Celebrating the career of Ross Prentice, professor of biostatistics at the University of Washington School of Public Health, who retires at the end of this year.

Researchers have used a new approach to refine the estimate of the average genome-wide mutation rate for humans, which they pegged at 1.24 x 10-8 per base pair per generation.

According to UW Professor of Biostatistics Sharon Browning and her colleagues, the rate they calculated "is consistent with our previous IBD-based estimates but has tighter confidence intervals because of the larger sample size enabled by the methodology presented here."

"Even though (the data) is impressive for a new molecular entity - it has no direct evidence to support the antiviral activity," said panel member Susanne May, who voted against authorization of the drug. May is a professor of biostatistics with the University of Washington School of Public Health and director of the UW Clinical Trials Center.

Tracy Bergemann (PhD ’04) found little support or understanding for First Gen students during her time as a UW Biostatistics graduate student. Resources for First Gen students have improved over the years but significant challenges remain.

“My advice is to just keep putting one foot in front of the other day by day, and find your allies where you can,” said Bergemann.

Melanoma is the most serious type of skin cancer, but most patients have high chances of surviving the disease. In addition, there is evidence that melanoma is being diagnosed in patients who would never experience symptoms.  This study sought to identify early-stage melanoma patients with near-zero risk of death from melanoma.

“Not only are the results potentially practically useful, our simple models are highly interpretable and suggest insights into when melanoma is more or less dangerous for a patient,” said Kathleen Kerr, a study co-author and professor of biostatistics at the University of Washington School of Public Health.