RCC Spotlight: Dr. Hongyuan Cao
Dr. Hongyuan Cao earned her bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics from Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China. Dr. Cao then received her PhD in statistics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Upon completing her degree, Dr. Cao joined the faculty in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Chicago as an assistant professor. Then, she worked as an assistant professor in the Department of Statistics at the University of Missouri-Columbia. In 2018, Dr. Cao joined FSU as a tenured associate professor and was promoted to professor in 2024.
Dr. Cao’s research focuses on identifying genomic features that are replicable across different studies, aiming to pinpoint potential molecular targets for downstream drug development. Pharmaceutical companies can use these findings to design targeted treatments that intervene at the genetic level, potentially offering new therapeutic options and future medical breakthroughs.
One specific example of Dr. Cao’s work is measuring time-to-event outcomes such as cardiac arrest in Latino populations. By measuring patients’ vital signs in the data, her research helps stratify risk based on vital status, allowing healthcare professionals to categorize patients into risk groups. This enables more efficient resource allocation of interventions, giving immediate attention to those at highest risk while appropriately managing moderate- and low-risk cases.
Figure 1 shows the results of an MOB data analysis.
