Ho Weang Kee is a

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

statistician A statistician is a person who works with theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private and public sectors. It is common to combine statistical knowledge with expertise in other subjects, and statisticians may wor ...

whose research focuses on the application of statistical methods to genetic data analysis. She is an

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. Overview In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a ...

of statistics at the

University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus , mottoeng = A City is Built on Wisdom , established = 2000 , type = Private , officer_in_charge = , chairman = Admiral Tan Sri Dato' Setia Mohd Anwar Bin Hj Mohd Nor (Retir ...

in the Department of Applied Mathematics. In 2018, Ho received the L'Oréal-UNESCO International Rising Talent Award in recognition of her work toward developing a

predictive model Predictive modelling uses statistics to predict outcomes. Most often the event one wants to predict is in the future, but predictive modelling can be applied to any type of unknown event, regardless of when it occurred. For example, predictive mod ...

estimating the risk of breast cancer for Southeast Asian women.

Education

Ho attended

Northumbria University , mottoeng = A lifetime of learning , established = 1877 - Rutherford College of Technology1969 - Newcastle Polytechnic1992 - gained university status , type = Public , budget = � ...

from 2002 to 2005 and graduated with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

with Honours (BSc(Hons)) degree in Mathematics. In 2005, she began her graduate studies in mathematics at

Newcastle University Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a UK public university, public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is ...

. Ho's early interest in mathematics eventually inspired her to study statistics. Her doctoral advisor,

biostatistician Biostatistics (also known as biometry) are the development and application of statistical methods to a wide range of topics in biology. It encompasses the design of biological experiments, the collection and analysis of data from those experimen ...

Robin Henderson, introduced her to the potential applications of mathematics and statistics in answering scientific questions. Ho conducted research on how to approach and account for incomplete data in

longitudinal Longitudinal is a geometric term of location which may refer to: * Longitude ** Line of longitude, also called a meridian * Longitudinal engine, an internal combustion engine in which the crankshaft is oriented along the long axis of the vehicle, ...

and survival studies. She completed her

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

(PhD) degree in 2009.

Career and research

Ho's first postdoctoral research experience was at the

National Institute for Health Research The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is the British government’s major funder of clinical, public health, social care and translational research. With a budget of over £1.2 billion in 2020–21, its mission is to "impr ...

, where she applied advanced mathematic methodology to child speech and development studies and trained health professionals in the use of statistical methods. In 2010, Ho returned to Newcastle University to conduct postdoctoral research in its School of Mathematics and Statistics. From January 2011 to April 2013, Ho worked as a medical and genetic statistician at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

Department of Public Health and Primary Care.

Predicting breast cancer risk

In May 2013, Ho left the United Kingdom and returned to Malaysia. A month later, in June 2013, she joined the

as an

assistant professor Assistant Professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States and Canada. Overview This position is generally taken after earning a doctoral degree and general ...

in the Department of Applied Mathematics and was promoted to

in 2017. Rather than the rare mutations of ''

BRCA1 Breast cancer type 1 susceptibility protein is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''BRCA1'' () gene. Orthologs are common in other vertebrate species, whereas invertebrate genomes may encode a more distantly related gene. ''BRCA1'' is a h ...

'' and ''

BRCA2 ''BRCA2'' and BRCA2 () are a human gene and its protein product, respectively. The official symbol (BRCA2, italic for the gene, nonitalic for the protein) and the official name (originally breast cancer 2; currently BRCA2, DNA repair associated) ...

'', the relatively common and more subtle variations associated with breast cancer are of greater interest to Ho. While having only one of these variations typically results in little to no effect on an individual's health, inheriting a combination of these variations could be detrimental for breast cancer risk. Thus, the goal of Ho's current research is to determine which combination of variations associated with breast cancer risk will result in the greatest predicted breast cancer risk. Ho's research utilizes research led by her friend and colleague Teo Soo Hwang, the CEO of Cancer Research Malaysia, the largest breast cancer study in Malaysia. The motivation behind Ho's research is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of breast cancer screening in Malaysia, where the number of breast cancer cases are expected to increase by 50% in the next decade. By identifying women with a greater risk of developing breast cancer, Ho hopes to establish a more personalized, patient-centered breast cancer screening program. She was awarded the L'Oréal-UNESCO Malaysia For Women in Science Fellowship for her work in 2017, and named a L'Oréal-UNESCO International Rising Talent in 2018.

Publications

* Ho WK, Henderson R, Philipson PM. Tests for Hazard Transformation. Stat Biosci. 2010;2:41-64. doi: 10.1007/s12561-010-9020-3. *The CARDIoGRAMplusC4D Consortium, Deloukas P, Kanoni S, ..., Ho WK, ..., Watkins H, Schunkert H, Samani NJ. Large-scale association analysis identifies new risk loci for coronary artery disease. Nat Genet. 2013;45:25-33. doi: 10.1038/ng.2480. *Matthews JNS, Henderson R, Farewell DM, Ho WK, Rodgers LR. Dropout in crossover and longitudinal studies: Is complete case so bad? Stat Methods Med Res. 2014;23(1):60-73. doi: 10.1177/0962280212445838. *Hassan N, Ho WK, Mariapun S, Teo SH. A cross sectional study on the motivators for Asian women to attend opportunistic mammography screening in a private hospital in Malaysia: the MyMammo study. BMC Public Health. 2015;15:548. doi: 10.1186/s12889-015-1892-1. *Mariapun S, Ho WK, Kang PCE, Li J, Lindström S, Yip CH, Teo SH. Variants in 6q25.1 Are Associated with Mammographic Density in Malaysian Chinese Women. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2016;25(2):327-333. doi: 10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-15-0746.

Personal life

Ho and her husband gave birth to a boy in 2013. In an interview, Ho challenged the lack of support for women in STEM by stating that achieving balance between work and family is possible

Awards and recognitions

* 2017 - L'Oréal-UNESCO Malaysia For Women in Science Fellowship * 2018 - L'Oréal-UNESCO International Rising Talent Award

References

External links

*
Engineering Research at Nottingham Malaysia - Breast Cancer Screening Using Statistics
' video by the University of Nottingham Malaysia {{DEFAULTSORT:Ho, Weang Kee Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Malaysian statisticians Malaysian epidemiologists Biostatisticians Academics of the University of Nottingham Alumni of Northumbria University Alumni of Newcastle University Malaysian women scientists Malaysian women academics