News, research updates, and program highlights from the Public Health Sciences Biostatistics Program at Fred Hutch.
March 2026
The ENAR 2026 Spring Meeting will inlcude several FHCC Biostat folks:
- Jingyi Jessica Li: "Definitions and Applications of Spatial Niches in Spatial Omics Data Analyses: A Summary and Discussion"
- Mike Wu: "Accommodating Differential Read Depth in Analyses of Virome Diversity"
- Stephen Salerno, Awan Afiaz, and Jeff Leek: "Scorcher: An R Package to Democratize Building and Fitting Torch Deep Learning Models."
- Stephen Salerno: Tutorial 5: "Introduction to Prediction-based Inference: Methods and Applications"
February 2026
Ruth Etzioni was featured in a New York Times article about Grail's multi-cancern early detection test.
Mike Leblanc presented the 2026 Ross L. Prentice Lecture, Evolving Designs and Analyses of Publicly Funded Cancer Clinical Trials, at UW.
January 2026
Two papers from Jingyi Jessica Li’s lab were accepted to RECOMB 2026. The work advances methodology for differential expression inference and population-scale single-cell RNA-seq data generation. Congratulations to the teams: Chenxin Flora Jiang, Changhu Wang, Chris Dong, Yihui Cen, Dongyuan Song, and Jingyi Jessica Li. One paper, Nullstrap-DE, is on arXiv.
Bo Yu, Wei Sun, Li Hsu, and others just published a preprint from the MorPhiC collaboration on a causal gene regulatory network framework combining co-expression + knockout modeling.
We officially launched our new YouTube channel, featuring Biostat Seminar recordings, Faculty talks, and more.
December 2025
Fred Hutch researchers, including our own Li Hsu, have launched MyGeneRisk, a free online tool for assessing colorectal cancer risk using lifestyle information and optional genetic data. Results are immediate, and user data are not stored.
Hutch News published a story on Megan Othus and Ruth Etzioni’s SeattleStatGROWS undergraduate program, highlighting its mission to engage and support future researchers in statistics and data science.
Excellent feature from UW Biostatistics highlighting Jeff Leek and Steve Salerno's terrific work advancing scorcher and making AI and ML tools more accessible for cancer investigators.
November 2025
Yingqi Zhao visited the Department of Biostatistics, University of Michigan. She gave a seminar on `Addressing Real-world Challenges in Cancer Early Detection and Therapeutic Studies’
Check out this article highlighting Jessica Li’s new NIH R01 to advance rigorous analysis of single-cell and spatial omics studies.
New from Kemal Gogebakan and the Etzioni Lab: a Cancer paper modeling how PSMA-PET/CT imaging could improve decision-making for men with recurrent prostate cancer. The paper will be featured later this month in Fred Hutch's Science Spotlight series.
Jingye Jessica Li is awarded the Mortimer Spiegelman Award. Congratulations, Jessica!
Excellent article on PROSPR II. Kudos to Biostat faculty Yingye Zheng and the COMPASS team for advancing this important research.
📢 We're hiring! Assistant/Associate/Full Professor Faculty Position in Biostatistics.
The Sun Lab published a new preprint on the Characterization of Cancer-Reactive T Cells and Neoantigen-specific T Cell Receptors.
October 2025
Yingqi Zhao visited the Department of Statistics, University of California, Irvine. She gave a seminar on `Timely Decision Making with Practical Consideration.'
Biostat faculty member Lue Ping Zhao was among long-term Hutch employees honored at a lunch celebrating those who have been here for 35, 40, 45, and 50 years of service.
Nature Communications has selected mcRigor, by Pan Liu and Jingyi Jessica Li for its Computational & Theoretical Biology Editors’ Highlights collection. The paper, mcRigor: a statistical method to enhance the rigor of metacell partitioning in single-cell data analysis, introduces a statistical method to improve the rigor of metacell-based single-cell analysis by detecting heterogeneous (dubious) metacells, optimizing metacell partitioning, and strengthening the reliability of downstream discoveries across scRNA-seq and multi-omic datasets.
Ruth Etzioni spoke to STAT about multi-cancer detection tests, emphasizing the need for careful evaluation of these emerging technologies (subscription may be required).
