News

Congratulations to Paul Kirk

15 August 2024

We are delighted to announce that Paul Kirk has been promoted to Principal Research Associate ( full Programme Leader in MRC terms), recognising his outstanding work and contributions to the Unit’s research over the last few years. Paul co-leads the Biostatistical Machine Learning theme, a new research theme at the BSU...

Photo of 2024 Nuffield Placement Student, Zayneb Kasur, sat at desk in front of computer screen

Inspiring our future Biostatisticians

14 August 2024

This summer, we were delighted to host three work experience students, providing them with a taste of what it’s like to be a biostatistician and inspiring them to pursue a career in a Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subject. We welcomed Zayneb Kusar, Aimee Asimit and Isaac Kim. Zayneb’s placement was...

Causal Language Attitudes Questionnaire

6 August 2024

We are interested in how people interpret the language used in healthcare reporting and how it could be improved. For example: "Red meat consumption is associated with a higher risk of bowel cancer" "People who drink whie wine are more likely to experience depression" To help achieve this, we have launched a questionnaire...

Bethany Heath receives award to present at conference

2 August 2024

Congratulations to BSU PhD student, Bethany Heath , on receiving a grant award to present at the International Biometric Conference. Bethany has received one of six travel grants from the International Biometric Society (IBS) British and Irish Region for career-young biostatisticians to participate at the International...

Infographic illustrating new CoPheScan method

New method for understanding how changing proteins link to disease risk

1 August 2024

The availability of genetic data linked to electronic health records in large-scale biomedical databases or biobanks has facilitated the widespread popularity of Phenome-Wide Association Studies (PheWAS). These studies explore links between changes in DNA sequence and the “phenome”: patient's characteristics such as...

Diabetes distress’ increases risk of mental health problems among young people living with type 1 diabetes

25 July 2024

A study conducted between researchers in the Czech Republic, the University of Cambridge, and the MRC Biostatistics Unit, has found that children diagnosed with type 1 diabetes are at significantly higher risk of a number of mental health issues, including mood and anxiety disorders. The findings, published in Nature...

Peter Armitage with Vern Farewell and Iain Chalmers

A special workshop dedicated to Professor Peter Armitage CBE

23 July 2024

Our 21st Armitage Workshop and Lecture will be dedicated to the work and achievements of Professor Peter Armitage CBE, who sadly passed away in February 2024 at the age of 99. The Armitage Lectures were established in 2003 by the BSU, to honour the immense contributions of Professor Armitage, who was at the Unit from 1947...

Event graphic for Within-individual Variability Workshop

Registration open for Within-individual Variability Workshop

28 June 2024

We are excited to be organising a one-day workshop about statistical models for within-individual variability in longitudinal data. Organised by Jessica Barrett, Marco Palma and Alison Quenault, the aim of the workshop is to gather statisticians, epidemiologists and data analysts interested in both methods and biomedical...

Photo of road with people and in front a picture is being held up by two elderly looking hands of head in lots of pieces

Over 20,000 people join search for new dementia treatments

17 June 2024

More than 20,000 volunteers have been recruited to a resource aimed at speeding up the development of much-needed dementia drugs. The cohort will enable scientists in universities and industry to involve healthy individuals who may be at increased risk of dementia in clinical trials to test whether new drugs can slow the...

Photo of all staff and students at BSU - stood in front of building at Away Day in June 2024

Successful funding bid for the MRC Biostatistics Unit