Dr. Bernard Omolo, associate professor of mathematics, has been awarded the ASPIRE-I research grant from the University of South Carolina, worth $ 11,288.00, to develop a Bayesian hierarchical model for estimating gene-specific correlation. The statistical model can be used to assess reproducibility of multiple gene expression datasets when common genes are considered.

The project, to be conducted summer 2012, involves fitting the model using Gibbs sampling techniques and applying the model to melanoma (skin cancer ) datasets from the University of North Carolina Microarray Database (UMD). Omolo teaches within the Division of Mathematics and Computer Science in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of South Carolina Upstate.