Lulu Shang, PhD
Department of Biostatistics, Division of Discovery Science
Present Title & Affiliation
Primary Appointment
Assistant Professor, Department of Biostatistics, Division of Discovery Science, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 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 |
Honors & Awards
| 2024 | IMS New Researcher Travel Grant Award, Institute of Mathematical Statistics |
| 2024 | ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards, Rackham Graduate School, University of Michigan |
| 2022 | Charles J. Epstein Trainee Awards, Predoctoral semifinalist, American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) |
Professional Memberships
Selected Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- Shang L, Peijun W, Xiang Z. Statistical identification of cell type-specific spatially variable genes in spatial transcriptomics. Nature Communications, 2025. e-Pub 2025. PMID: 39865128.
- 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, 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.
Other 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. PMID: 33584792.
Selected Presentations & Talks
National Presentations
- 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 Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM). Portland, OR, US.
- 2024. Statistical identification of cell type-specific spatially variable genes in spatial transcriptomics. Invited. 2024 ICSA Applied Statistics Symposium. Nashville, TN, 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 (SSGG) 2024. Pittsburgh, PA, 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. 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 Analysis Club, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, 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 Statistics and Probability, Michigan State University, MI, US.
- 2023. Statistical Methods for Genetic and Genomic Studies. Invited. Division of Biostatistics, University of Minnesota, MN, US.
- 2023. Statistical Methods for Genetic and Genomic Studies. Invited. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of South Carolina, SC, US.
- 2023. Statistical Methods for Genetic and Genomic Studies. Invited. Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, US.
- 2023. Statistical Methods for Genetic and Genomic Studies. Invited. Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Emory University, GA, US.
- 2023. Statistical Methods for Genetic and Genomic Studies. Invited. Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, University of Washington, Virtual, US.
- 2022. Spatially Aware Dimension Reduction in Spatial Transcriptomics. Invited. Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Utah, Virtual, US.
- 2022. Genetic determinant of DNA methylation and gene expression in African Americans: An meQTL mapping study in GENOA, Platform Talk. Conference. American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) Annual Meeting. Los Angeles, CA, US.
- 2022. Spatially Aware Dimension Reduction in Spatial Transcriptomics. Invited. Department of Pathology, University of California, San Diego, Virtual, US.
- 2022. Spatially Aware Dimension Reduction in Spatial Transcriptomics. Invited. Human Functional Regulatory Genomics Seminar, Department of Biostatistics, UNC Chapel Hill, Virtual, US.
- 2022. Spatially Aware Dimension Reduction in Spatial Transcriptomics. Invited. Eastern North American Region (ENAR) Spring Meeting. Houston, TX, US.
- 2020. Genetic determinant of DNA methylation and gene expression in African Americans: An meQTL mapping study in GENOA. Platform talk. Conference. American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) Annual Meeting, Virtual, US.
- 2020. Contrasting the genetic architecture underlying gene expression levels in European Americans and African Americans: An eQTL mapping study in GENOA. Invited. Biostatistics Department Diversity Equity and Inclusion Seminar. Ann Arbor, MI, US.
- 2019. Leveraging gene co-expression patterns to infer trait-relevant tissues in genome-wide association studies. Platform talk. Conference. American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) Annual Meeting. Houston, TX, US.
Patient Reviews
CV information above last modified May 12, 2025