Project Summary (2010-2014)

The Environmental Statistics and Bioinformatics Core provides cutting edge biostatistical and bioinformatics design and analysis support for all projects. Core faculty are drawn from the Department of Biostatistics's Environmental Statistics Program, the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) Program of Quantitative Genomics, the HSPH Bioinformatics Core, the Department of Epidemiology, and the Department of Environmental Health's Program in Environmental Epidemiology. Core faculty have a strong history of collaboration and methods development for applications in environmental health research and genetic epidemiology. Specific areas of expertise include nonparametric smoothing, Bayesian methods, spatial statistics, longitudinal data analysis, environmental risk assessment, statistical genetics, bioinformatics, genome-wide association studies, and genes and environment. Students and postdoctoral fellows in Biostatistics also provide data analysis support as needed. In addition to handling and overseeing statistical design and analysis for all projects, the core:

• Advises on data management and ensures that all projects adopt appropriate quality control/quality assurance for data collection, entry, storage and retrieval;
• Provides training in statistical methods and supervise doctoral students working on related research projects;
• Arranges for workshops, seminars and reading groups to ensure that all program faculty and researchers have access to state of the art statistical methods, programs, and techniques related to bioinformatics; and
• Conducts mission-related statistical research.