Biostatistics Seminar: The contribution of rare genetic variants and polygenic risk scores to prostate cancer risk across multi-ancestry populations
Speaker: Burcu Darst, PhD, Assistant Professor, Public Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutch Cancer Center
Presentation: The contribution of rare genetic variants and polygenic risk scores to prostate cancer risk across multi-ancestry populations
Abstract: Understanding who is at risk of developing prostate cancer could have significant implications for screening practices and prostate cancer outcomes. Prostate cancer is one of the most heritable cancers, with genetic variants across the genome associated with risk of overall and aggressive prostate cancer, providing an opportunity to inform risk-stratified screening strategies. In this presentation, I will discuss research we have conducted to identify and characterize the contributions of rare and common genetic variants to risk of prostate cancer, leveraging whole-genome sequencing and imputed genome-wide genotyping data. This includes developing and validating a multi-ancestry polygenic risk score (PRS). Last, I will discuss work we have done to evaluate…
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Hans Rosling Center for Population Health (HRC). Campus room: HRC 135. Accessibility Contact: Deb Nelson, nelsod6@uw.edu, 206-685-9323. Event Types: Lectures/Seminars.
Thursday, April 2, 2026, 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM.
The 28th Annual MPH Practicum Symposium and Reception (In-Person Event)
The Annual MPH Practicum Symposium is a celebration of community-engaged learning, innovation, and impact, driven by public health graduate students. Over 100 MPH students will share the incredible work they’ve done over the past year in partnership with communities around the world.
View Program and RSVP to Attend: https://sph.washington.edu/mph-practicum/symposium
The Practicum is an essential part of the MPH candidate experience as it enables our students to take what they’ve learned in the classroom and apply it to the real world of public health. The Practicum also exemplifies our School’s commitment to community-based learning and partnerships. MPH students work under the supervision of both academic and public health agency mentors to advance the work of Public Health. We are delighted to honor our students’ hard work as well as faculty mentors and public health practice agencies that provide our students will invaluable practice-based projects and experiences each year.
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Student Union Building (HUB). Campus room: HUB Ballroom. Accessibility Contact: Chelsea Elkins, sphaccess@uw.edu. Event Types: Academics. Special Events. Target Audience: Students, faculty, staff, agency leaders, donors, families, community members.
Wednesday, April 8, 2026, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
For more info visit sph.washington.edu. Biostatistics Seminar: Robust methods for meta-analysis of dose-response relationships.
Speaker: Aleksandr Aravkin, PhD, Associate Professor, UW Department of Applied Mathematics; Director, Math Sciences, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation; Adjunct Professor, Health Metrics Sciences, Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science & Engineering
Presentation: Robust methods for meta-analysis of dose-response relationships.
Abstract: We present the Burden of Proof framework, a set of innovations for meta-analysis to improve estimation of nonlinear dose-response relationships as well as provide additional metrics for broader comparisons of risk-outcome relationships to each other. We discuss technical challenges in modeling nonlinear risks and incorporating reported observations, as well as robust trimming strategies to reduce sensitivity to outliers. Shifting to new metrics and cross-pair comparisons, we define a burden of proof risk function: a quantile of the risk curve that represents a conservative effect size consistent with the available evidence after accounting for uncertainty…
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Hans Rosling Center for Population Health (HRC). Campus room: HRC 135. Accessibility Contact: Deb Nelson, nelsod6@uw.edu, 206-685-9323. Event Types: Lectures/Seminars.
Thursday, April 9, 2026, 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM.
Biostatistics Seminar: Osvaldo Espin-Garcia, PhD, Assistant Professor, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Western University
Speaker: Osvaldo Espin-Garcia, PhD, Assistant Professor, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Western University
Presentation title and abstract coming soon.
Event interval: Single day event. Campus room: Online. Accessibility Contact: Deb Nelson, nelsod6@uw.edu, 206-685-9323. Event Types: Lectures/Seminars.
Thursday, April 16, 2026, 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM.
Biostatistics Student-Invited Seminar: Edward Kennedy, PhD, Associate Professor Statistics & Data Science, Carnegie Mellon University
Speaker: Edward Kennedy, PhD, Associate Professor Statistics & Data Science, Carnegie Mellon University
Presentation title and abstract coming soon.
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Hans Rosling Center for Population Health (HRC). Campus room: HRC 135. Accessibility Contact: Deb Nelson, nelsod6@uw.edu, 206-685-9323. Event Types: Lectures/Seminars.
Thursday, April 23, 2026, 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM.
Biostatistics Seminar: Kelley Harris, PhD, Associate Professor of Genome Sciences
Speaker: Kelley Harris, PhD, Assistant Professor of Genome Sciences
Presentation title and abstract coming soon.
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Hans Rosling Center for Population Health (HRC). Campus room: HRC 135. Accessibility Contact: Deb Nelson, nelsod6@uw.edu, 206-685-9323. Event Types: Lectures/Seminars.
Thursday, April 30, 2026, 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM.
Biostatistics Seminar: Manu Setty, PhD, Assistant Professor, Basic Sciences Division and Herbold Computational Biology Program, Public Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutch
Speaker: Manu Setty, PhD, Assistant Professor, Basic Sciences Division and Herbold Computational Biology Program, Public Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutch
Presentation title and abstract coming soon.
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Hans Rosling Center for Population Health (HRC). Campus room: HRC 135. Accessibility Contact: Deb Nelson, nelsod6@uw.edu, 206-685-9323. Event Types: Lectures/Seminars.
Thursday, May 7, 2026, 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM.
Biostatistics Seminar: William DeWitt, PhD, Assistant Professor, Genome Sciences, University of Washington
Speaker: William DeWitt, PhD, Assistant Professor, Genome Sciences, University of Washington
Presentation title and abstract coming soon.
Event interval: Single day event. Campus room: HRC 135. Accessibility Contact: Deb Nelson, nelsod6@uw.edu, 206-685-9323. Event Types: Lectures/Seminars.
Thursday, May 21, 2026, 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM.
Biostatistics Seminar: Matheus Viana, PhD, Associate Director, Image Analysis and Descr Modeling, Allen Institute
Speaker: Matheus Viana, PhD, Associate Director, Image Analysis and Descr Modeling, Allen Institute.
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Hans Rosling Center for Population Health (HRC). Campus room: HRC 135. Accessibility Contact: Deb Nelson, nelsod6@uw.edu, 206-685-9323. Event Types: Lectures/Seminars.
Thursday, June 4, 2026, 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM.