Computational Epidemiology Lab

The Computational Epidemiology Lab is led by Assistant Professor Sarah F. Ackley and is based in the Department of Epidemiology at the Brown University School of Public Health. Our work develops quantitative methods to study Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, motivated by challenges in evaluating biomarkers and treatments and interpreting complex epidemiologic evidence.

In particular, we study whether biomarkers such as amyloid clearance can serve as reliable surrogate endpoints for cognitive outcomes in clinical trials. These questions raise broader methodological challenges: how to evaluate the credibility of scientific findings, how to integrate evidence across study designs, and how to draw causal conclusions from imperfect data.

To address these problems, the lab develops and employs systematic quantitative approaches for evidence evaluation, including causal inference and mathematical modeling methods, evidence triangulation, and open-source tools for meta-analysis, data harmonization, and automated evidence synthesis. Our goal is to improve how biomedical knowledge is produced, evaluated, and communicated.