BIOMETRICS SECTION NEWSLETTER, April 2008

EXCITING PROGRAM AT THE 2007 JSM
The theme of this year's Joint Statistical Meetings, August 3 - August 7 in Denver , Colorado is "Communicating Statistics: Speaking Out and Reaching Out”. The Biometrics Section is proud to co-sponsor a short course on Sunday, August 3, 2008 and a number of invited sessions.

Scott C. Schmidler will present a one-day short course on Statistical Challenges in Proteomics . The course will provide an introduction to the technologies and the statistical issues arising in structural and functional proteomic studies. Topics to be covered include:

An overview of experimental data sources: X-ray crystallography, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), mass spectrometry (MALDI, SELDI , MS /MS), peptide arrays.
Statistical methods and challenges in structural proteomics: molecular comparison and database search, classification of structures, structure-based function prediction.
Statistical problems in functional proteomics: fragment identification, normalization and registration of spectra, peak identification, classification and biomarker identification, protein-protein interaction networks.

The goal of the course is to introduce academic and industrial statisticians to challenges and opportunities emerging in the application of statistical methods to modern proteomic studies. Lecture notes complemented with software demonstration and data analysis examples will be used to teach the course.

Scott C. Schmidler is Assistant Professor of Statistical Science at Duke University . He is also a core faculty member in the Duke Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics as well as the Duke Training Program in Structural Biology and Biophysics. He has extensive research experience in statistical bioinformatics, computational biology, and computational chemistry, with particular interests in applications to structural and functional proteomics, molecular biophysics, and physical chemistry. In addition, he has significant expertise in Bayesian statistics, statistical mechanics, and computational statistics, with emphasis on Monte Carlo and dynamical simulation methods.

Invited Sessions
In addition, the Biometrics section is sponsoring an exciting program of invited sessions and talks spanning a broad range of topics in Biostatistics. The titles and organizers of the invited sessions are given below.

"Time series analysis via mechanistic models," organized by Ed Ionides,
University of Michigan .
"A New Paradigm of Statistical Data Analysis - `Omics' data'," organized by Susmita Datta, University of Louisville .
"New Statistical and Computational Methods for Analysis of Genomic Data with a Graphical Structure," organized by Hongzhe Li, University of Pennsylvania .
"Statistical methods for multivariate dental data," organized by Tom Braun, University of Michigan .
"Challenges of Statistical Inference in `large p, small n' problems,” organized by Annie Qu, Oregon State University
"Directing a Biostatistics Core in Biomedical Research," organinzed by Michael Hudgens, University of North Carolina .

The Biometrics Section would like to thank Mahlet Tadesse, our JSM Continuing Education Chair, and Debashis Ghosh, our JSM Program Chair for their wonderful job in organizing the course and sessions. Check the online program at the 2008 JSM web site (available through the ASA web site www.amstat.org ) for updates on locations and times.

STRATEGIC INITIATIVES
The Strategic Initiatives Subcommittee: Bonnie LaFleur, Scarlett Bellamy, Harold Dyck, Mani Lakshminarayanan and Lisa Sullivan

This past July a new Section subcommittee was formed: the Strategic Initiatives Subcommittee. You may recall seeing a request for proposals from this subcommittee in October. For the past few years the Biometrics Section has supported a number of projects focused on enhancing awareness of biostatistics among quantitatively-talented US students; particularly projects that encourage students to pursue advanced training in biostatistics. The most recent funded applications are:

"Promoting Biostatistics: Developing Materials for Linking Statistics and Biology Classes"
"Developing a Web Site to House Outreach Materials for AP Statistics Students and Their Teachers: Case Studies in Collaborative Research"
"A Biostatistics Apprenticeship Outreach Program for Urban Magnet High School Students"
"A Synergistic Effort to Recruit Future Biostatisticians in Arkansas High Schools"
"Developing Outreach Materials for AP Statistics Students and Their Teachers: Case Studies in Collaborative Research”

In the next couple of months the activities supported by, and the outcome of, these projects will be highlighted in the Biometrics Newsletter.

As we begin thinking about future projects, the primary charge of this new subcommittee is two-fold:

Develop criteria to evaluate the success of completed initiatives, and apply it to those created so far
Guide thinking on the development of future strategic initiatives, including both overall direction and specific proposals

We need members like you to assist us in these assignments. Very soon we will be developing a survey so that you can give us feedback on the direction of future Strategic Initiatives. We are excited to be able to participate in this very important Biometrics Section endeavor. These initiatives are part of YOUR Section, and we are hoping that you will give input to our new subcommittee as we move forward.

JSM 2009
It's already time to start thinking about invited sessions for next year's Joint Statistical Meetings, which will be held August 2 - August 6 in Washington , DC . Anyone who is interested in organizing an invited session or who has ideas for one, please contact our 2009 Program Chair, Wensheng Guo , at wguo@mail.med.upenn.edu .

A typical invited session consists of three 30-minute talks followed by a 10-minute invited discussion and 10 minutes of floor discussion. However, other formats are possible. The 2008 program is a good source for examples. Decisions will be made in July, so don't delay!

Please also submit ideas for short courses our 2009-2010 Continuing Education Chair Gerald Heatley at jerry.heatley@thoratec.com .