Senior Investigator Scientist

Statistics and Data Science Team

Work and interests

Jing Hua Zhao was an investigator scientist at the Unit with research interests in statistical and computational genetics. He received a bachelor’s degree in public health from Shandong Medical University, China and a master’s degree in medical statistics from Shanghai (Fudan) Medical University, China. He then came to the UK as a researcher in genetics at King’s College London where he was awarded a PhD in genetics. He left the Unit in May 2018.

Jing Hua Zhao has worked on design and analysis for Whitehall II, ELSA, EPIC-Norfolk, InterAct and the Framingham Heart Study via genetic analysis workshops. The EPIC-Norfolk gonomewide association study contributed to consortia such as GIANT and CHARGE. He is a member of the Royal Statistical Society.

He promotes reproducible research, in particular genetic data analysis with R, through software development, presentations and/or tutorials at useR!2007, useR!2008, useR!2009, useR!2010, useR!2011, Henry-Stewart talks and and other local talks. He also distributes software, for example the genetics analysis package (gap) on CRAN.

Background and experience

His past positions include:

• Research Associate at Centre for Health Statistics Information, Ministry of Health, China
• visiting Scientist at the Department of Environmental Health, School of Public Health, and the Channing Laboratory, Harvard University
• Research Associate at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London
• Statistician at the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London.

Publications

• MRC Epidemiology Unit publications on the Publications Database
• ReserachGate profile

Selected publications

1. Xue F. Li S. Luan J. Yuan Z. Luben RN. Khaw KT. Wareham NJ. Loos RJ. Zhao JH. A latent variable partial least squares path modeling approach to regional association and polygenic effect with applications to a human obesity study. PLoS One. 2012;7(2):e31927. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0031927
2. Zhao JH. and Luan J. Mixed Modeling with Whole Genome Data. Journal of Probability and Statistics, Volume 2012 (2012), Article ID 485174, 16 pages. doi: 10.1155/2012/485174
3. Zhao JH. Gap: genetic analysis package. J Stat Soft 2007;23(8):1-18 Open access publication
4. Zhao JH, JA Luan, F Baksh, Q Tan. Mining gene networks with application to GAW15 problem 1. BMC Proceedings 2007;1(Suppl 1):S52
5. Tan Q, Christiansen L, Brasch-Andersen C, Zhao JH, Kruse TA, Christensen K. Retrospective analysis of main and interaction effects in genetic association studies of human complex traits. BMC Genetics 2007;8:70
6. Zhao JH, JA Luan, Q Tan, R Loos, N Wareham. Analysis of Large Genomic Data in Silico: The EPIC-Norfolk Study of Obesity. In DS Huang, L Heutte, and M Loog (Eds). ICIC2007, CCIS 2 Advanced Intelligent Computing Theories and Applications with Aspects of Contemporary Intelligent Computing Technologies 781-790.
7. Zhao JH, Q Tan. Genetic dissection of complex traits in silico: approaches, problems and solutions. Curr Bioinformatics 2006;1(3):359-369
8. Zhao JH, Q Tan. Integrated analysis of genetic data with R. Hum Genomics 2006;2(4):258-265
9. Tan Q, K Christensen, L Christiansen, L Bathum, S Li, JH Zhao, TK Kruse. Haplotype association analysis of human disease traits using multi-locus genotype data of unrelated subjects. Genetical Res 2005;86:223-231
10. Zhao JH. Mixed-effects Cox models of alcohol dependence in extended families. BMC Genetics 2005;6(Suppl 1):S127
11. Zhao JH, EJ Brunner, M Kumari, A Singh-Manoux, E Hawe, PJ Talmud, MG Marmot, SE Humphries. Longitudinal study of APOE polymorphism, socioeconomic status and cognitive function in later mid-life: the Whitehall II study. Soc Psychiatr and Psychiatr Epidemiol 2005;40:557-563