Methodologic Core

The Methodologic Core is led by Paul Nietert, Ph.D., with Beth Wolf, Ph.D., serving as co-director. The  Methodologic Core provides services to ensure research data are of highest quality and provides novel biostatistical methods developed relevant to the CCCR.

Methodologic Core Leadership and Staff

Director:

Paul Nietert, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Public Health Sciences

As Director, Dr. Nietert oversees all Methodologic Core functions, including the collaborations between the Methodologic Core and the Research Base investigators, novel biostatistical method development, educational outreach activities, and connecting the Research Base with other quantitative experts. He is an applied biostatistician with extensive experience in the field of rheumatology. He has served as principal investigator on other NIH- and AHRQ-funded research projects in the past, and currently leads the Methodology Core of the NIAMS-funded Multidisciplinary Clinical Research Center at MUSC. He also is Director of the Department of Public Health Sciences’ Collaborative Unit and Director of the Biostatistics Epidemiology and Research Design Program within the South Carolina Clinical and Translational Research (SCTR) Institute.

Co-Director:

Beth Wolf, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Public Health Sciences

As Co-Director, Dr. Wolf helps Dr. Nietert oversee all aspects of the Methodologic Core. She directs the innovations in biostatistical methods relevant to rheumatology and actively mentors junior faculty and research assistants. Having worked with Drs. Nietert and Ramakrishnan for the past 6 years, Dr. Wolf has been key to the success of our current CCCR Methodology Core and SCTR’s Biostatistics Epidemiology and Research Design Program. Her methods work in the area of decision trees has provided methodology for detecting and quantifying the relative importance of interactions, and in particular higher-order interactions (>2-way) among genetic and environmental factors for determining patient disease status. She has successfully applied these methods to evaluate interactions between smoke exposure and genetic factors with systemic lupus erythematosus, and in data examining associations between genetic and clinical factors with periodontal disease severity. She has more than 47 peer-reviewed publications, including a first author paper in Arthritis and Rheumatology and 8 methodologic articles in journals such as Bioinformatics and PloS One. She also mentors junior clinical faculty on a regular basis. Her current focus is on ensemble methods classifying longitudinal binary outcomes, such as SLE disease flares over time.

Laney Wilson, Ph.D.
Statistician
Department of Public Health Sciences

As Faculty Research Associate, Ms. Wilson assists Drs. Nietert and Wolf with data management, statistical programming, and preparation of reports and manuscripts. She is a doctoral level epidemiologist and has been an author of papers involving epilepsy, traumatic brain injuries, and survival analysis.