Lulu Shang, PhD
Department of Biostatistics, Division of Discovery Science
Present Title & Affiliation
Primary Appointment
Assistant Professor, Biostatistics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
Dual/Joint/Adjunct Appointment
Affiliate, Institute for Data Science in Oncology
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Biostatistics and Data Science, The University of Texas Houston School of Public Health, Houston, Texas
Education & Training
Degree-Granting Education
| 2023 | University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, US, Biostatistics, Ph.D |
| 2018 | University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, US, Biostatistics, M.S |
| 2016 | Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, CN, Biology, BS |
Experience & Service
Extramural Institutional Committee Activities
Member, Institutional Review Board (IRB) Committee, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2026 - Present
Member, GSBS admission committee, The MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2025 - Present
Co-Chair, Quantitative Science Program Graduate Admissions Subcommittee, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2025 - Present
Honors & Awards
| 2024 | ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards, Rackham Graduate School, University of Michigan |
| 2024 | IMS New Researcher Travel Grant Award, Institute of Mathematical Statistics |
| 2022 | Charles J. Epstein Trainee Awards, Predoctoral semifinalist, American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) |
Professional Memberships
Selected Presentations & Talks
Local Presentations
- 2026. Statistical detection of cell type-by-environment interaction driven genes in spatial transcriptomics. Invited. Houston, Texas, US.
- 2026. SCOPE: a scalable framework for transferable multicellular niche discovery in spatial omics. Invited. Colin Stroud Hackathon. Houston, Texas, US.
- 2026. Introduction to computational methods in spatial transcriptomics. Invited. Houston, Texas, US.
National Presentations
- 2025. Statistical methods in spatial transcriptomics. Cancer and Bioinformatics Symposium 2025. College Station, Texas, US.
- 2025. Statistical methods in spatially reglated genes in spatial transcriptomics. Invited. Department of Statistics, Departmental Colloquium, US.
- 2025. Statistical methods in spatial transcriptomics. Invited. Boston, US.
- 2025. Statistical methods in spatial transcriptomics. Invited, Idaho, US.
- 2024. Statistical identification of cell type-specific spatially variable genes in spatial transcriptomics. Invited. 2024 ICSA Applied Statistics Symposium. Nashville, TN, US.
- 2023. Spatially Aware Dimension Reduction in Spatial Transcriptomics. Invited. Tools and Technology seminar, Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatic, University of Michigan, US.
- 2023. Spatially Aware Dimension Reduction in Spatial Transcriptomics. Invited. Single-Cell Analysis Club, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, Virtual, US.
- 2023. Statistical Methods for Genetic and Genomic Studies. Invited. Department of Biostatistics, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Virtual, US.
- 2023. Spatially Aware Dimension Reduction in Spatial Transcriptomics. Invited. Single Cell Spatial Analysis Program (SCSAP), University of Michigan, US.
- 2023. Statistical Methods for Genetic and Genomic Studies. Invited. Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, University of Washington, Virtual, US.
- 2023. Statistical Methods for Genetic and Genomic Studies. Invited. Division of Biostatistics, University of Minnesota, MN, US.
International Presentations
- 2026. Prototype-driven fusion of pathology and spatial transcriptomics for interpretable survival prediction. Invited. Eastern North American Region (ENAR) Spring Meeting 2026, US.
- 2026. Prototype-driven fusion of pathology and spatial transcriptomics for interpretable survival prediction. Invited. ASA Section on Statistical Learning and Data Science Conference on inference and intelligence 2026, US.
- 2026. Statistical detection of cell type-by-environment driven genes in spatial transcriptomics. Invited. Advances in Genome Biology and Technology (AGBT) 2026.
- 2026. Prototype-driven fusion of pathology and spatial transcriptomics for interpretable survival prediction. Invited. 2026 ICSA Applied Statistics Symposium.
