Jennifer L. Clarke, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Epidemiology & Public Health
Description of Research
Dr. Clarke’s research interests focus on developing statistical methods for the analysis of high dimensional biological data (genomics/genetics, proteomics, metabolomics). These methods can then be applied in medical contexts to predict relevant disease outcomes. The demand for such methods is steadily increasing as medical researchers recognize the potential of ‘omics data as predictors of disease, as seen in the medical literature. Dr. Clarke has applied techniques such as restrospective binary trees, support vector machines, and generalized additive models to combined clinical and genomic/genetic data sets from research studies in breast cancer, ovarian cancer, brain cancer, and cardiology. Her current research projects include the development and comparison of statistical techniques for model averaging, the prediction of chemotherapy tolerance from clinical and metabolomic data in a population of breast cancer patients, and the prediction of cardiovascular disease from clinical, genomic, genetic (SNPs) and metabolomic data. Collaborative projects such as these afford the opportunity for statistical research, while gaining new insights into the disease process- insights which may lead to new disease biomarkers and improved patient care.Highlights
- Development of methodology for the deconvolution of gene expression from heterogeneous samples
- Biomarker discovery through next generation RNA sequencing in inflammatory breast cancer
- Gene expression analysis for identifying and understanding genomic factors in breast cancer metastasis
- Development of prequential statistical methods and ensemble methods for outcome prediction
- Co-author on patent for expression analysis of coronary artery atherosclerosis
Selected Cancer-Related Publications
- Iorns E, Hnatyszyn HJ, Seo P, Clarke J, Ward T, Lippman M. The Role of SATB1 in Breast Cancer Pathogenesis. J Natl Cancer Inst 102:1284-96, 2010 Read more »
- Webster JA, Gibbs JR, Clarke J, Ray M, Zhang W, Holmans P, Rohrer K, Zhao A, Marlowe L, Kaleem M, McCorquodale DS 3rd, Cuello C, Leung D, Bryden L, Nath P, Zismann VL, Joshipura K, Huentelman MJ, Hu-Lince D, Coon KD, Craig DW, Pearson JV, Heward CB, Reiman EM, Stephan D, Hardy J, Myers AJ. Genetic control of human brain transcript expression in Alzheimer disease. Am J Hum Genet 84:445-58, 2009. Read more »
Programs
Collaborating in the Multidisciplinary Research Program(s):