Paola Sebastiani, PhD
Adjunct Professor
Boston University School of Public Health
Biostatistics

PhD, University of Rome
MSc, University College London (UCL)
BSc, University of Perugia



Paola Sebastiani, Ph.D. joined the Department of Biostatistics in 2003 as an Associate Professor, after holding faculty positions in Italy, England and United States. She is author of more than 200 peer-reviewed publications in theoretical and methodological statistics, artificial intelligence, computational biology and genetics. She is statistical consultant for Circulation and also a regular reviewer for major journals in statistics and computer science, and serves on the program committee of several international conferences at the interface between statistics and artificial intelligence. When she joined the Department of Biostatistics at Boston University in 2003, Dr. Sebastiani had experience in interdisciplinary collaborations and a track record of developing novel methodologies in Bayesian statistics, machine learning, decision theory, graphical modeling and statistical experimental design. She leveraged this experience to develop a wide network of collaborations with investigators from the Bioinformatics program, the Genetics and Genomics program, and the Molecular and Translational Medicine Program. In these collaborations Dr. Sebastiani often introduced original solutions by developing innovative Bayesian techniques for the analysis of genomic and genetic data and for the joint modeling of the genetic, genomic and phenotypic basis of complex traits. This work has been supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes for Health and is currently funded by grants of which Dr. Sebastiani is Principal Investigator. Her contributions include, among others, a Bayesian model-based clustering procedure of temporal expression profiles (CAGED), a robust Bayesian approach to analyze differential gene expression using model averaging (BADGE), and novel methods for analysis of genetic data. Dr. Sebastiani was a pioneer in using a Bayesian network approach to model the genetic and phenotypic basis of complications of sickle cell anemia. She developed the first network model for predicting stroke in patients with sickle cell anemia and a network-based prognostic model that integrates sub-phenotypes of sickle cell anemia patients into a score of the overall severity of disease. This model was successfully evaluated by independent investigators and has opened several new research areas in sickle cell disease. These results were the fruit of a long and productive collaboration with Dr. Steinberg to study the genetic basis of different clinical presentations of sickle cell disease.

Dr. Sebastiani has also cultivated a strong and growing reputation as a biostatistician in the fields of gerontology, biology and epidemiology of human aging and longevity. She is the primary statistician of the BU site of the Long Life Family Study, and of the New England Centenarian Study directed by Dr. Thomas Perls. Dr. Sebastiani used an original Bayesian approach to verify the “compression of morbidity hypothesis” that had long been debated in the field of gerontology, developed a method for scoring sibships for familial longevity that can be used to enroll the most informative families in observational studies of human longevity, and introduced a novel Bayesian approach to model the genetic and phenotypic basis of exceptional human longevity. The analysis provides evidence that extreme human longevity is not due to absence of disease variants but to rare combinations of large numbers of common protective variants. Her current work focuses on the generation of molecular profiles to predict patterns of aging, and the biology of aging using a system-based approach.

Member
Boston University
BU-BMC Cancer Center


Investigator
Framingham Heart Study


Member
Boston University
Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research


Boston Medical Center


Member
Boston University
Bioinformatics Graduate Program


Member
Boston University
Genome Science Institute




Long Life Family Study: Boston Field Center
08/15/2019 - 03/31/2024 (Subcontract PI)
University of Washington NIH NIA
1U19AG063893-01

Longevity Consortium
09/30/2018 - 05/31/2023 (Subcontract PI)
Sutter Bay Hospitals dba California Pacific Medical Center NIH NIA
5U19AG023122-12

Identifying protective omics profiles in centenarians and translating these into preventive and therapeutic strategies
09/15/2019 - 06/30/2022 (Multi PI of Sub-Project / SP)
PI: Thomas T. Perls, MD, MPH, FACP
NIH/National Institute on Aging
5UH2AG064704-02

New England Centenarian Study
07/01/2016 - 06/30/2022 (Multi-PI)
PI: Paola Sebastiani, PhD
The William M. Wood Foundation


Boston OAIC: A Translational Approach to Function Promoting Therapies
07/01/2016 - 06/30/2021 (Subcontract PI)
The Brigham and Women's Hospital, Inc. NIH NIA
5P30AG031679-09

Interdisciplinary Training for Biostatisticians
07/01/2015 - 08/31/2020 (PI of Sub-Project / SP)
PI: Laura Forsberg White, PhD
NIH/National Institute of General Medical Sciences
5T32GM074905-15

Protein signatures of APOE and cognitive aging
09/30/2018 - 05/31/2020 (PI)
NIH/National Institute on Aging
5R01AG061844-02

APOE Alleles and Extreme Human Longevity
09/15/2017 - 05/31/2020 (PI)
NIH/National Institute on Aging
5R21AG056630-02

Candidate protective factors for age-associated diseases (target discovery) or factors indicative of healthy aging
09/15/2016 - 09/15/2019 (PI)
Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research


The Long Life Family Study
06/01/2014 - 07/31/2019 (Subcontract PI)
Boston Medical Center Corporation NIH NIA
5U01AG023755-13

Showing 10 of 21 results. Show All Results


Title


Yr Title Project-Sub Proj Pubs
2023 Identifying protective omics profiles in centenarians and translating these into preventive and therapeutic strategies 5UH3AG064704-04
2023 Analysis Methods Core 5U19AG063893-05-6292
2022 Analysis Methods Core 5U19AG063893-04-6292
2022 Protein Signatures of APOE2 and Cognitive Aging 5R01AG061844-05
2021 Identifying protective omics profiles in centenarians and translating these into preventive and therapeutic strategies 3UH2AG064704-02S1
2021 Analysis Methods Core 5U19AG063893-03-6292
2021 Protein Signatures of APOE2 and Cognitive Aging 3R01AG061844-04S1 3
2021 Protein Signatures of APOE2 and Cognitive Aging 5R01AG061844-04 3
2020 Identifying protective omics profiles in centenarians and translating these into preventive and therapeutic strategies 5UH2AG064704-02
2020 Protein Signatures of APOE2 and Cognitive Aging 7R01AG061844-03 3
Showing 10 of 31 results. Show All Results