- 2026. Prototype-driven fusion of pathology and spatial transcriptomics for interpretable survival prediction. Invited. ASA Section on Statistics in Genomics and Genetics 2026. Atlanta, US.
- 2025. Statistical identification of cell type-specific spatially variable genes in spatial transcriptomics. Invited. CMStatistics 2025. London, GB.
- 2025. Statistical identification of cell type-specific spatially variable genes in spatial transcriptomics. Invited. Statistical Methods in Imaging Conference (SMI2025), US.
- 2024. Statistical identification of cell type-specific spatially variable genes in spatial transcriptomics. Invited. 2024 ICSA Applied Statistics Symposium, US.
- 2024. Statistical identification of cell type-specific spatially variable genes in spatial transcriptomics. Invited. 2024 DahShu Data Science Symposium. East Lansing, US.
- 2024. Statistical identification of cell type-specific spatially variable genes in spatial transcriptomics. Invited. American Statistical Association (ASA) Section on Statistics in Genomics and Genetics 2024.
- 2024. Statistical identification of cell type-specific spatially variable genes in spatial transcriptomics. Invited. Sydney Precision Data Science Centre. Sydney, AU.
- 2024. Statistical identification of cell type-specific spatially variable genes in spatial transcriptomics. Invited. 2024 Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM), US.
- 2023. Spatially Aware Dimension Reduction in Spatial Transcriptomics. Invited. CMStatistics 2023, DE.
Grant & Contract Support
| Date: | 2028 - 2031 |
| Title: | (P50 Renewal): Targeting Lung Cancer Vulnerabilities to University of Texas Lung Cancer SPORE |
| Funding Source: | NIH |
| Role: | Co-I |
| Date: | 2027 - 2032 |
| Title: | Convergent Injury, Inflammatory, and Oncogenic Programs Driving Early Lung Adenocarcinoma Evolution and Interception |
| Funding Source: | NIH |
| Role: | Co-I |
| Date: | 2027 - 2032 |
| Title: | KMT2D as an Epigenetic Gatekeeper of Enhancer- Driven Oncogenic Signaling in Gastric Cancer |
| Funding Source: | NIH |
| Role: | Co-I |
| Date: | 2027 - 2032 |
| Title: | Leveraging SCOPE to define spatial features associated with high-risk oral precancers |
| Funding Source: | NIH |
| Role: | PI |
| Date: | 2027 - 2032 |
| Title: | Metabolic gating of tertiary lymphoid maturation and immune restoration in MASH-associated hepatocellular carcinoma |
| Funding Source: | NIH |
| Role: | Co-I |
| Date: | 2027 - 2031 |
| Title: | Targeting Dysregulated Redox Homeostasis in Soft Tissue Sarcoma with a First-in-Class Deubiquitinase-Targeting Chimera |
| Funding Source: | American Cancer Society |
| Role: | Co-I |
| Date: | 2027 - 2031 |
| Title: | Computational Framework for Integrating Molecular, Cellular, Exposure, and Tissue Organization in Spatial Biology |
| Funding Source: | NIH |
| Role: | PI |
| Date: | 2027 - 2030 |
| Title: | Harnessing tumor-informed B cell receptors for discovery and antibody-based immunotherapy in sarcoma |
| Funding Source: | American Cancer Society |
| Role: | Co-I |
| Date: | 2027 - 2030 |
| Title: | IGNITE-TX |
| Funding Source: | Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance |
| Role: | Co-I |
| Date: | 2027 - 2029 |
| Title: | Tumor progenitors and their proinflammatory cues for lung cancer interception |
