Department Seminar SERIES

The Department sponsors a biweekly seminar series during the academic year on topics of epidemiologic and biostatistical interests. Speakers include Michigan State University faculty, Michigan Department of Community Health public health professionals or invited guests from around the nation or, occasionally, overseas.

The seminar is open to all members of the MSU and public health community, and unless otherwise noted, takes place in person, Zoom (or both) at 3:00 p.m. Most seminars are recorded and available for viewing.

• The Patenge Room, C102, is located in the C wing of East Fee Hall. 
• Zoom seminars links will be provided when necessary

Miss a Seminar or would like to revisit one?

Most seminars are recorded and available for viewing by clicking on the SEMINAR ARCHIVES link located on the upper right side of this page.

Spring 2025 Seminars 

American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) collectively experience some of the greatest inequities across metrics of wellbeing of any population in the US. Increasing health equity for this population is not only a goal for diverse organizations and institutions, but in relation to health and federally recognized Tribes, it is also a trust responsibility of the US government. The root of contemporary AI/AN patterns of wellbeing extends beyond classic public health emphases on social determinants of health, and instead derives distally from histories of colonization and subsequent subjugation. Commonly referred to as “historical trauma,” intergenerational experiences of trauma and adversity have been shown to compound contemporary experiences like poverty, low educational attainment, and elevated rates of police violence and incarceration, contributing to the health inequities we see today. The most notable fact about the AI/AN contemporary experience, however, is not the presence of enduring inequities but the continued existence of the people themselves. Despite more than 500 years of continuous, systematic, and politically-sanctioned assaults, AI/ANs endure and in many ways thrive through practices both traditional and contemporary. Despite this, biomedical research and practice for AI/ANs continues to be overwhelmingly conducted through a deficit lens, focusing on perceived biological and behavioral inadequacies rather than structural origins of despair and strengths-based solutions, perpetuating narratives of pathology rather than thriving presence. Such practices compound historical and contemporary structural determinants of dis-ease and contribute to enduring inequity. Through this talk, we will explore the upstream contributors to contemporary AI/AN patterns of health as well as the current shift towards strengths-based approaches to promoting AI/AN wellbeing, including the emerging concept of survivance.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27 2025 | 3:00 p.m. C102 Fee Hall (Patenge Room), Zoom

Lindsey Admon, MD, MSc

Associate Professor
Obstetrics and Gynecology
University of Michigan 

Kara Zivin, PhD

Marcia A. Valenstein, MD Collegiate Professor, Psychiatry
Professor, Health Management and Policy

Research Career Scientist, Center for Clinical Management
Research, VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System

University of Michigan

"Medicaid and Postpartum Mental Health: A Research Agenda."

We will discuss recent legislation impacting postpartum Medicaid eligibility including the MHPAEA, ACA, and ARPA Postpartum Medicaid eligibility extensions and their impact on postpartum mental health. We will also discuss what remains unknown and potential research strategies to address remaining gaps in knowledge.

THURSDAY, MARCH 13 2025 | 3:00 p.m. C102 Fee Hall, (Patenge Room), Zoom

Xiang Zhou, PhD

Professor, Biostatistics
University of Michigan

"Statistical methods for transcriptome-wide association studies"

Integrating genome-wide association studies (GWASs) and gene expression studies through transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS) has the potential to shed light on the causal molecular mechanisms underlying disease etiology. Here, I will discuss a few new statistical methods that our group has recently developed for TWAS. Specifically, I will first talk about PMR, a probabilistic Mendelian randomization method for TWAS applications. PMR relies on a MR likelihood framework that unifies many existing TWAS and MR methods, accommodates multiple correlated instruments, and tests the causal effect of gene on trait in the presence of horizontal pleiotropy. I will talk about multiple extensions of PMR, including moPMR for analyzing multiple outcome traits, METRO for leveraging gene expression data across multiple genetic ancestries, and HMAT for aggregating multiple gene expression prediction models, all further enhancing TWAS power. Additionally, I will talk about GIFT for conditional TWAS analysis and TWAS fine-mapping, explicitly controlling for the genetic regulated components of multiple genes residing in a local region to fine-map causal genes. Finally, if time allows, I will talk about VINTAGE, which explicitly quantifies and tests the proportion of genetic effects on a trait that are mediated through gene expression using a local genetic correlation test, and further leverages such information to guide the integration of gene expression mapping study towards GWAS for gene association mapping through a genetic variance test.

THURSDAY, MARCH 27 2025 | 3:00 p.m. C102 Fee Hall (Patenge Room), Zoom

Qu (Teresa) Tian, PhD

Associate Scientist
Longitudinal Studies Section
NIH

"Olfaction in aging and neurodegeneration: current progress and future opportunities"

Olfaction deteriorates during aging and olfactory deficit is one of the earliest signs of cognitive decline and neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. However, contributing factors of loss of olfaction and biological underpinnings for the associations with cognition and neurodegeneration are not fully understood. This talk will focus on current research progress from epidemiological studies, with a highlight in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, and also discuss future opportunities.

THURSDAY, APRIL 10 2025 | 3:00 p.m. C102 Fee Hall, (Patenge Room), Zoom

Mat Reeves, BVSc, PhD

Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Michigan State University

Emily Toth Martin, PhD, MPH

TBD

Professor, Epidemiology
Director of Doctoral Studies, Epidemiology
Co-Director, Michigan Center for Respiratory Virus Research and Response
Co-Director, Michigan Public Health Integrated Center for Outbreak Analytics and Modeling