Biostatistics

Led by Annette Molinaro, PhD, the Biostatistics team provides statistical expertise and collaboration to Department of Neurological Surgery investigators on all phases of basic science, translational, clinical, epidemiological, and prevention research. Their mission is to ensure rigorous and efficient planning, conduct, and reporting of research using best practices in biostatistics, and to advance research methodologies via education and innovation.

Among many projects, the Biostatistics team is developing a user-friendly Brain Tumor Center Database (BTCDB), which provides a streamlined and consolidated research operations network for collecting, sharing and management of clinical and research data centered on patients with gliomas. The platform contains pathology, research genomics, imaging, and epidemiology data from supported projects at UCSF. There is a web interface for data aggregation and exploration (query and filter), data extraction (via pre-defined report templates), and data entry/correction as well as an API for automated interactions. The goal of the Brain Tumor Center database is to leverage clinical and research data to achieve our goal of improved outcomes for patients with brain tumors.