Jeff Leek spoke with KUOW's "Booming" podcast about the Cancer AI Alliance (CAIA).
The Zhao Group's software to evaluate the stage-shift and mortality projections is now available.
GeekWire's Tech Moves column featured the achievements of Drs. Jingyi Jessica Li, Heather Parsons, Elizabeth Swisher and Shailender Bhatia.
Ruth Etzioni is awarded the Early Detection Impact Award at the Early Detection of Cancer Conference in Portland, Oregon. Cancer Research UK interviewed Ruth about the award, and discussed the art of balancing benefits and harms in screening, the importance of transparency in modeling, and the promise of new data-rich collaborations: “Modelers have to work hard to describe how their models work so that the audience trusts the results,” she notes. “Knowing the natural history of disease is fundamental to striking the right balance between benefit and harm.” Congratulations, Ruth!
Jingyi Jessica Li has been named the inaugural holder of the Donald and Janet K. Guthrie Endowed Chair in Statistics. She is eager to expand collaborative, data-driven research in cancer and infectious disease, applying rigorous modeling and innovative frameworks such as mcRigor to strengthen the reproducibility and impact of biomedical discoveries. Read more about Dr. Li's appointment and the legacy behind the Guthrie chair.
September 2025
Hutch biostatistician and Chief Data Officer Jeff Leek and his Cancer AI Alliance team were named to Time magazine's 100 AI list of 2025!
Jessica Li presented a seminar at the UW Department of Statistics: Nullstrap: A Simple, High-Power, and Fast Framework for FDR Control in Variable Selection for Diverse High-Dimensional Models.
Fred Hutch biostatisticians Jingyi Jessica Li and Pan Liu have published their new statistical framework, mcRigor, in Nature Communications. The method improves the reliability of single-cell data analysis by identifying and correcting heterogeneous “metacells” — clusters of cells that can distort downstream results if not truly homogeneous. By optimizing existing metacell partitioning tools, mcRigor enhances the accuracy and reproducibility of discoveries across single-cell RNA-seq and multi-omic datasets.
August 2025
Yingqi Zhao was awarded a new NCI R01! the project, "Developing methods for advancing the early detection of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma leveraging electronic medical records data," will develop EMR-based strategies to advance early detection of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) by identifying high-risk populations and integrating biomarkers. See the Hutch High Five notice here.
Jingyi Jessica Li presented an online seminar in the Statistics & AI in Data Science series.: "Statistical Learning in the Wild: Tackline Double Dipping in Unsupervised Single-Cell & Spatial Transcriptomics."
Center News features Hutch biostatistician Wei Sun, who is helping lead the NIH’s MorPhiC consortium with UW collaborators, using CRISPR knockouts and single-cell readouts to map functions of human genes beyond today’s “usual suspects.”
July 2025
MIke Wu presented an online seminar in the American Statistical Association's Statistics & AI in Data Science series, "Turning Crap Data into Scientific Discovery: Statistical Magic in Microbiome Science."
June 2025
Jingyi Jessica Li joins the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center's Biostatistics Program as our new Program Head. An innovator in statistical genomics and data reproducibility, Jessica develops tools that transform massive biological datasets into meaningful scientific insights. Congratulations and welcome, Jessica!
May 2025
The Early Detection Research Network (EDRN) hosted its 14th EDRN Scientific Workshop "Unleashing the Power of Collaboration: The Future Is Here" in Washington DC.
April 2025
The first public data release from the MorPhiC Consortium dropped this month. Check it out here!
Biostatistics faculty Li Hsu, Wei Sun, and UW Biostatistics Professor Ali Shojaie are among the contributing authors of the landmark paper by the MorPhiC Consortium, “Towards functional characterization of all human genes”, published in Nature (Vol. 638, Feb 2025). The article advances the ambitious goal of systematically cataloguing the molecular and cellular phenotypes associated with null alleles of every human protein-coding gene, a major step toward broadening our understanding of gene function and accelerating discoveries in human biology.
March 2025
The Cancer AI Alliance (CAIA) was named a Geekwire Health Innovation of the Year. This Fred Hutch-led initiative unites experts, including Hutch biostatistician Jeff Leek, to apply responsible AI to cancer centers’ data, unlocking insights while ensuring data security.