| Funding Source: | CPRIT |
| Role: | Co-I |
| Date: | 2027 - 2029 |
| Title: | Preclinical Development of YS207, a First-in-Class Deubiquitinase-Targeting Chimera Exploiting Dysregulated Redox Homeostasis in Soft Tissue Sarcoma |
| Funding Source: | NIH |
| Role: | Co-I |
| Date: | 2027 - 2029 |
| Title: | ME250267P2: Understanding melanoma cell intrinsic factors that govern lymph node metastasis and immune evasion |
| Funding Source: | US department of defense |
| Role: | Co-I |
| Date: | 2027 - 2028 |
| Title: | Tackling therapy-induced clonal evolution in pancreatic cancer |
| Funding Source: | US Department of Defense |
| Role: | Co-I |
| Date: | 2026 - 2031 |
| Title: | Computational Methods for Large-Scale Spatial Omics Data Analysis |
| Funding Source: | NIH |
| Role: | PI |
| Date: | 2026 - 2030 |
| Title: | Hereditary Cancer Identification, Testing, and Access for Equity Across Texas: HERITAGE-TX |
| Funding Source: | CPRIT |
| Role: | Co-I |
| Date: | 2026 - 2030 |
| Title: | MAGNETIC PARTICLE IMAGING (MPI) OF NK CELLS IN PRECLINICAL MODELS OF PONTINE GLIOMA |
| Funding Source: | CPRIT |
| Role: | Co-I |
| Date: | 2026 - 2029 |
| Title: | Multi-scale Understanding of Pollutant Burden Impact on Lung Adenocarcinoma Risk and Microenvironment Alteration |
| Funding Source: | CPRIT |
| Role: | PI |
| Date: | 2026 - 2029 |
| Title: | Decoding Heterogeneous Biological Landscapes from Spatial Omics Data with Bayesian Methods |
| Funding Source: | NSF |
| Role: | Co-PI |
| Date: | 2026 - 2029 |
| Title: | Preclinical Development of YS207, a First-in-Class Deubiquitinase-Targeting Chimera Exploiting Dysregulated Redox Homeostasis in Soft Tissue Sarcoma |
| Funding Source: | CPRIT |
| Role: | Co-I |
| Date: | 2026 - 2028 |
| Title: | Novel Statistical and Deep Learning Models for Spatial Multi-Omics Data Analysis |
| Funding Source: | NIH |
| Role: | PI |
| Date: | 2025 - 2027 |
| Title: | Institutional Research Grant Application –October 2024 cycle |
| Funding Source: | The MD Anderson Cancer Center |
| Role: | PI |
| Date: | 2025 - 2027 |
| Title: | Single Cell Multiomics of Primary Soft Tissue Sarcomas and Their Matched Metastases |
| Funding Source: | SOCIETY OF SURGICAL ONCOLOGY |
| Role: | Co-I |
| ID: | AWD00009149 |
| Date: | 2024 - 2029 |
| Title: | Cancer Center Support (CORE) Grant |
| Funding Source: | NCI |
| Role: | Co-I |
| Date: | 2022 - 2027 |
| Title: | Coordinating and Data Management Center for Translational and Basic Science Research in Early Lesions |
| Funding Source: | NIH |
| Role: | Co-I |
Selected Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- Cho K, Liu Y, Pei G, Chen J, Dai Y, Liu Y, Zhou T, Bougouin A, Serrano A, Wani K, Jadhav A, Min J, Hernandez S, Lu W, Zhang D, Jiang J, Shamutdinova D, Dai E, Peng F, Sinjab A, Guerrero P, Lubo Julio I, Yu K, Clark H, Maru D, Li M, Futreal A, Lee S, Solis Soto L, Shang L, Msaouel P, Ajani J, Beird H, Jazaeri A, Lazar A, Sautes-Fridman C, Fridman W, Maitra A, Kadara H, Gao J, Sharma P, Wang L. Pan-cancer spatial atlas of tertiary lymphoid structures. Science 392(6801):eadz2742, 2026. e-Pub 2026. PMID: 42207882.
- Zhang Y, Lin C, Yang L, Xie Y, Yu S, Shang L. MELON: Multimodal Learning Framework for Spatial Multimodal Omics Data Integration. ICML 2026 AI for Science Workshop. e-Pub 2026.
