Yizhen Xu

Yizhen Xu, PhD

Languages spoken: English

Academic Information

Departments Primary - Population Health Sciences

I am an Assistant Professor in the Division of Biostatistics, Department of Population Health Sciences, at the University of Utah School of Medicine. I had my postdoctoral training at the Biostatistics Department and School of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University. I work with Dr. Scott Zeger on longitudinal causal inference methodology to account for patient heterogeneity, with applications in Scleroderma and SARS-CoV-2, and Dr. Zheyu Wang on Bayesian latent variable modeling of progression in the Alzheimer's Disease. I received my Ph.D. training in Biostatistics with Dr. Joseph W. Hogan at Brown University.

Research Statement

My research focuses on the development of innovative Bayesian latent variable modeling, statistical ensemble learning, and causal inference methods for electronic health records. Applications involve infectious and chronic diseases such as HIV, Scleroderma, Alzheimer’s disease, and SARS-CoV-2. For more information about my research, please refer to website https://yizhenxu.github.io/.

Education History

Undergraduate University of Science and Technology of China
 BS
Graduate Training Yale University
 MS
Doctoral Training Brown University
 PhD
Fellowship Johns Hopkins University
 Postdoctoral Fellow

Selected Publications

Journal Article

  1. Xu Y, Liu T, Daniels MJ, Kantor R, Mwangi A, Hogan JW (2019). Classification using ensemble learning under weighted misclassification loss. Stat Med, 38(11), 2002-2012. (Read full article)
  2. Xu Y, Sani N, Ghassami A, Shpitser I (2021). Multiply Robust Causal Mediation Analysis with Continuous Treatments. ArXiv.
  3. Liu T, Hogan JW, Daniels MJ, Coetzer M, Xu Y, Bove G, DeLong AK, Ledingham L, Orido M, Diero L, Kantor R (2017). Improved HIV-1 Viral Load Monitoring Capacity Using Pooled Testing With Marker-Assisted Deconvolution. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr, 75(5), 580-587. (Read full article)
  4. Genberg BL, Hogan JW, Xu Y, Nyambura M, Tarus C, Rotich E, Kafu C, Wachira J, Goodrich S, Braitstein P (2019). Population-based estimates of engagement in HIV care and mortality using double-sampling methods following home-based counseling and testing in western Kenya. PLoS One, 14(10), e0223187. (Read full article)
  5. Chan PA, King E, Xu Y, Goedel W, Lasher L, Vargas M, Brindamour K, Huard R, Clyne A, McDonald J, Bandy U, Yokum D, Rogers ML, Chambers L, Napoleon SC, Alexander-Scott N, Hogan JW (2021). Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies in Rhode Island From a Statewide Random Sample. Am J Public Health, 111(4), 700-703. (Read full article)
  6. Bowring MG, Wang Z, Xu Y, Betz J, Muschelli J, Garibaldi BT, Zeger SL (2021). Outcome-Stratified Analysis of Biomarker Trajectories for Patients Infected With Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2. Am J Epidemiol, 190(10), 2094-2106. (Read full article)
  7. Delong SM, Xu Y, Braitstein P, Nyambura M, Ndege S, Goodrich S, Tarus C, Hogan JW, Genberg BL (2023). Population-Based Estimates and Predictors of Child and Adolescent Linkage to HIV Care or Death in Western Kenya. Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.
  8. Xu Y, Hogan J, Daniels M, Kantor R, Mwangi A (2024). Augmentation Samplers for Multinomial Probit Bayesian Additive Regression Trees. J Comput Graph Stat.
  9. Xu Y, Kim JS, Hummers LK, Shah AA, Zeger SL (2024). Causal inference using multivariate generalized linear mixed-effects models. Biometrics, 80(3).
  10. Xu Y, Zeger SL, Wang Z (2025). Probabilistic Clustering using Shared Latent Variable Model for Assessing Alzheimer’s Disease Biomarkers. Biostatistics.
  11. Alexander GC, Xu Y, Xiao X, Lewis SV, Zeger SL, Mehta HB (2025). Weight Changes from Glucagon-like Peptide-1 Receptor Agonist (GLP-1) Use and Discontinuation: A Retrospective Cohort Study. Obesity.
  12. Kim JS, Xu Y, Wallwork RS, Hummers LK, Shah AA, Zeger SL (In Press). Probabilistic Clustering using Multivariate Growth Mixture Model in Clinical Settings - A Scleroderma Example (Accepted). Author role: Xu Y is co–first author and corresponding author. Stat Med.