“The idea that we can pinpoint an individual’s predisposition to contracting certain diseases before they even show any symptoms of that disease isn’t too far off,” said Baolin Wu, professor of epidemiology and biostatistics. “Applying statistics to biology and medicine is an exciting and rapidly changing field that holds a lot of promise in preventative health and precision medicine.”
Over the summer, Dr. Wu joined the UCI Program in Public Health’s Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics after spending the better part of two decades at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health. As a biostatistician, he applies the practice of statistical and computational modeling to help develop scientifically sound solutions to important research questions.
“Based on the millions of genetic markers and the volume of clinical data coming from medical records or wearable devices, the goal would be to have enough evidence to advise certain populations what diseases they need to look out for and what health behavior modifications can be made to prevent those diseases,” Wu explained. “Biostatistics is about determining risk and trying to prevent that risk in large populations with similar genetic, behavioral, and environmental makeups.”
Dr. Wu, who holds a PhD in biostatistics from the Yale School of Public Health, was motivated to enter the public health field because he felt his skills and knowledge could best be applied to help improve population health. As a relatively young newcomer to the larger healthcare landscape, biostatistics has grown exponentially over the past several decades. In its early years, biostatistics was most applied to clinical trials where trial managers use biostatisticians’ expertise to develop protocols, analyze data, and answer statistical questions.
“Let’s take for example a clinical trial’s experiment group and its placebo group, we compare the two groups over the course of the trial to determine disease outcomes and to provide results to show the efficacy or inefficacy of a drug being tested,” Wu explained. “Using the knowledge of biostatisticians was especially crucial in the rapid development of the COVID-19 vaccines.”
Applying statistics to biology and medicine is an exciting and rapidly changing field that holds a lot of promise in preventative health and precision medicine.”
– Baolin Wu, PhD, Professor of Epidemiology & Biostatistics
Wu describes biostatistics as being an especially collaborative field and hopes to develop research partnerships and interdisciplinary projects in his first 5 years at UC Irvine. Besides the satisfaction of helping biomedical investigators solve scientific research questions and making translational impact, his work also helps to motivate his own methodology research. He strives to develop novel statistical and computational methods that can more efficiently extract useful and accurate information from the vast amount of data available. Wu is actively involved in several research projects and is supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health Research Grant Program.
“I’m looking forward to expanding our program’s degree offerings and giving the next generation of students the right tools and education, they need to become effective public health practitioners,” Wu said. “I enjoy watching students grow and become independent and more confident in their research and apply their skills to better serve the society.”
Wu sees the field of biostatistics as a valuable player in addressing health disparities, especially in those populations who are understudied such as Black, Latinx, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islanders. He will continue his work with colleagues from the University of Minnesota to understand how genetics plays a role in the success rate of kidney transplants and various transplant outcomes. So far, they have observed that Black patients fared much worse than White patients after a transplant and have been exploring new ways to improve the transplant outcomes for Black patients.