- Luo, L, Shang, L, Goodrich, JM, Peterson, KE, Song, PX. BRIDGING THE GAP - ENHANCING THE GENERALIZABILITY OF EPIGENETIC CLOCKS THROUGH TRANSFER LEARNING. Annals of Applied Statistics 20(1):68-89, 2026. e-Pub 2026.
- Liu L, Pan X, Yuan Y, Shang L. Prototype-driven fusion of pathology and spatial transcriptomics for interpretable survival prediction. e-Pub 2026.
- Li, R, Yang, P, Di Pilato, M, Zhang, J, Flowers, CR, Shang, L, Li, Z. Accurate imputation of pathway-specific gene expression in spatial transcriptomics with PASTA. Nature communications 17(1), 2025. e-Pub 2025. PMID: 41397970.
- Shang L, Peijun W, Xiang Z. Statistical identification of cell type-specific spatially variable genes in spatial transcriptomics. Nature Communications 16(1), 2025. e-Pub 2025. PMID: 39865128.
- Ma W, Hou S, Shang L, Lu J, Zhou X. Optimal transport modeling uncovers spatial domain dynamics in spatiotemporal transcriptomics studies. e-Pub 2025.
- Chaar D, Li Z, Shang L, Ratliff S, Mosley T, Kardia S, Zhao W, Zhou X, Smith J. Multi-ancestry transcriptome-wide association studies of cognitive function, white matter hyperintensity, and Alzheimer’s disease. International journal of molecular sciences 26(6), 2025. e-Pub 2025. PMID: 40141087.
- Ding J, Li L, Lu Q, Venegas J, Wang Y, Wu L, Jin W, Wen H, Liu R, Tang W, Dai X, Li Z, Zuo W, Chang Y, Lei YL, Shang L, Danaher P, Xie Y, Tang J. SpatialCTD: A Large-Scale Tumor Microenvironment Spatial Transcriptomic Dataset to Evaluate Cell Type Deconvolution for Immuno-Oncology. J Comput Biol 31(9):871-885, 2024. e-Pub 2024. PMID: 39117342.
- Ellie X, Tutu H, Chloe Y, Shang L, Xiang Z, Yongsheng B. Identification of Key Biomarkers Associated with Ductal Breast Cancer in Spatial Transcriptomics Data. 2023 IEEE International Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedicine (BIBM), 2024. e-Pub 2024.
- Shang L, Zhao W, Wang YZ, Li Z, Choi JJ, Kho M, Mosley TH, Kardia SLR, Smith JA, Zhou X. meQTL mapping in the GENOA study reveals genetic determinants of DNA methylation in African Americans. Nat Commun 14(1):2711, 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 37169753.
- Zhu J, Shang L, Zhou X. SRTsim: spatial pattern preserving simulations for spatially resolved transcriptomics. Genome Biol 24(1):39, 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 36869394.
- Shang L, Zhou X. Spatially aware dimension reduction for spatial transcriptomics. Nat Commun 13(1):7203, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 36418351.
- Anderson AC, Yanai I, Yates LR, Wang L, Swarbrick A, Sorger P, Santagata S, Fridman WH, Gao Q, Jerby L, Izar B, Shang L, Zhou X. Spatial transcriptomics. Cancer Cell 40(9):895-900, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 36099884.
- Song M, Yu J, Li B, Dong J, Gao J, Shang L, Zhou X, Bai Y. Identification of functionally important miRNA targeted genes associated with child obesity trait in genome-wide association studies. BMC Genomics 23(Suppl 4):360, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 35546387.
- Li Z, Zhao W, Shang L, Mosley TH, Kardia SLR, Smith JA, Zhou X. METRO: Multi-ancestry transcriptome-wide association studies for powerful gene-trait association detection. Am J Hum Genet 109(5):783-801, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 35334221.
