Yingqi Zhao

Yingqi Zhao, PhD is a Professor in the Biostatistics Program within the Public Health Sciences Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. She is also a Member of the Translational Data Science Integrated Research Center (TDS IRC) at Fred Hutch. Dr. Zhao leads the Zhao Group, which focuses on developing novel statistical and machine learning methods for personalized medicine, dynamic treatment regimes, disease screening and surveillance, clinical trial design, and electronic health records analysis.

Dr. Zhao earned her PhD in Biostatistics from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill in 2012 and completed her BS in Statistics at Wuhan University in 2006. Her research spans multiple areas of biostatistics with applications in cancer detection and treatment, diabetes care, and public health surveillance.

Dr. Zhao's work focuses on developing statistical methods for precision treatment and precision prevention, clinical trial design for therapeutic and early detection purposes, methods for analyzing real-world data from electronic medical records and administrative data, and public health surveillance. Her research has significant applications in early cancer detection, cancer therapeutics, cancer survivorship, and diabetes care. She develops innovative approaches to improve cancer immunotherapy trial design, early detection of cancer, healthcare delivery for complex Type 2 diabetes patients, and childhood obesity surveillance.

Her recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on individualized treatment rules, dynamic treatment regimes, cancer screening trial design, and analysis of electronic health records data. These works show an evolving trend toward more personalized and cost-effective healthcare solutions with applications across multiple disease areas, particularly cancer and diabetes.

• 2020 - UNC Biostatistics Grizzle Alumni Award
• 2011 - Best Paper in Biometrics, International Biometrics Society
• SWOG Coltman Fellowship early-career award
• ENAR Distinguished Student Paper Award
• Society for Clinical Trials (SCT) Thomas C. Chalmers Student Scholarship Finalist

Dr. Zhao mentors numerous PhD students and postdoctoral fellows, with alumni now holding faculty positions at institutions like MD Anderson Cancer Center and Georgia State University. Her research is supported by significant grants from NIH, PCORI, and the Hope Foundation, including a 2025 R01 grant from the National Cancer Institute for pancreatic cancer early detection research and a 2024 PCORI grant for improving randomized screening trial design.

The Zhao Group operates within the Fred Hutch ecosystem, collaborating extensively with the SWOG Cancer Research Network and the Early Detection Research Network. The group maintains active research projects focused on pancreatic cancer early detection, cancer immunotherapy trials, diabetes care for complex patients, and childhood obesity surveillance, leveraging electronic medical records data and advanced statistical methods to address critical healthcare challenges.