people
Members of the lab
PhD Students
Dr. Julien St-Pierre recently defended his PhD in Biostatistics from Mcgill University. Prior to this, he completed his master in Statistics at UQAM, and worked as a research assistant at CRCHUM before joining a clinical research organization as a statistical programmer. He is interested in generalized linear mixed models and penalized regression methods with an emphasis on rare-variants association tests. He was cosupervised by Dr. Sahir Bhatnagar (Mcgill) and Dr. Karim Oualkacha (UQAM). He is also a Julia programming enthusiast.
- St-Pierre J, Oualkacha K, Rai Bhatnagar SR (2024). Hierarchical selection of genetic and gene by environment interaction effects in high-dimensional mixed models. Statistical Methods in Medical Research.
- St-Pierre J, Oualkacha K, Bhatnagar SR (2023). Efficient penalized generalized linear mixed models for variable selection and genetic risk prediction in high-dimensional data. Bioinformatics.
[Julia package]. - St.-Pierre J, Zhang X, Lu T, Jiang L, Loffree X, Wang L, Bhatnagar SR, Greenwood CMT (2022). Considering strategies for SNP selection in genetic and polygenic risk scores. Frontiers in Genetics.
Dr. Zeyu (Chris) Bian obtained his PhD in Biostatistics from McGill University under the supervision of Dr. Sahir Bhatnagar and Dr. Erica Moodie. His research is focused on Dynamic Treatment Regimens (Causal Inference, Statistical Reinforcement Learning and Personalized Medicine) and Variable Selection. He is now a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Miami Herbert Business School.
- Bian Z, Moodie EE, Shortreed SM, Lambert SD, Bhatnagar SR (2024). Variable selection for individualised treatment rules with discrete outcomes. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C: Applied Statistics.
- Bian Z, Moodie EE, Shortreed SM, Bhatnagar SR (2023). Variable selection in regression‐based estimation of dynamic treatment regimes. Biometrics.
- Bian Z, Moodie EEM, Shortreed S, Bhatnagar SR (2023). Tailoring Variable Selection and Ranking for Optimal Treatment Decision. Handbook of Statistical Methods for Precision Medicine, edited by Cai T., Chakraborty B., Laber E., Moodie E. and van der Laan M. Chapman & Hall CRC Handbooks of Modern Statistical Methods.
Jesse Islam is a PhD student in Quantitative Life Sciences co-supervised by Dr. Rob Sladek, Dr. Mathieu Blanchette, and Dr. Sahir Bhatnagar. His research interest include survival analysis, machine learning, and gene perturbation networks.
- Islam J, Turgeon M, Sladek R, Bhatnagar S (2024). Case-Base Neural Network: Survival analysis with time-varying, higher-order interactions. Machine Learning with Applications.
Dr. Kai Yang obtained his PhD in Biostatistics from McGill. His research mainly focuses on computational methods for high-dimensional nonconvex sparse learning, which involves the development and application of continuous optimization methods on objectives from high-dimensional statistical machine learning models. Currently, Kai is interested in accelerated line search methods. He was jointly supervised by Dr. Masoud Asgharian and Dr. Sahir Bhatnagar.
- Yang K, Asgharian M, Bhatnagar S (2024). Accelerated gradient methods for sparse statistical learning with nonconvex penalties. Statistics and Computing.
Dr. Anthony Bozzo, MD, MSc, FRCSC, is an Assistant Professor in Orthopedic Surgery at McGill University and is appointed as a Junior Scientist at the Research Institute of the MUHC. He completed both a clinical fellowship in orthopedic oncology and a research fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. He has a clinical practice involving complex sarcoma resections and surgical treatment of patients with metastatic bone disease. Dr. Bozzo is currently enrolled in a PhD in Experimental Surgery at McGill University where he is furthering his work on applying AI to helping sarcoma patients.
