Biostatistics Core

The BCC Biostatistics Core is a shared resource providing statistical expertise and collaboration to BCC investigators on all phases of basic science, translational, clinical, epidemiological, and prevention research. The mission of the Biostatistics Core is to ensure rigorous and efficient experimental and clinical trial designs, conduct data analyses and report research findings using best practices in biostatistics and population sciences, and advance methodological research to support the analysis of high-dimensional data from emerging technologies and diverse platforms, all in support of cancer research.

The BCC Biostatistics Core includes faculty, staff, and graduate students with various biostatistics expertise. In addition to basic biostatistics services, we will apply advanced statistical methods in clinical trial designs, develop diagnostic and predictive models using different types of data (e.g., cytometry data, omics data, and clinical data), evaluate causal effect and personalized treatment based on randomized controlled trials and real-world data, collaborate to generate new knowledge relating to the nature of cancer, and collaborate to create new and more effective approaches to prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

Dr. Maiying Kong, an elected member of International Statistics Institute, along with her staff and students provide biostatistics support to multiple center grants at our institution. This includes the BCC Biostatistics Core, the Center for Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy COBRE (Drs. Yan and Chesney), the Research Design, Compliance, and data management core for LCTRC (Dr. Klein), and the Biostatistics and Informative Facility Core for CIEHS (Dr. States). Dr. Kong has years of experience in biostatistics including clinical trials, causal inferences for comparing the effectiveness of different treatments and procedures, personalized medication, longitudinal data analysis, generalized linear models, survival analyses, high dimensional data analyses, and machine learning methods. She is also experienced in conducting research using real-world databases such as Medicaid, Medicare, and electronic health records. Her expertise extends to spatial and clustering analyses of imaging mass cytometry data, supporting biomarker discovery aligned with treatment response and clinical phenotypes. Dr. Kong has graduated 11 PhD students in Biostatistics and is currently supervising 5 PhD students.

Who We are: 

Maiying Kong, PhD
Director, Brown Cancer Center Biostatistics Core, School of Medicine
Wendell Cherry Chair in Clinical Trial Research, University of Louisville
Professor, Department of Bioinformatics and Biostatistics, SPHIS, University of Louisville

Maiying Kong, PhD — School of Public Health and Information Sciences

Staff members:

  • Tyler Jones (M.S. in Biostatistics, 2024, Duke University): BCC Biostatistician II
  • Wanyu Zhang (Ph.D. in Statistics, 2023, Auburn University; Postdoctoral Fellow, Yale University): LCTRC Biostatistician IV
  • Hao Zheng (M.S. in Biostatistics, 2023, Columbia University): CIEHS Biostatistician II
  • Winky Wan (M.S. in Statistics, 2024, Rice University): LCTRC Biostatistician II

 

PhD Candidates in Biostatistics:

  • Mst Sharmin Akter Sumy – Research area: Predictive models; expected May 2026
  • Stanley Kotey – Research area: Adaptive clinical trial designs; expected May 2026
  • Carly Middleton – Research area: Image mass cytometry data; expected August 2026
  • Aye Aye Maung – Research area: Causal inference on mixture exposure; expected August 2026
  • Apsara Pitigalaarachchi – Research area: Mediation and moderation analysis; expected May 2027

 

Contact Information:

Maiying Kong: 
Phone: 502-852-3731/502-852-3988 

Hiring Information:

We are hiring MS/PHD biostatisticians. Please visit https://louisville.edu/hr/employment/jobs, or contact Dr. Maiying Kong (email: ) if you are interested.