# Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Core

> **NIH NIH U19** · TULANE UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA · 2024 · $218,628

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
The purpose of this U19 Program Project (U19) is to comprehensively identify osteoporosis risk genes/bacterial
species and their functional products from the human genome and gut microbiome. We will characterize their functions
through comprehensive trans-omics integrative analyses of the data generated both from this renewal project and
from our ongoing U19 (U19 AG055373, 9/15/2017-). This program involves extensive data management and complex
analyses, requiring organic and simultaneous consideration of data from multiple component projects and demanding
powerful and innovative analysis methodology. Thus, a Biostatistics & Bioinformatics Core (BBC) is necessary
focusing on the use of both existing and the development of novel, integrative analysis approaches.
The Objective of the BBC is to serve as a backbone support core for experimental design refinement, data quality
control, management, imputation, integration, and interpretation, and to serve as a synergizer to foster data and
information exchange and collaboration across individual projects/cores within the U19. Built upon the Core members’
long-term productive collaborations, the BBC will provide services through the following Specific Aims:
1) To deliver efficient support and services for data management, including high-quality data entry and database
management, query and maintenance, data quality control, safety, monitoring, sharing, etc.
2) To provide strong support for and conduct extensive biostatistics and bioinformatics, especially multi- and trans-
omics data imputation and integrative analyses. Closely working with the U19 investigators, the BBC will support both
single-level omics data analyses and integrative analyses of multi-level omics data. Particularly, the BBC will pioneer
a sophisticated integrative analysis strategy. This highly innovative strategy will link gut microbiome DNA, human host
DNA, miRNA, methylation, and metabolomic data anchored via gene-based mRNA hubs to construct unified functional
multi-omics modules and regulatory networks/pathways for both osteoblastogenic and osteoclastogenic lineage cells.
These re-constructed functional modules and regulatory networks/pathways will then be used in disease
association/causality analyses for osteoporosis risk.
3) To evaluate, validate, and apply novel, robust and powerful integrative analysis methods for the identification and
characterization of (epi-)genes and variants, gut microbiome bacterial species, and gene/pathway functions for
osteoporosis. The novel methods developed in-house (e.g., through recent R01’s funded to Core Director – Dr. Wang)
under rigorous statistical frameworks, together with those developed by other groups in the field, will be comparatively
used. These methods will characterize and incorporate crosstalks/interactions among-omics, along with prior
biological information, to study causal relationships between multi-omics data and diseases. The innovative methods
will be app...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10913430
- **Project number:** 5U19AG055373-08
- **Recipient organization:** TULANE UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA
- **Principal Investigator:** YU-PING WANG
- **Activity code:** U19 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $218,628
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-09-15 → 2027-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10913430

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10913430, Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Core (5U19AG055373-08). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10913430. Licensed CC0.

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