Shizhe Xu

Shizhe joined the Clinical Trial Service Unit and Epidemiological Studies Unit (CTSU) in October 2024 as a DPhil student in Population Health. He is supervised by Dr Christiana Kartsonaki from CTSU and Dr Kyriaki Michailidou from the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics (CING). 

Shizhe’s research focuses on the implementation of machine learning and statistical methods to decipher the genetic architecture of common cancers and to identify polymorphisms that are associated with cancer susceptibility. His research draws on datasets from the China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB) and the UK Biobank (UKB). In addition to fine-mapping analyses to pinpoint the genetic variants, he aims to incorporate neural networks and deep-learning algorithms for enhanced classification accuracy and processing of high-dimensional data. He also plans to develop multi-omic data integration models for survival analysis and cancer risk prediction. 

Prior to joining Oxford Population Health, Shizhe conducted his Master’s thesis in Dr Mireia Crispin’s lab on the Pathomic Fusion model, which integrates histology images, cell graphs and genomic features. In 2023, he also worked as a visiting researcher at the Zuse Institute Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, under the supervision of Professor Stefan Zachow and Dr Christopher Brandt. Shizhe was previously involved in the CDT in Mathematics programme at the University of Warwick, where he worked on PDE and fluid dynamics under the supervision of Professor Jose Rodrigo. 

Shizhe holds MPhil in Data Intensive Science and MASt in Mathematics (Part III, Mathematical Tripos) from the University of Cambridge.