Hey, I'm Lathan
Resident Physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital
I'm an aspiring physician-scientist. My research broadly focuses on leveraging better understanding of genetic architecture of cardiometabolic disease to improve precision medicine. I am interested in how to use biomarkers and genomics to improve cardiovascular predictive modeling. I am also interested in statistical methods surrounding modeling best practices and false discovery rate control. I also seek to better understanding underlying genetic architecture of chronic disease, and am working to extend discourse within genomics.Previously I received my BA from Pomona College, MPhil in Epidemiology from the University of Cambridge, and MD from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. I was also formerly a data scientist at Merck.
Biography
I'm a proud child of two Taiwanese immigrants and a first-generation college student. For high school, I attended Bergen County Academies in the Academy for Medical Science and Technology. I then moved across the country to Pomona College, where I studied Molecular Biology and Statistics. In my sophomore year, I was accepted to the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai as a FlexMed Scholar. Following graduation, acutely focused on honing my data skills, I decided to defer medical school and pursue an MPhil from the University of Cambridge in Epidemiology under the supervision of Dr. Stephen Kaptoge and Dr. Paul Pharaoh.After spending almost 2 years in the UK honing my statistics acumen and my programming skills, I decided to move into industry, propelled by the desire impact real-world decision-making. At Merck, I built bioinformatics tools to scale drug discovery efforts.While in medical school, I became relatively focused in maximizing my scientific ability because I believed that this would be greatest amplifier of my interests and skills. I was advised by Dr. Paul O'Reilly. I was supported by the Tylenol Future Care Scholarship, Glorney-Raisbeck Scholarship, and recognized as a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow Finalist.I still think about biotech, data science deployment, and data science education (but more peripherally). To unwind, I'm probably watching Netflix, playing basketball, or trying new cafes/restaurants.
Contact
I was previously Chair of MD+. I served as the Student Representative for the Admissions Committee for the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. I'm more than happy to meet with current students for feedback on medical school applications (FlexMed vs. traditional) and general career advice. I also enjoy working with and mentoring motivated and responsible students on interesting research projects.If you'd like to chat, please feel free to email me at liou.lathan[at]gmail[dot]com
Or reach out via my LinkedIn.
Initiatives
Thought Pieces
• Liou L, Swaminathan A. How to enhance lab-team efficiency with tools from the tech industry. Nature. 2024• Liou L, Swaminathan A. How ‘retro’ meetings can enhance collaboration. Nature. 2023• This is what the ultimate R data analysis workflow looks like. Medium. 2021• How well do you “really” know survival analysis?. Medium. 2021• How to Make a Professional-looking Shiny App and Not Get Intimidated (With R). Medium. 2020• How to Start Learning Bioinformatics and Not Get Intimidated (With R). Medium. 2020Organizations
• Genomics Preprint Club, a cross-institutional network dedicated to evaluating preprints within genomics
• MD+, a 501(c)3 that supports an international community of 5,000+ aspiring physician-innovators
• MEDICS, an initiative that aspires to raise the minimum level of statistical literacy in all physicians and physicians-to-be
• Refresh Bolivia, a 501(c)3 that improves the public health of 10,000+ community members in Cochabamba, BoliviaSoftware
• Shiny Trumpets, an app designed to help you visualize GWAS data via a trumpet plot
• Wrangle, an app designed to help you practice data wrangling in R and SQL
• onlineFDR, an R package that offers novel algorithms to control error rates in our modern era of research
• onlineFDR Explore, Shiny app for onlineFDR
• onlineFWER Explore, Shiny app extension for onlineFDR
• wrangle_purrr, Shiny App to teach the purrr package
• tidyde, a tidy framework for next generation sequencing differential expression analysis
Press coverage
• At ACC, Researchers Showcase New Approaches to Polygenic Risk Scores
• Genomic risk prediction of coronary artery disease in women with breast cancer: a prospective cohort study
• How NYC hospitals are using artificial intelligence to save lives
• Mount Sinai puts machine learning to work for quality and safety
• AI was supposed to save health care. What if it makes it more expensive?
• 5C Experience: 5C Students Build a Health Clinic in Bolivia