Pingzhao Hu, MSc, PhD

  • Pingzhao Hu headshot

  • Associate professor

    Max Rady College of Medicine
    Biochemistry and Medical Genetics
    Room 306 – Basic Medical Sciences Building
    745 McDermot Avenue
    University of Manitoba
    Winnipeg, Manitoba R3E 0J9

    Phone: 204-789-3229
    Fax: 204-789-3900
    pingzhao.hu@umanitoba.ca

Research theme

  • Health data science
  • Precision medicine

Research interests

  • Algorithms and applications of artificial intelligence (deep learning) for health and medical sciences
  • Algorithms for bioinformatics
  • Algorithms for statistical genetics
  • Integration frameworks of deep learning and statistics

Keywords

  • Bioinformatics
  • Biostatistics
  • Deep learning
  • Drug discovery
  • Electronic medical records
  • Medical imaging
  • Methylation
  • Microbiome
  • Next generation sequencing
  • Omic data integration
  • Quantitative proteomics
  • Radiogenomics
  • Single cell sequencing
  • Statistical genetics

Research affiliations

Research groups

  • Bioinformatics Group in Data Science Platform of George and Faye Centre for Healthcare Innovation
  • Manitoba Statistical and Health Sciences Collaborating Centre, Canadian Statistical Sciences Institute
  • Visual and Automated Disease Analytics (VADA) program, NSERC Collaborative Research and Training Experience (CREATE) Program
  • Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Clinical and Research Centre
  • Manitoba Breast Cancer Research Group
  • Manitoba Epigenetic Network
  • Temerty Centre for AI Research and Education in Medicine (T-CAIREM), University of Toronto

Research summary

Dr. Pingzhao Hu’s research program focuses on developing and applying artificial intelligence (AI, e.g. novel deep learning tools) and large-scale statistical techniques for integrative analysis of multimodal health data (omics data, imaging data, administrative and electronic medical records) for precision medicine.

Dr. Hu’s research group also collaborates closely with local, national and international life science scientists and clinicians for different omics projects.

Current PhD and master of science students' thesis projects in Dr. Hu’s group are in the research areas:

  • drug discovery
  • medical imaging
  • microbiome
  • radiogenomics
  • rare disease diagnosis using facial photos and phenotypes
  • single cell RNA sequencing and omics data integration

Biography

Dr. Pingzhao Hu is a tenured associate professor in bioinformatics and statistical genetics in the department of biochemistry and medical genetics at the University of Manitoba.

Dr. Hu was trained in computer science and applied statistics. His research program builds the bridges between artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning, statistics and multimodal health data (mainly omics data). His research is performed in an independent, multidisciplinary and collaborative team framework where his expertise in AI, statistics and computational biology complements that of his collaborators. Dr. Hu has published more than 120 peer reviewed scientific articles with more than 4,900 citations and H-index 32. 

Dr. Hu supervises graduate students in life sciences (biochemistry and medical genetics), science (department of computer science), engineering (department of electrical and computer engineering) and individual interdisciplinary studies program (life science, computer science, engineering, statistics, math, etc.). Dr. Hu has excellent training records of highly qualified personnel (HQP). His HQP have won many prestigious international awards (such as Charles J. Epstein Trainee Award for Excellence in Human Genetics Research – Semifinalist, Best Oral Presentation Awards) and local awards (President’s Graduate Scholarship in Human Genetics, Manitoba Graduate Scholarship, Women's Health Research Foundation of Canada Graduate Scholarship), published in high impact journals and are employed as either AI/software engineer or data scientists in leading organizations.  

Dr. Hu has outstanding experience in collaborating with basic scientists and clinicians. He was one of the major drivers to establish and develop the first statistical facility for omics data analysis in Canada when he acted as the facility’s manager (2006-2014) in The Centre for Applied Genomics in Toronto. In this position, he consulted for and collaborated with more than 200 national and international basic and clinician scientists.

Dr. Hu is an associate editor of Frontiers in Genetics (section of statistical genetics and methodology) and an associate editor of Annals of Medicine (section of medical genetics and genomics). Dr. Hu is the former chair of Case Studies in Data Analysis Competition of Statistical Society of Canada from 2018 to 2020.

Education

  • PhD (computer science), York University (2012)
  • Master of Science (computer science), Dalhousie University (2002)

Awards

Terry G. Falconer Memorial Rh Institute Foundation Emerging Researcher Award (Interdisciplinary Category) (2020)

Manitoba Medical Service Foundation Allen Rouse Basic Science Career Development Research Award (2020)

Best Oral Presentation Paper Award, IEEE 7th International Conference on Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (2019)

Best Oral Presentation Paper Award, 11th International Conference on Machine Learning and Computing (2019) 

The Interstellar Initiative Award, New York Academy of Sciences and Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (2018)

New Principal Investigator Award, Careers in Cancer Research Development Program (CCRDP), CIHR Institute of Cancer Research (CIHR-ICR) and Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute (CCSRI) (2015)

Contact us

Biochemistry and Medical Genetics
Room 336 Basic Medical Sciences Building
745 Bannatyne Avenue
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, MB R3E 0J9 Canada

bmgadmin@umanitoba.ca