Computational Biology Group Members
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Dr Andy Lynch
Department of Oncology
| Telephone: | +44 1223 40 4291 |
| email: | agl22 cam.ac.uk |
| Office Location: | Room 130E, CRUK Cambridge Research Institute, Li Ka Shing Centre, Robinson Way, Cambridge CB2 0RE |
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| Background |
Andy followed the maths tripos at the University of Cambridge, concentrating on statistical topics in Part III, before researching for a PhD in statistics at the University of Sheffield with Nick Fieller and Eleanor Stillman. The Industrial Case sponsors were Horticulture Research International where John Fenlon supervised. His PhD, entitled "Covariate models for size distributions", looked at consolidating the two steps of fitting size distributions to 'particles' (where 'particle' is a loose concept and might be a grain of sand or a tomato) and subsequently modelling the parameter estimates in terms of other properties, into a single robust analysis step. Other common problems such as marrying measurements from mutliple instruments, and investigating the weight size relationships of fruit were also incorporated in this framework to beneficial effect.
From 2001 to 2002 he was at the University of Newcastle in the Centre for Process Analytics and Control Technology, and from 2002 to 2006 he worked in the University of Cambridge at the Centre for Applied Medical Statistics. While at CAMS he worked on over a hundred research studies and experiments with clinical colleagues in the University and NHS sectors. From 2005 to 2006 he split his time between CAMS and the Department of Oncology, and Since 2006 he has worked full time in the computational biology group at the Department of Oncology, applying statistical ideas and methodologies to research problems in that area.
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| Research Overview |
Andy's current research focusses on a number of themes.- DNA copy number The design of experiments to validate calls of copy number variation; Methods for fairly comparing different technologies for measuring DNA copy number; The identification of areas of copy number abberation and the linking of these to other ~omic data sets; Identification of classes of abberation that technologies will miss; Methods for better calling copy number abberations.
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Illumina BeadArray data Looking for ways to exploit the information contained in the raw data from Illumina BeadArray experiments; Assisting in the development of the beadarray R package; Designing experiments for BeadArray studies; Assessing new Illumina technologies and refining methods for their analysis.
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Oligonucleotide probe design Investigating design effects for longer oligos (i.e. 50mers and 60mers rather than the well studied 25mers); Looking at effects in two-colour arrays (where dye-bias may amplify the problems associated with poorly designed probes); Investigating the targetting of probes and the value of careful reannotation.
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Clinical agreement Measuring the agreement of clinicians in a number of areas (grading tumours, operating instruments, outlining tumours etc); Investigating the implications for association studies.
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The Metabric project
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Other projects with biological and medical motivations In particular collaborations with the Neal and Caldas research labs as well as a number indirectly through consulting with the Bioinformatics Core facility at the CRI.
All of the above conducted with colleagues in the computational biology group and further afield, who also keep Andy interested more generally in topical issues in computational biology.
Andy supervises students for summer projects, both MPhil students as part of their course and final year undergraduates who want a taste of research (usually maths students prior to taking an MPhil), and also contributes to the supervision of PhD students.
He is on the editorial advisory board of SMMR, and is a member of the Cancer Research UK Translational Work in Clinical Trials Committee International Panel as well as doing work for a number of other journals. Andy is a chartered statistician, fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, and the quiz editor for the RSS News. He engages in statistical consulting and commercial teaching, but all requests should come through Cambridge Enterprise
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| Teaching 2009/2010
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MPhil in Epidemiology/MPhil in Public Health
---'Probability distributions' and 'Comparing several groups' |
University undergraduate supervisions
---By arrangement |
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