Alumni in the News
“The WHI has been remarkably productive in pursuing a broad range of scientific questions important to women,” said Garnet Anderson (PhD ’89) director of the Hutch's Public Health Sciences division and principal investigator of the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) clinical coordinating center. Anderson is also an affiliate professor of biostatistics with the University of Washington School of Public Health.
When COVID-19 burst onto the scene last winter, and Tony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was looking for a way to run massive, credible and rigorous trials of potential vaccines, he turned to experts at the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) based at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Co-principal investigators of the HVTN Statistics and Data Management Center include three researchers who are also University of Washington School of Public Health faculty: Peter Gilbert (Biostat), Holly Janes (Biostat), and Yunda Huang (Global 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.
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.
Peter Gilbert, research professor of biostatistics and a biostatistician at Fred Hutch, comments on assessing safety and efficacy after an Emergency Use Authorization has been approved. Gilbert has helped design clinical trials for the leading U.S. vaccine candidates.
Six Biostatistics alumni are among the 50 Changemakers recognized by the School of Public Health as part of its 50th anniversary celebration. Congratulations to Garnet Anderson, Gary Churchill, Jeffrey Leek, Kung-Yee Liang, Xihong Lin, and Clarice R. Weinberg.
