Denis Agniel, PhD

Denis Agniel received his PhD from the Harvard School of Public Health under the supervision of Tianxi Cai.  Agniel’s research was focused on statistical methods for complex phenotypes where diverse measurements are required to accurately capture the multidimensionality of disorders. In this work, he used semi- and non-parametric methods to, for example, answer questions relating to genetic risk for multiple autoimmune diseases or detect genetic variants affecting HIV disease progression. His current research is primarily focused in three areas: (1) Using statistical methods for producing accurate data-driven phenotypes for heterogeneous neuropsychiatric disorders when true disease phenotypes are unknown. Of particular interest is incorporating longitudinal and time-to-event information into phenotype classification. (2) Understanding the impact of interdisciplinarity on translational science and, in particular, using large bibliometric databases to answer questions such as, "Do interdisciplinary teams produce more translational research?" (3) Ranging across a number of statistical areas such as resampling techniques and using non-parametric functional techniques to succinctly summarize longitudinal data for the purposes of testing and treatment selection.