Biostatistics

Statistics professor aims to use fMRI data to identify, predict Alzheimer’s

Teresa Donnellan — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 14:58:51 +0000

Statistics professor aims to use fMRI data to identify, predict Alzheimer’s Teresa Donnellan Fri, 06/21/2024 - 10:58

In the quest to combat Alzheimer's disease, ��AV professor Abolfazl Safikhani is working with neuroscientists and imaging experts at the University of Washington's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (ADRC) to pioneer groundbreaking advancements in biomarker identification.

Abolfazl Safikhani. Photo by Creative Services

"We're trying to understand and come up with the biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease using imaging data,” said Safikhani, who is an assistant professor in the Department of Statistics. “[We will] try to distinguish and classify between people who have Alzheimer’s disease or will be developing it in the near future compared to healthy individuals."

At the core of the ADRC project lies functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data, which researchers are using to identify biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease. Unlike conventional imaging techniques, fMRI provides researchers with a comprehensive view of brain activity, enabling them to discern subtle connectome-based changes associated with the disease.

Collecting and analyzing fMRI data comes with challenges, as imaging available for research is limited. Nevertheless, the researchers remain undeterred in their quest to unlock the secrets of Alzheimer's disease. They have already made early progress.

"We were able to get some really good preliminary results, from which a [National Institutes of Health] proposal has been submitted and is currently under review," said Safikhani. He added, "If we could come up with a combination of statistical and machine learning techniques to detect Alzheimer’s progression, it would be one of the most interesting projects I have ever worked on.”

By combining expertise from diverse disciplines and leveraging the power of interdisciplinary collaboration, this project promises to make an important step toward early detection and intervention strategies for Alzheimer's disease.

In This Story

Abolfazl Safikhani

Delve into Statistics at George Mason

Topics

Department of Statistics

College of Engineering and Computing

Strategic Direction

Mason Pond’s first weather station is the canary in the coal mine

Rena Malai — Fri, 31 Mar 2023 17:46:50 +0000

Mason Pond’s first weather station is the canary in the coal mine Rena Malai Fri, 03/31/2023 - 13:46

In This Story

David Kepplinger

Just like miners used to bring canaries with them deep underground to detect danger early on, cherry trees – like the ones at ��AV’s Fairfax campus – offer a similar advanced warning when it comes to the atmosphere.

Bloom date records of cherry trees go back over a thousand years, with the earliest recordings linked to ancient cherry blossom festivals in Japan. More recently, bloom dates have taken on another purpose. Because of their temperature sensitivity, cherry trees’ flowering times have been noted as good indicators of a changing climate.

Biostatistics graduate student Jamie C. Roth.
Photo courtesy of Roth.

Biostatistics graduate student Jamie C. Roth wanted to apply this rich knowledge to the cherry trees that surround Mason Pond. She spearheaded a project to have the first weather station installed near the pond, which will monitor the atmosphere around the cherry trees and produce helpful data.

“The cherry blossoms show climate change better than any other plant,” said Roth. “I wanted to look at our own cherry trees and raise awareness of climate change.”

The weather station will be a permanent fixture and will measure components like sunlight, temperature, rainfall, humidity, and wind speed and direction. The data is then transmitted to a tablet that is currently housed in the Statistics department.

Although the team is working out the initial quirks of getting the system up and running, in time, Roth sees the weather station as a useful climate reporting tool for students to use in years to come.

“I’m excited for the future and to see how students get involved in climate change on campus,” said Roth.

Department of Statistics Assistant Professors David Kepplinger and Jonathan Auerbach supervised the project, along with College of Science Assistant Professor Daniel Hanley, in biology. Sarah D'Alexander from University Sustainability and Nick Valadez from the facilities department were instrumental in getting the weather station installed and running.

Topics

Graduation Profile: Biostatistics Leads MPH Student to Discover New Career

Mary Cunningham — Tue, 10 May 2022 13:16:17 +0000

Graduation Profile: Biostatistics Leads MPH Student to Discover New Career Mary Cunningham Tue, 05/10/2022 - 09:16

In This Story

Jenna Krall, PhD

Master of Public Health Student Colin Tran discovered coding and his love of helping people through data after taking the required Biostatistics course

Colin Tran, MPH '22. Photo provided.

Colin Tran has considered many professions—dentist, biochemist, and epidemiologist—and he thanks Biostatistics for helping him find his future career path with public health data. Tran is graduating this month with a Master of Public Health with a concentration in Epidemiology and wants to use his skills to support others.

“For the longest time, I wanted to be a dentist. That went away, but my desire to help as many people as possible remained the same,” Tran said.

He received a biochemistry degree from Virginia Commonwealth University, and though he enjoyed his classes, he found that the related career options weren’t appealing to him. Struggling with what path to take, Tran applied for and was accepted as a National Institutes of Health Postbaccalaureate Intramural Research Training Fellow. This led him to public health.

