Friday, March 14, 2025
3/14/2025
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Project-specific training opportunities for biostatisticians and data scientists are often not available outside of certain advanced graduate (or occasionally undergraduate) degree programs. Lacking these opportunities, the effectiveness of the biomedical workforce suffers due to shortages in qualified biostatisticians and data scientists who can design efficient and robust studies that can be analyzed to produce reliable and generalizable results and thus applied to the most important problems in health research. For this project, we will focus on pairing undergraduates with biostatistics and translational mentors in areas of interest to the NHLBI and NIAID to work on specific research projects. We propose to establish a Summer Institute in Biostatistics and Data Science at the University of Texas Medical Branch to provide trainees with these opportunities for direct, hands-on training. The objective of this project is to develop this training opportunity to expose students to statistical design and analysis problems from real research, while providing them with the conceptual and technical tools to address these problems. As such, students should be able 1) to assess study designs for strengths and weaknesses in addressing specific biomedical questions, 2) to use the tools of statistical modeling, data science, and hypothesis testing along with state-of-the-art statistical software to work on problems as well as produce results and conclusions for these problems, and 3) to understand how developing these skills can lead to a wide variety of career opportunities both inside and outside of academia. The specific aims of this project are to develop an opportunity for students 1) to receive training in basic biostatistics and data science methods in the context of compelling scientific questions and research data, based on 2) the implementation of innovative educational approaches in describing analytic and computational skills necessary to execute biostatistical research on projects relevant to the missions of the NHLBI and NIAID, as well as 3) be provided with a program faculty-mentored independent research opportunity and 4) be provided career guidance and development opportunities to trainees, and 5) to recruit a diverse group of participants The application of this training will be guided by case studies stemming from projects in heart and lung diseases as well as studies in infectious disease prevention, emerging infections, and immune-mediated studies. This project is innovative in how it ties together active training in state-of-the-art statistical and data science techniques using effective educational platforms tied with specific case study applications as well as opportunities for career development. Our project is significant because developing a workforce knowledgeable in biostatistical and data science applications of heart and lung diseases as well as studies in infectious disease prevention, emerging infections, and immune-mediated studies research has been increasingly in demand to improve the efficiency and reliability of biomedical innovation; this project represents an important step in meeting this need.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).