- Wang YZ, Zhao W, Ammous F, Song Y, Du J, Shang L, Ratliff SM, Moore K, Kelly KM, Needham BL, Diez Roux AV, Liu Y, Butler KR, Kardia SLR, Mukherjee B, Zhou X, Smith JA. DNA Methylation Mediates the Association Between Individual and Neighborhood Social Disadvantage and Cardiovascular Risk Factors. Front Cardiovasc Med 9:848768, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 35665255.
- Ammous F, Zhao W, Ratliff SM, Kho M, Shang L, Jones AC, Chaudhary NS, Tiwari HK, Irvin MR, Arnett DK, Mosley TH, Bielak LF, Kardia SLR, Zhou X, Smith J. Epigenome-wide association study identifies DNA methylation sites associated with target organ damage in older African Americans. Epigenetics 16(8):862-875, 2021. e-Pub 2021. PMID: 33100131.
- Wen J, Xie M, Rowland B, Rosen JD, Sun Q, Chen J, Tapia AL, Qian H, Kowalski MH, Shan Y, Young KL, Graff M, Argos M, Avery CL, Bien SA, Buyske S, Yin J, Choquet H, Fornage M, Hodonsky CJ, Jorgenson E, Kooperberg C, Loos RJF, Liu Y, Moon JY, North KE, Rich SS, Rotter JI, Smith JA, Zhao W, Shang L, Wang T, Zhou X, Reiner AP, Raffield LM, Li Y. Transcriptome-Wide Association Study of Blood Cell Traits in African Ancestry and Hispanic/Latino Populations. Genes (Basel) 12(7), 2021. e-Pub 2021. PMID: 34356065.
- Li B, Dong J, Yu J, Fan Y, Shang L, Zhou X, Bai Y. Pinpointing miRNA and genes enrichment over trait-relevant tissue network in Genome-Wide Association Studies. BMC Med Genomics 13(Suppl 11):191, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 33371893.
- Kho M, Smith JA, Verweij N, Shang L, Ryan KA, Zhao W, Ware EB, Gansevoort RT, Irvin MR, Lee JE, Turner ST, Sung J, van der Harst P, Arnett DK, Baylin A, Park SK, Seo YA, Kelly KM, Chang YPC, Zhou X, Lieske JC, Kardia SLR. Genome-Wide Association Meta-Analysis of Individuals of European Ancestry Identifies Suggestive Loci for Sodium Intake, Potassium Intake, and Their Ratio Measured from 24-Hour or Half-Day Urine Samples. J Nutr 150(10):2635-2645, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 32840624.
- Kho M, Zhao W, Ratliff SM, Ammous F, Mosley TH, Shang L, Kardia SLR, Zhou X, Smith JA. Epigenetic loci for blood pressure are associated with hypertensive target organ damage in older African Americans from the genetic epidemiology network of Arteriopathy (GENOA) study. BMC Med Genomics 13(1):131, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 32917208.
- Shang L, Smith JA, Zhao W, Kho M, Turner ST, Mosley TH, Kardia SLR, Zhou X. Genetic Architecture of Gene Expression in European and African Americans: An eQTL Mapping Study in GENOA. Am J Hum Genet 106(4):496-512, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 32220292.
- Shang L, Smith JA, Zhou X. Leveraging gene co-expression patterns to infer trait-relevant tissues in genome-wide association studies. PLoS Genet 16(4):e1008734, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 32310941.
- Ren J, Shang L, Wang Q, Li J. Ranking Cancer Proteins by Integrating PPI Network and Protein Expression Profiles. Biomed Res Int 2019:3907195, 2019. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 30723737.
Review Articles
- Zhu H, Shang L, Zhou X. A Review of Statistical Methods for Identifying Trait-Relevant Tissues and Cell Types. Front Genet 11:587887, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 33584792.
Editorials
- Sun, S, Yang, C, Shang, L, Fan, R. Unraveling Tissue Complexity Through Single-Cell and Spatial Transcriptomics. Small Methods 9(5), 2025. PMID: 40342283.
Patient Reviews
CV information above last modified July 22, 2026