- Bozzo A, Hollingsworth A, Chatterjee S, Apte A, Deng J, Sun S, Tap W, Aoude A, Bhatnagar SR, Healey JH (2024). A multimodal neural network with gradient blending improves predictions of survival and metastasis in sarcoma>. npj Precision Oncology.
- Bozzo A, Tsui JM, Bhatnagar SR, Forsberg J (2022). Deep Learning and Multimodal Artificial Intelligence in Orthopaedic Surgery. JAAOS-Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
Dr. Richard Garfinkle’s research focuses on the surgical outcomes of colorectal surgery patients, making use of large administrative databases, institutional data, and prospective trials to answer various clinical questions. His areas of interest include rectal cancer and diverticulitis. He completed his PhD in Experimental Surgery under the supervision of Dr. Marylise Boutros and Dr. Sahir Bhatnagar.
- Garfinkle R, Filion KB, Bhatnagar SR, Sigler G, Banks A, Letarte F, Liberman S, Brown CJ, Boutros M (2019). Prediction model and web-based risk calculator for postoperative ileus after loop ileostomy closure. Journal of British Surgery.
Masters Students
Haoyu Wu completed a Master of Science in Epidemiology at McGill University from 2019 to 2020 under the co-supervision of Dr. Brent Richards. During her studies, she was awarded the Graduate Research Enhancement and Travel Award, valued at $560, in recognition of her exceptional work and to support her academic travel. Haoyu is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Biostatistics at McGill University.
- Wu H, Forgetta V, Zhou S, Bhatnagar SR, Pare G, Richards JB (2021). Polygenic risk score for low-density lipoprotein cholesterol is associated with risk of ischemic heart disease and enriches for individuals with familial hypercholesterolemia. Circulation: Genomic and Precision Medicine.
Cindy Leung Soo completed her Master of Science in Epidemiology at McGill University between 2021 and 2023. She conducted her research under the co-supervision of Dr. Nikita Pai, focusing on Bayesian approaches to analyzing socioeconomic factors impacting the risk of HIV acquisition in the township population of South Africa.
- Leung Soo C, Pant Pai N, Bartlett SJ, Esmail A, Dheda K, Bhatnagar SR (2023). Socioeconomic factors impact the risk of HIV acquisition in the township population of South Africa: A Bayesian analysis. PLOS Global Public Health.
- Soo CL, Bhatnagar SR, Bartlett SJ, Esmail A, Dheda K, Pai NP (2023). Development and Evaluation of a Digital HIV Risk Assessment Tool Incorporated Within an App-Based Self-Testing Program. JAIDS Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.
Janet Fu earned her Master of Science in Biostatistics from 2020 to 2022 at McGill University. Her research, co-supervised by Dr. Jay Brophy, focused on Bayesian regularisation methods.
- Golchi S, Fu J, Liu X, Yu E, Forghani R, Bhatnagar SR (2022). Sparse Bayesian predictive modelling of tumour response using radiomic features. Stat.
Undergraduate Students
Peter Her graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacology and Therapeutics in 2021. Peter has demonstrated exceptional skills in quantitative analysis, which form the foundation of his academic and research interests.
- Her PH, Saeed S, Tram KH, Bhatnagar SR (2022). Novel mobility index tracks COVID-19 transmission following stay-at-home orders. Scientific reports.
Arthur Ayestas Hilgert graduated in 2021 with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Statistics. In 2022, he was awarded the NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award (USRA), providing funding of $7,000 for his summer research project. Arthur’s dedication to mathematics and statistics continues to inspire his academic journey.
Mohan Zhao earned her Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Statistics in 2021. Her academic work reflects a strong foundation in quantitative sciences, positioning her for impactful contributions in statistical research and applications.
Alouette Zhang completed a Bachelor of Science in Engineering in 2021. She was part of the McGill Initiative in Computational Medicine Summer Scholar Program, where she worked on a project predicting chronic pain trajectories in the aging population using genetic data. Alouette’s research exemplifies the integration of computational techniques with engineering and biomedical sciences.