Jill Barnholtz-Sloan Awarded Scientific Tenure by the NIH
, by DCEG Staff
Jill S. Barnholtz-Sloan, Ph.D., M.S., is Associate Director for Informatics and Data Science in the NCI Center for Biomedical Informatics and Information Technology (CBIIT) and is a widely recognized expert in brain tumors. She was awarded scientific tenure by the NIH and joined DCEG in the Trans-Divisional Research Program (TDRP) in summer 2021 as a senior investigator.
Dr. Barnholtz-Sloan is a biostatistician with multi-disciplinary training in epidemiology, population genetics, human genetics, and bioinformatics/informatics. An overarching goal of her research is the use of data science to elucidate new insights into the etiology and outcomes of cancer, with a particular focus on the spectrum of brain tumors. Her groundbreaking work has contributed to a better understanding of the population burden of disease, identified risk factors and biomarkers, and uncovered the biological mechanisms underlying known sex differences in brain tumor incidence, all of which significantly improve the diagnosis, treatment, and management of brain tumors.
Because brain tumors are not common and subdivided into many distinct subtypes, with distinct etiologies and outcomes, multi-site, multi-disciplinary team science approaches have been essential for advancing the field. Dr. Barnholtz-Sloan emerged as a leader of team science early on in her career. She was a founding member of the Brain Tumor Epidemiology Consortium, which resulted in two highly successful international collaborations, including the first studies to assess genetic risk factors for familial and sporadic brain tumors at the genome-wide level.
Prior to joining NCI, Dr. Barnholtz-Sloan served in multiple roles in the Case Western School of Medicine and the University Hospitals Health System, where she optimized the use of data and analytics to advance health care. She earned a Ph.D. in biostatistics from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health and an M.S. in statistics from the University of Texas at Austin.