Department of Biostatistics Seminar/Workshop Series

Exploring statistical strategies for use in challenge-response experiments

Matt Shotwell, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Biostatistics, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine

Wednesday, February 29, 1:30-2:30pm, MRBIII Room 1220

We consider an experimental approach where a system under study is subjected to controlled challenges, with the expectation that responses to these challenges will be informative about the underlying mechanism. For example, Vanderbilt researchers have examined the association of cardiac electrophysiology and cardiac metabolism by observing the time course of electrophysiological parameters, such as action potential duration, under intermittent anoxic stress. Challenges are designed to have a significant impact on the response, but often cause the response to change abruptly, to be irregular in shape, or become more variable. We present competing statistical strategies to accommodate these data complexities, but that also address the relevant scientific goals.

Keywords: bootstrap, mechanistic model, splines, optimal design, basic research