Linda Liu, a first year PhD student in Stanford’s Biomedical Informatics (BMI) program, proposed a project during her rotation in Atul Butte’s lab that would mine existing clinical data to characterize physiological differences between men and women. Though she has still not decided which lab is the right fit for her graduate research, Liu was awarded a spot in the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program.
“There are many underlying biological differences between men and women that result in differences in drug metabolism, disease progression, development and aging,” Liu says, “but we have limited information on the genes and functions that are involved.”
Liu’s proposal involved creating networks of associations between physiological markers (clinical measurements) and comparing them by gender to find physiological processes that differ between men and women. She can then mine GEO (the Gene Expression Omnibus) to find differentially expressed genes involved in the processes and validate their gender-specific expression and function.
As a product of this study, Liu will develop software tools to allow others to mirror her approach, building physiological networks from existing clinical data and linking the results to public gene repositories. This would enable faster knowledge discovery and easier use of clinical data to answer basic biological questions about human physiology.
According to the NSF website, “Fellows are expected to become knowledge experts who can contribute significantly to research, teaching, and innovations in science and engineering” during the three year fellowship. “These individuals will be crucial to maintaining and advancing the nation’s technological infrastructure and national security.
Liu is currently completing her first year in the BMI program. She graduated in 2008 from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia with a BS in Biology and a BA in Mathematics. She chose to come to Stanford on account of its excellent program in Biomedical Informatics. This fellowship will bring her one step closer to her long-term goal to conduct research on differences between male and female physiology and their clinical implications.