New study co-authored by Biostatistics faculty member Amy Willis is featured, explaining how an international team of scientists used a statistical model to reconstruct the lifetime travel patterns of a woolly mammoth.

Analysis of a 17,000-year-old fossil has revealed remarkable details about the travel patterns of an Arctic woolly mammoth who, throughout its 28-year life, walked the equivalent of nearly two trips around the world.

In the race to develop new and better vaccines and boosters to block COVID-19, scientists are eagerly seeking laboratory tests that can measure immune responses to quickly show how well these shots are working, instead of waiting months for results of clinical trials involving tens of thousands of people.

Now, a group of top scientists, including Dr. Peter Gilbert, a biostatistician at Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, are reporting that they have defined such measurements — or correlates of protection — for the widely used Moderna mRNA vaccine.

Our most recent graduates will now embark on new careers, continue research, or continue their education pursuing advanced degrees.  Here is a sample of their exceptional work in the program and their future plans. 

Finding a surrogate measure of efficacy should speed regulators' decisions on vaccine approval even without large placebo-controlled studies, which could be impracticable to carry out if vaccines become widely available, said Peter Gilbert, a researcher at Fred Hutchinson and an author of the recent study.