Advancing clinical utility of genomic discoveries with EHR and molecular biomarkers

Monday, 9 November 2026, 10am to 11am

For the BDI Seminar, we will be hearing from Dr Xilin Jiang, Wellcome Early-Career Fellow, Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge. We’re delighted to host Xilin in what promises to be a great talk!

Date: Monday 9 November
Time: 9:00 am – 10:00 am
Talk title: Advancing clinical utility of genomic discoveries with EHR and molecular biomarkers
Location: Big Data Institute, Seminar Room 0

Abstract
Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have uncovered thousands of genetic risk loci, which illuminated biological pathways and even suggested new drug targets (Minikel et al. 2024 Nature). However, the clinical utility of GWAS findings remains limited due to three key challenges: (1) Genetics alone typically explains only a small proportion of disease variance, with approximately 20% of disease risk attributed to genetic variation for most common diseases, leaving the majority of risk unexplained and limiting predictive power. (2) Most risk models target disease onset, which is important for prevention but often not directly actionable for patients already living with the disease. Clinicians also need to predict outcomes like treatment response or disease progression, which genetic risk scores for onset may not inform. (3) Implementing genomic models in real-world clinical settings is non-trivial: the data (genotypes, biomarkers, electronic health records) are fragmented and messy, and healthcare providers lack the computational tools to use complex risk models in practice. I will introduce our past and ongoing work aiming at bridging the gap between genetic discovery and medical impact: (1) predicting treatment response and disease progression using electronic health records, (2) characterizing non-genetic disease variance with molecular biomarkers, and (3) translational deployment of molecular risk models.

Short biography
Xilin Jiang is a Wellcome Early-Career Fellow at the University of Cambridge working on developing statistical tools to identify genetic and molecular explanations for health outcomes. Currently, his research focuses on two ends of the data spectrum: (1) on the molecular side, genotype, functional annotation of genes, and molecular measures (with a focus on data that can be obtained from a tube of blood, such as plasma proteomics); and (2) on the health outcome side, disease onset, disease progression, and treatment response (with a focus on outcomes that inform clinical decision-making, such as how a patient responds to a drug). In statistical terms, his research involves Bayesian inference for high-dimensional data, longitudinal analysis, and causal inference.
Xilin received their DPhil in Genomic Medicine and Statistics from the University of Oxford, funded by a Rhodes Scholarship and a Wellcome Trust studentship. He delivered the scholar address for the Rhodes Scholar class of 2017. Before Oxford, he received a BSc from Fudan University with an overall top GPA in Natural Sciences and in Biological Sciences.
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All members of the University are welcome to join, please let reception at BDI know you’re here for the seminar and sign-in. We hope you can join us!

We encourage in-person attendance where possible. There is time for discussion over, tea, coffee and pastries after the talks.
Hybrid Option: Please note that these meetings are closed meetings and only open to members of the University of Oxford to encourage sharing of new and unpublished data. Please respect our speakers and do not share the link with anyone outside of the university.

Microsoft Teams meeting
Join: https://teams.microsoft.com/[…]/373908702888358?p=vd8zSOiJfowhIS1xQP
Meeting ID: 373 908 702 888 358
Passcode: Qi68xL2r
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Speaker(s): Dr Xilin Jiang (xj262@medschl.cam.ac.uk)

Series: BDI Distinguished Seminar

Venue: Big Data Institute - Lower Ground Seminar Room 0
Lower Ground Seminar Room 0 Big Data Institute Old Road Campus Oxford Oxfordshire OX3 7LF United Kingdom

Department: Big Data Institute - NDPH (Unit)

Organiser: Sumeeta Maheshwari

Organiser email: sumeeta.maheshwari@ndph.ox.ac.uk

Host: Prof Trey Ideker