William Stewart

Research Description:

Dr. Stewart develops methods for researchers who seek statistically and computationally efficient analyses of complex data. Often, these data are large and irregular with several layers of dependence. His research interests include developing (1) methods for cell signaling in immunology, (2) improved statistics for prioritizing lung transplant patients on waiting lists, (2) and customized tests for determining relationships between complex diseases and genetic variants (e.g. SNPs, deletions, duplications, haplotypes, and genetic burden). Using both family and population based data, his lab showed that ME2 (malic enzyme 2)a candidate gene for bipolar disorder, is also likely involved in the pathogenesis of GGE (genetic generalized epilepsy). This form of epilepsy affects more than 50 million people worldwide, with more than a third of these patients being drug-resistant. Dr. Stewart, also has a general interest in deterministic math models, gene networks, and problems that arise in computational molecular biology. Most of his methods employ a rich variety of deterministic and stochastic algorithms, Monte Carlo sampling techniques, and various optimization procedures including, but not limited to, particle swarm, random forests, all varieties of expectation maximization (EM), simulated annealing, binary trees, and linked lists.