David V. Conti

David V. Conti, PhD, is a Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. He holds the prestigious Kenneth T. Norris, Jr., Chair in Cancer Prevention and serves as Associate Director for Data Science Integration Sciences and Acting Division Chief of Biostatistics at the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. His academic leadership spans multiple critical areas of public health research and data science integration.

Dr. Conti's research focuses on genetic and environmental epidemiology with particular interest in identifying and characterizing risk factors across populations. His methodological research specializes in integrating multiple omic measurements, biological knowledge, and external prior information in statistical modeling, primarily using Bayesian hierarchical models. His applied work spans prostate, breast, and pancreatic cancers, liver disease, diabetes-related endpoints, and more recently, he has developed a stochastic epidemic model for the COVID-19 pandemic in Los Angeles County. His work investigates multiple omic layers including the genome, exposome, and metabolome to understand complex disease mechanisms.

• Genetic Epidemiology: Genome-wide association studies, polygenic risk scores, ancestry-specific risk assessment
• Environmental Epidemiology: PFAS exposure, air pollution, chemical toxicology
• Statistical Development: Bayesian hierarchical models, multi-omics integration, methodological innovations

Dr. Conti's scientific contributions have been recognized through his appointment to the Kenneth T. Norris, Jr., Chair in Cancer Prevention, a distinguished position honoring his significant impact in cancer prevention research. His work bridges statistical methodology with practical applications in public health and clinical settings.

As an educator and mentor, Dr. Conti advises several graduate students including PhD candidates Gillian King, Qiran Jia, and Jiayi (Sylvia) Shen, as well as MS student Shardul Nazirkar. His laboratory, the Conti Lab, serves as a hub for interdisciplinary research connecting biostatistics, epidemiology, and clinical applications.

The Conti Lab maintains active collaborations across multiple research domains, with particular emphasis on cancer epidemiology, environmental health, and statistical methodology development. The lab's work combines theoretical statistical advances with practical applications to address pressing public health challenges, particularly in understanding the complex interplay between genetic and environmental factors in disease development.