Thursday, September 18th
11:45am - 1:00pm, Zoom
Meeting ID: 963 2560 9671
Passcode: 698339
Jingyi Jessica Li, PhD
Professor & Program Head, Biostatistics Program; Donald and Janet K. Guthrie Endowed Chair in Statistics, Public Health Sciences Division; Fred Hutch Cancer Center Affiliate Professor Biostatistics
University of Washington
Nullstrap: A Simple, High-Power, and Fast Framework for FDR Control in Variable Selection for Diverse High-Dimensional Models
Balancing false discovery rate (FDR) control with high statistical power is a central challenge in high-dimensional variable selection. Existing methods often degrade data through knockoffs or splitting, leading to power loss. We propose Nullstrap, a framework that con- trols FDR without altering the original data. Nullstrap generates synthetic null data by fitting a null model under the null hypothesis and applies the same estimation to both original and synthetic datasets. This parallel structure resembles the likelihood ratio test, serving as its numerical analog. A data-driven correction procedure adjusts null estimates, enabling variable selection with theoretical guarantees: asymptotic FDR control at any desired level and power converging to one. Nullstrap is fast, stable, and broadly applicable across linear, generalized linear, Cox, and graphical models. Simulations indicate that Nullstrap maintains robust FDR control and outperforms the knockoff filter and data splitting in power (0.95 vs. 0.50 and 0.70) and efficiency (≈ 30×). While all three methods are randomized, Nullstrap is more stable (Jaccard 0.98 vs. 0 and 0.42). In a triple-omics time-to-labor dataset, the knockoff filter and data splitting fail to identify variables in most of 70 runs with different random seeds, whereas Nullstrap consistently selects predictors, achieves > 90% predictive accuracy, and is three orders of magnitude faster.
Biostatistics Departmental Seminars & Lectures
During the Fall and Spring semesters, the Department of Biostatistics holds regular seminars on Thursdays, called the Levin Lecture Series, on a wide variety of topics which are of interest to both students and faculty. Over each semester, there are also often guest lectures outside the regular Thursday Levin Lecture Series, to provide a robust schedule the covers the wide range of topics in Biostatistics. The speakers are invited guests who spend the day of their seminar discussing their research with Biostatistics faculty and students.
