CANSSI Ontario STAGE Welcomes PhD Trainee Hua Lu

Hua Lu, recipient of CANSSI Ontario STAGE Trainee Program.

CANSSI Ontario STAGE is pleased to announce Hua Lu as one of three selected CANSSI Ontario STAGE Trainees.

Hua is a PhD student in Biostatistics at Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, under the supervision of Lisa Strug and Rae Yeung. His research focus lies in developing statistical genetics methodologies to address challenges related immunological diseases.

Hua has published research in the areas of medical imaging, juvenile arthritis and multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (forthcoming). Prior to his doctoral studies, Hua received his Master of Science in Biostatistics from the University of Toronto.

Hua received this year’s award for the project: Genetic overlap between multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) and other immunophenotypes: a multi-trait colocalization framework.

The primary goal of his project is to integrate statistical genetics and immunology to develop innovative methodologies for gaining novel insights into MIS-C. The objectives include the utilization of established techniques such as Polygenic risk scores (PRS), and development and implementation of new methods, particularly the multi-phenotype colocalization extension of the existing framework Simple Sum 2 (SS2). These approaches aim to investigate the shared genetic etiology between MIS-C and other immunophenotypes.