A team of scientists has combined modern and ancient genomes to build a new “genealogy of everyone,” in an achievement that sets the groundwork for future studies into our evolution and global spread. UW Research Professor of Biostatistics Sharon Browning is quoted.

A multi-division collaboration took a broad, sequence-based approach to reveal which SARS-CoV-2 proteins may drive COVID-19 related hospitalization. These findings were published recently in Scientific Reports. Fred Hutch researcher and University of Washington Professor of Biostatistics Peter Gilbert contributed to this work.

Faculty member M. Elizabeth Halloran, who is also an epidemiologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center , says we have not yet reached a stable state with Covid, as evidenced by the “vertical rise of omicron cases” and it was “hard to say” when that might happen, saying, it would depend on the level of immunity within the population and how the virus evolves. 

Growing up in West Chester, Pennsylvania—a suburb of Philadelphia—Rebecca Hubbard loved to write stories and poetry. Her dream job was to become a science fiction writer, but she was a practical kid and recognized that probably wouldn’t pay the bills. Since she excelled at science and math, she figured becoming a scientist was a better bet for a stable career.

Official data report some five million COVID-19 deaths in two years, but global excess deaths are estimated at double or even quadruple that figure. Jon Wakefield, professor of biostatistics and statistics, is quoted.

M. Elizabeth Halloran, professor of biostatistics and director for the Summer Institute in Statistics for Modeling in Infectious Diseases (SISMID), is quoted.

Congratulations to UW Biostatistics alumnus Jeff Leek (PhD ’07, MS ’05) and welcome back to Seattle! Leek will also join the Fred Hutch faculty as professor in the Public Health Sciences Division and will hold the J. Orin Edson Foundation Endowed Chair. His first day will be on or before July 1.

COVID could take on a similar ebb and flow to the flu, but there is plenty left to figure out about just how severe and disruptive it will continue to be. UW Professor of Biostatistics and Fred Hutch researcher M. Elizabeth Halloran is quoted.