Mingyao Li and Sharon Xie, both biostatisticians from Penn’s Center for Clinical Biostatistics and professors of biostatistics in the department of biostatistics, epidemiology and informatics have been elected fellows of the American Statistical Association, the largest professional organization for statisticians in the United States. ASA Fellowships are limited each year to one-third of one percent of the organization’s membership.

Dr. Li was selected for outstanding contributions to statistical genetics and genomics, as well as scientific discoveries in the genetics of cardiometabolic disease and age-related macular degeneration. Dr. Li was also cited for her editorial and other professional contributions to the field.

An expert in statistical genetics, bioinformatics and computational biology, much of Dr. Li’s work includes developing methods and tools to find new ways to identify and characterize genetic changes that lead to complex diseases. Dr. Li’s collaborative research also reveals new insights into Alzheimer’s disease, as well as gene therapy for rare diseases.

Dr. Xie was selected for excellent and sustained statistical collaborative and methodological research in the area of neurodegenerative diseases, exemplary mentoring of biostatistics graduate students and medical researchers, leadership and development of outstanding biostatistics core facilities with national impact in neurodegenerative disease research and for service to the profession.

Dr. Xie currently serves as principal investigator of a NIH R01 grant-funded study that aims to find new statistical methods for measuring dementia risk in Parkinson’s disease and related neurodegenerative diseases.  She is also the principal investigator of the biostatistics and data management core for three NIH-funded neurodegenerative disease research centers/program project grants: the Alzheimer’s Disease Center, the Morris K. Udall Parkinson’s Disease Research Center of Excellence, and the frontotemporal lobar degeneration program project grant.

Dr. Xie’s current research is aimed at developing novel statistical methods for missing data, measurement error problems, and lifetime data analysis in response to problems arising in research of neurodegenerative diseases, and also to advance better understanding of the progression of neurodegenerative diseases.