Time: 1:30-4:00 pm , Oct 24, 2017 (Tuesday )
Venue: Room 300, SIBS Main Building, Yueyang Road 320
Host: Prof. Zefeng Wang
         CAS-MPG Partner Institute for Computational Biology 

1. Speaker: Dr. Yingqing Chen, PhD
                  Affiliate Professor, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
Title: Design for a Scientific Breakthrough Study in HIV/AIDS Research
Abstract: The HIV Prevention Trial Network (HPTN) 052 Study is a Phase III, controlled, randomized clinical trial to assess the effectiveness of antiretroviral therapy strategies in preventing sexual transmission of HIV-1 (Cohen, et al., 2011). The “Science” Magazine named it as the Scientific Breakthrough of the Year for 2011 (Alberts, 2011). In this talk, we will focus on the design and methods that underlie this successful study in HIV Treatment-as-Prevention, and discuss the lessons that we have learned for future research.
References:
Alberts, B (2011) Science breakthroughs, Science, 334: 1604
Cohen, MS, Chen, YQ, McCauley, M, et al. (2011) Prevention of HIV-1 infection with early antiretroviral therapy, New England Journal of Medicine, 365: 493-505 

2. Speaker: Dr. Sayan Dasgupta, PhD
                  Staff Scientist, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. 
Title: Assessment of complex epidemiological models
Abstract: Complex, dynamic models of infectious diseases can be used to understand the transmission dynamics of  the  disease,  project  the  course of  an  epidemic,  predict  the  effect  of  interventions and/or provide information for power calculations of community level intervention studies. However, there have been relatively few opportunities to rigorously evaluate the predictions of such models. Indeed, while there is a large literature on calibration (fitting model parameters) and validation (comparing model outputs to data) of complex models, the lack of substantial high quality, population-level disease incidence data has led to fairly simple procedures for calibration and validation of models of infectious diseases. Recently, several community level randomized  trials  of  combination  HIV  intervention  have  been  planned  and/or initiated.  In  each  case,  significant  epidemic  modeling  efforts  were  conducted during  trial  planning  and were  integral  to  the  design  of  these  trials.  The  existence  of  these  models  that  have  been  designed  to predict  trial  results  in  a  specific  setting,  and  the  (anticipated)  availability  of  results  from  those  trials, provide  a  unique  opportunity  to  evaluate  those  models  and  their  usefulness  in  trial  design.  In  this project, we outline a framework for evaluating the predictions of complex epidemiological models and describe  experiments  that  can  be  used  to  test  this framework prior  to  the  completion  of  the  ongoing trials, such as the HPTN 071 (PopART) Study. 

3. Speaker: Dr.Yifan Zhu, PhD
                  Staff Scientist, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. 
Title: Data challenges in mobile health - a motivating example from Wisepill drug monitoring in HIV prevention trials
Abstract: With rapid advancement in hardware and software technologies, a vast amount of multi-channel, real-time high-resolution data are being generated from wearable devices and mobile phones. The comprehensive coverage of individual-level physiological and behavioral monitoring, combined with traditional approaches, could make significant public health impact on risk-assessment, disease monitoring, and prevention intervention. The mobile device R01 project focuses on the common data features and challenges that are produced by various devices, such as wearable accelerometers, electrocardiogram (ECG) patch monitors, electrical drug monitoring and GPS/cellular phone location tracking. We aim for novel statistical methods alongside the analytic workflow for these data, namely sensors to markers, markers to predictions and predictions to interventions in mobile health. An example of analyzing drug adherence monitoring from Wisepill drug dispenser for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) trial HPTN 069 is given to illustrate the analytic steps, and how these steps promote precision public health. 

All are welcome! Anyone who'd like to have a talk with these speakers in the morning of 24 Oct or after the symposium, Please feel free to contact Jing MU via mujing@picb.ac.cn before 20 Oct. For students and Postdocs, who'd like to have lunch with speakers on Oct. 24 please contact her ASAP. First come first served.