcomes in health policy studies, within-subject correlation in studies of immunological markers, and sensitivity analyses for instrumental variable approaches. His methodological contributions are motivated by real-world challenges encountered in public health. His accomplishments include extending the joint modeling framework for observational studies of cardiovascular biomarker outcomes, with the R package endogenous to support this approach; developing new methods suitable for analysis of cost outcomes, particularly for population-level health policy guidance and resource allocation; and providing leadership in methods development and manuscript preparation for high-impact trials of mobile health interventions to support disease management and medication adherence.
Dr. Spieker is also in demand for cancer-related studies and other investigations, and he is an active commentator and committee member both in causal inference circles and the wider statistical community. He was appointed associate editor of Observational Studies in 2021 and Biometrics Section program chair for the American Statistical Association’s Joint Statistical Meetings in 2022, and he serves on the Eastern North American Region (ENAR) advisory board for the International Biometric Society.
A thoughtful, highly engaged educator, Dr. Spieker was named Outstanding Faculty Mentor by the biostatistics student body in 2020 and 2023, and they awarded him the Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2021. A 2024 inductee into School of Medicine's Academy for Excellence in Education, he is a mainstay of the Center for Quantitative Sciences’ Summer Institute, founder/organizer of Vanderbilt’s Causal Inference Workshop, chair of the graduate program’s comprehensive exam committee, and co-chair of the faculty recruitment committee.
Jess Lai promoted to lead program manager
We are delighted to announce the promotion of Jessica "Jess" Lai to lead program manager, in effect as of March 29. With extensive experience as a central scheduling supervisor (for Nationwide Children's Hospital) and patient access manager (for Ohio State University Medical Center), Lai was recruited to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 2021 as a senior program manager for VICTR. She has been essential to the success of numerous projects that depend on large-scale data coordination, such as Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV), the Influenza and Other Viruses in the AcutelY Ill (IVY) Network, the Respiratory Virus Transmission Network (RVTN), and more. She is also a key player in process creation and improvement for the Vanderbilt Biostatistics Data Coordinating Center (VBDCC), our Biostatistics Clinics, and other research support entities. She is from Puerto Rico, and her favorite activities outside of work include cooking, biking, and listening to podcasts.
Jess Lai (left) chats with Lauren King and Nicole Gunnison during the department's winter celebration luncheon, January 2024
Quanhu "Tiger" Sheng promoted to associate professor
We are pleased to announce the promotion of Dr. Quanhu "Tiger" Sheng to associate professor of biostatistics, educator track, effective as of April 1. A graduate of Nanjing University (BS, botany) and the Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences (MS, biochemistry and molecular biology; PhD, bioinformatics), Dr. Sheng is deputy technical director of VANGARD and leader of its team for migrating BioVU (the world's largest DNA biobank based at a single academic institution) to the cloud. An expert in bioinformatics methods for the analysis of high-throughput genomics data, including next-generation sequencing data (RNA-seq, DNA-seq, and miRNA-seq), proteomics, glycomics, and metabolomics, Dr. Sheng has been actively involved in developing new algorithms, curating analysis pipelines, and implementing software since his arrival at Vanderbilt University in 2012, initially as a postdoctoral research fellow and subsequently as an instructor in the Department of Cancer Biology. He has published more than one hundred peer-reviewed papers while working in Nashville, with more than twenty-five as first or corresponding author. His service at Vanderbilt University Medical Center includes participating on the Bioinformatics Staff Search Committee, the Bioinformatics Staff Promotions Committee, the IT Staff Promotions Committee, the Cloud Advisory Committee, the Graduate Student Admissions Committee, and the Vanderbilt Undergraduate Summer Research Program Review Committee. At the Jon Brown Lab, he has been a key contributor to many publications, including the landmark 2021 Nature paper on progeria, and he has played an essential role in training and mentoring graduate students and other junior researchers across the School of Medicine's research enterprise. He has been involved with the creation of numerous software tools, including AnnoGen, CPDSeqer, ExonDel, GLMVC, heatmap3, MultiRankSeq, NGSPERL, QC3, scRNABatchQC, scMRMA, and TIGER, plus the Immu-Mela portal.
Quanhu "Tiger" Sheng (front right) with director of atherosclerosis research MacRae Linton, senior staff scientist Danielle Michell, associate professor Kasey Vickers, and former research instructor Ryan Allen (now an UAMS assistant professor). This portrait was taken in 2019, when the team received a $1 million grant from the Keck Foundation to target vascular inflammation. Photo: Susan Urmy / Vanderbilt University Medical Center