“I was initially set on infectious diseases. Mason’s first-year classes helped me get my foot in the door with public health. When I took the Biostatistics course, it got me interested in coding. I found it is where my aspirations in epidemiology and analyzing data overlapped,” he said.

Biostatics fascinated him so much that he has been a teaching assistant for the past three semesters for Assistant Professor Jenna Krall.

"It’s a lot different than I expected, in a good way. I didn’t expect to develop so many skills as a teaching assistant,” said Tran. In addition to traditional assignments such as grading and he has created a resource for biostats students who have not taken a recent math course, learned new coding languages, and expanded his skills as a data analyst.

He took these skills to his practicum, where he analyzed various data sets at the Fairfax County Health Department. He’s still finalizing his post-graduation plans and hopes to continue working at a health department.

Tran is headed on a different career path than he imagined when he started at Mason, but he’s thrilled with where his experience has led him and recommends the programs to prospective students.

“Whatever you thought you knew about public health, you’ll find out a lot more,” said Tran. “It’s been very rewarding to be exposed to all these other aspects of public health that I didn’t know existed before. I’ve always enjoyed learning so being able to find new things was really exciting for me. If you’re interested in community health, global, or infectious diseases, coming to Mason you’ll be exposed to just that.”

Topics

Master of Public Health

Department of Global and Community Health

Tech Talent Investment Pipeline (TTIP)

TTIP

Tech Talent Investment Program

Mason offers new Data Analytics Credential to prepare students for careers in big data

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Mar 2021 16:47:33 +0000

Mason offers new Data Analytics Credential to prepare students for careers in big data Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 03/11/2021 - 11:47

In This Story

Liza Wilson Durant

Brett Hunter

��AV is offering a new Data Analytics Credential to help undergraduates hone their skills in handling big data.

The new credential is the second one offered in partnership with the Greater Washington Partnership’s Capital CoLAB. Mason launched the Digital Technology Credential in 2019 to support additional skills in data analysis, visualization, and cybersecurity for non-engineers. More than 150 students are currently enrolled in that program.

“The new Data Analytics Credential will enable hundreds of Mason students to offer their specialized data analytics skills to employers who are seeking to meet the talent shortfall in data science and analytics,” says Liza Wilson Durant, associate dean for strategic initiatives and community engagement for the Volgenau School of Engineering.

Liza Wilson Durant says the new credential is an exciting showcase of our industry partners engaging with students from multiple disciplines. Photo by Evan Cantwell.

The credential focuses on data storage and management and will make students more marketable, including for jobs as data analysts and data scientists, says Brett Hunter, associate chair of the Department of Statistics.

The credential is designed for undergraduates in statistics, computing, information technology, and data science who want to acquire the data analytics skills needed by high-profile employers in the metropolitan areas of Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Richmond.

Developed with the Greater Washington Partnership’s Capital CoLAB, the credential equips students across disciplines with the specialized data analytics skills that the Greater Washington Partnership employers have specified to be most important to their operations. The Capital CoLAB (Collaborative of Leaders in Academia and Business) is an action-oriented partnership of employers and academic institutions that executes initiatives to develop the talent needed for the jobs of today and tomorrow.

By enrolling in either the Digital Technology Credential or Data Analytics Credential programs, students will have direct access to opportunities and engagement with some of the largest employers in the region, including Amazon, Capital One, and Northrop Grumman.

“It is exciting to see our industry partners directly engaged with our students and reinforcing the demand for the skills they are acquiring by offering them internships and other experiential learning opportunities,” says Durant.

Many students in statistics, computational data science, computer science, and information science and technology will only need to take one to three additional undergraduate courses to earn the credential, Hunter says. They can use some of their elective courses to do that.

“The credential is not another degree, but essentially a badge you can put on your LinkedIn profile or electronic resume,” he says. “I think most statistics undergraduates will take advantage of the opportunity to communicate their skills in this new way.”

The badge associated with the Data Analytics Credential also represents an innovation for students and employers. “Micro-credentials like the Data Analytics badge reflect the ‘new currency’ in denoting skill achievement and helps our students move more easily from college to career,” says Marc Austin, Executive Director of Professional Development and Academic Ventures who leads Mason’s Continuing and Professional Development unit which administers the new digital badge.

More than 50 students have already enrolled in the new Data Analytics Credential program.

Students who are working towards earning the credential will receive several exclusive benefits from area companies, including:

Access to a student portal with paid internship and event opportunities.
Invitations to participate in annual internship fairs with employers looking to recruit students.
Access to professional development webinars and other ad-hoc opportunities.

Mason students can learn more and enroll in the new Data Analytics Credential here.