Blog

Featuring research assistant professor Jing Yang and professors Qi Liu and Yu Shyr, with their Cancer-Immu portal.

We are pleased to announce the promotion of Dr. Ran Tao (pictured here at left, on the first day of the Fall 2023 semester, with professor Frank Harrell and assistant professor Bryan Blette) to associate professor of biostatistics (investigator track, with tenure), effective as of January 1. A graduate of Tsinghua University (Beijing, BS in mathematics) and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (PhD in biostatistics, 2016), Dr. Tao joined our department in 2016. He is a sought-after collaborator in human genetics research, active in service to our department and the wider scientific community, widely recognized for his work in developing new statistical methods (particularly for the design and analysis of two-phase data), and a mentor to rising stars in the field. Click his name to learn more about his scholarly activities.

We are thrilled to announce two new leadership appointments in our department:

Dandan Liu will become executive director of the Vanderbilt Biostatistics Data Coordinating Center (VBDCC), effective January 1. Previously co-director of the VBDCC’s Design & Analysis Unit, Dr. Liu’s new responsibilities will include leading strategic planning, overseeing infrastructure expansion and project execution, and advocating for both the center and the department in the wider biomedical research community. Her experience includes directing VICTR’s Research Methods Program, chairing our department’s Resource Allocation Committee, and co-chairing the 2024 ICSA Applied Statistics Symposium, which will convene in Nashville this June. She is co-PI of the R01-funded effort to implement the STRATIFY prediction tool in emergency care. She joined the department in 2011 and was promoted to associate professor of biostatistics on the investigator track in 2020. 

Fei Ye’s new role as Vice Chair of Collaborative Studies commenced on December 1. Previously co-director of the Collaborative Studies Coordinating Research Center, Dr. Ye’s new responsibilities will include building, maintaining, and expanding collaboration plans with other departments and divisions across Vanderbilt University Medical Center; chairing the Resource Allocation Committee; and providing expert guidance and support to faculty pursuing large grants, especially for multi-center initiatives. Her experience includes co-directing the biostatistics core of VICC’s GI Cancer SPORE and the administrative/biostatistics core of VUMC’s “HDL Function in Human Disease” program, serving as lead biostatistician on collaboration plans for the Section of Surgical Sciences and Department of Neurology, and becoming program chair of the ASA’s Statistics in Epidemiology Section in 2024. She is MPI of the R01-funded “DNA Methylation Markers, Genes and Breast Cancer Risk” study. She joined the department in 2006 and was promoted to professor of biostatistics and medicine on the educator track in 2022.

Congratulations to Dr. Liu and Dr. Ye!

Congratulations to research assistant professor Jing Yang, first author of "A large-scale meta-analysis reveals positive feedback between macrophages and T cells that sensitizes tumors to immunotherapy," which was published in Cancer Research on December 20. The paper was co-authored by professors Qi Liu and Yu Shyr.

Co-authors include statistical genetic analyst Marisol Ramirez-Solano, senior associate Dan Ayers, staff scientist Yu Wang, assistant professor Simon Vandekar, and professor Qi Liu.

Congratulations to assistant in biostatistics Zhiguo "Alex" Zhao, first author of "Prospective External Validation of the Esbenshade Vanderbilt Models Accurately Predicts Bloodstream Infection Risk in Febrile Non-Neutropenic Children with Cancer," which was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology on December 7.

Featuring professor and vice chair of research Jonathan Schildcrout, with mention of assistant professor Ran Tao and professor Bryan Shepherd.

Co-authors include biostatistician Guanchao Wang, data scientist Hua-Chang Chen, and assistant professor Ran Tao.

Co-authors include associate Sharon Phillips and associate professor Hakmook Kang.

In the global research community, anticipation is building for thousands of samples that will become available via BioVU in 2024. Our department is providing crucial technical and analytical support to this effort, with assistant professor Quanhu "Tiger" Sheng, senior IT project manager Dean Gibson, and VANGARD director Yu Shyr heading a team that includes cloud computing developers Milad Abbasi and James Grindstaff, statistical genetic analysts Joey Stolze and Marisol Ramirez-Solano, and application developer Hui Wu. 

To learn more about the sequencing project, see the November 14 VUMC Reporter article: "Landmark academic-industry partnership harvests human genome 'fruits' for research."