Qin Liu

Qin Liu, Ph.D., M.D., is a Professor in the Molecular and Cellular Oncogenesis Program at The Wistar Institute's Ellen and Ronald Caplan Cancer Center. She leads the Biostatistics Unit, providing statistical expertise for translational and pre-clinical cancer research across the institution.

Dr. Liu earned her medical degree and master's in health statistics at Shanxi Medical University in China, followed by a Ph.D. in biostatistics from Shanghai Medical University in 1998. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of Massachusetts, where she also earned a second master's degree in public health and epidemiology. She served as assistant professor in the Department of Cancer Biology at UMMS starting in 2005, then joined the Biostatistical Research Group in 2007. She joined The Wistar Institute in 2011 as an associate professor and was promoted to professor in 2017.

Her research applies biostatistics to multiple areas including basic cancer research, clinical trials of cancer immunotherapy, infectious diseases, behavioral and educational intervention research, and health care outcomes. The Biostatistics Unit under her supervision provides statistical support to biological laboratories at The Wistar Institute, including large data management, experiment design, statistical data analysis, and manuscript preparation.

Analysis of Dr. Liu's recent publications reveals a strong focus on statistical approaches to complex biological problems, particularly in cancer immunology, HIV research, and biomarker discovery. Her work often involves collaborations across multiple disciplines, combining biostatistical expertise with laboratory and clinical research.

Dr. Liu has secured significant funding for collaborative projects, including three NIH P01 Program Project grants on molecular therapies for prostate cancer, melanoma, and EBV-related cancers. Her statistical expertise has contributed to numerous published papers and funded grant proposals for clinical and basic science investigators.

The Biostatistics Unit she supervises provides in-house expertise to accommodate the growth in translational cancer research at Wistar. Her team includes scientific programmers and statistical analysts who work closely with laboratory researchers to design experiments and analyze complex biological data.