Publications listed below are automatically derived from MEDLINE/PubMed and other sources, which might result in incorrect or missing publications. Faculty can login to make corrections and additions.

iCite Analysis       Copy PMIDs To Clipboard

  1. Dowrey TW, Cranston SF, Skvir N, Lok Y, Gould B, Petrowitz B, Villar D, Shan J, James M, Dodge M, Belkina AC, Giadone RM, Sebastiani P, Perls TT, Andersen SL, Murphy GJ. A longevity-specific bank of induced pluripotent stem cells from centenarians and their offspring. bioRxiv. 2024 Mar 14.View Related Profiles. PMID: 38559230; PMCID: PMC10979955; DOI: 10.1101/2024.03.12.584663;
     
  2. Don J, Schork AJ, Glusman G, Rappaport N, Cummings SR, Duggan D, Raju A, Hellberg KG, Gunn S, Monti S, Perls T, Lapidus J, Goetz LH, Sebastiani P, Schork NJ. The relationship between 11 different polygenic longevity scores, parental lifespan, and disease diagnosis in the UK Biobank. Geroscience. 2024 Mar 07.View Related Profiles. PMID: 38451433
     
  3. Patel R, Cosentino S, Zheng EZ, Schupf N, Barral S, Feitosa M, Andersen SL, Sebastiani P, Ukraintseva S, Christensen K, Zmuda J, Thyagarajan B, Gu Y. Systemic inflammation in relation to exceptional memory in the Long Life Family Study (LLFS). Brain Behav Immun Health. 2024 May; 37:100746.View Related Profiles. PMID: 38476338; PMCID: PMC10925922; DOI: 10.1016/j.bbih.2024.100746;
     
  4. Li M, Song Z, Gurinovich A, Schork N, Sebastiani P, Monti S. yQTL Pipeline: a structured computational workflow for large scale quantitative trait loci discovery and downstream visualization. bioRxiv. 2024 Jan 30.View Related Profiles. PMID: 38370654; PMCID: PMC10874520; DOI: 10.1101/2024.01.26.577518;
     
  5. Ardisson Korat AV, Shea MK, Jacques PF, Sebastiani P, Wang M, Eliassen AH, Willett WC, Sun Q. Dietary protein intake in midlife in relation to healthy aging - results from the prospective Nurses' Health Study cohort. Am J Clin Nutr. 2024 Feb; 119(2):271-282. PMID: 38309825; PMCID: PMC10884611; DOI: 10.1016/j.ajcnut.2023.11.010;
     
  6. Reed E, Sebastiani P. A Simple Strategy for Identifying Conserved Features across Non-independent Omics Studies. bioRxiv. 2023 Nov 23. PMID: 38045352; PMCID: PMC10690236; DOI: 10.1101/2023.11.22.568276;
     
  7. Leshchyk A, Xiang Q, Andersen SL, Gurinovich A, Song Z, Lee JH, Christensen K, Yashin A, Wojczynski M, Schwander K, Perls TT, Monti S, Sebastiani P. Mosaic Chromosomal Alterations and Human Longevity. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2023 Aug 27; 78(9):1561-1568.View Related Profiles. PMID: 36988570; PMCID: PMC10460554; DOI: 10.1093/gerona/glad095;
     
  8. Karagiannis TT, Monti S, Sebastiani P. Bayesian differential analysis of cell type proportions: opinion. Front Genet. 2023; 14:1205499.View Related Profiles. PMID: 37323674; PMCID: PMC10267376; DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2023.1205499;
     
  9. Karagiannis TT, Dowrey TW, Villacorta-Martin C, Montano M, Reed E, Belkina AC, Andersen SL, Perls TT, Monti S, Murphy GJ, Sebastiani P. Multi-modal profiling of peripheral blood cells across the human lifespan reveals distinct immune cell signatures of aging and longevity. EBioMedicine. 2023 Apr; 90:104514.View Related Profiles. PMID: 37005201; PMCID: PMC10114155; DOI: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104514;
     
  10. Leshchyk A, Xiang Q, Andersen SL, Gurinovich A, Song Z, Lee JH, Christensen K, Yashin A, Wojczynski M, Schwander K, Perls TT, Monti S, Sebastiani P. Mosaic chromosomal alterations and human longevity. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2023 Mar 29.View Related Profiles. PMID: 36988570; PMCID: PMC10460554; DOI: 10.1093/gerona/glad095;
     
Showing 10 of 273 results. Show More

This graph shows the total number of publications by year, by first, middle/unknown, or last author.

Bar chart showing 272 publications over 36 distinct years, with a maximum of 18 publications in 2012

YearPublications
19871
19881
19901
19911
19923
19931
19943
19964
19974
19984
19995
20006
200113
20023
20039
20044
20059
200612
20079
200811
20099
20108
201111
201218
201314
20147
201513
201610
201712
20187
201914
20207
202112
202214
20237
20245

2017 ASA Fellow
2011 Boston University School of Public Health: Teaching Award
2009 Boston University School of Public Health: Teaching Award
2005 Boston University School of Public Health: Teaching Award
In addition to these self-described keywords below, a list of MeSH based concepts is available here.

Bayesian Modeling of genetic and genomic data
Design of Experiments
Decision
Theory
Machine Learning
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801 Massachusetts Ave Crosstown Center
Boston MA 02118
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