Dr. Shesh N. Rai is part of the American Statistical Association, member of the Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health and Director of the Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Facility at the Brown Cancer Center. He is professor of Bioinformatics and Biostatistics at Louisville University.
He joined the University of Louisville in November 2007 as the Director of the Biostatistics Support Facility (BSF) at the James Graham Brown Cancer Center and as an Associate Professor in the Department of Bioinformatics & Biostatistics, School of Public Health and Information Sciences. He was awarded the Wendell Cherry Chair in Clinical Trial Research in 2009 and promoted to a Professor of Bioinformatics and Biostatistics in 2010. In 2014, he was awarded the Fellowship of American Statistical Association for developing methods for clinical trial research and for outstanding collaboration with basic scientist and clinicians. The BSF was later renamed the Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Facility (BBF).
As the Wendell Cherry Chair in Clinical Trial Research, he is directing the Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Facility (BBF) in the Brown Cancer Center (BBF-BCC), increasing the number and quality of cancer clinical trials and research protocols. He created and directs the Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Facilities (BBFs) for the Diabetes and Obesity Center (BBF-DOC) and American Heart Association-Tobacco Regulation and Addiction Center (BBF-TRC), the UofL Superfund (BBF-SF), the UofL Hepatobiology and Toxicolgy Center (BBF-HTC), the Microbiomics, Inflammation and Pathogenicity Center (BBF-MIP), the Center for Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy (BBF-CII) and the Center for Integrative Environmental Health Sciences Research (BBF-EIEHS). These NIH funded centers have brought >~$60 million to the University of Louisville. With his more than two decades of collaborative experience with basic scientists and clinical researchers, he has collaborated on ~45 funded grants and he is a co-investigator (Co-I) on ~25 NIH grants as of 2022.
Dr. Rai has also served on several committees, including ASA chapters, St. Jude Institutional Review Board, St. Jude Safety Board and Biostatistics Protocol Review Panel. He currently sits on Clinical Scientific Review, Data and Safety Monitoring Committees of the James Graham Brown Cancer Center. He serves as a statistical reviewer for many national and international scientific journals, including editorial board member in five journals. As of 2022, he has written ~300 manuscripts dealing with pre-clinical data, longitudinal data involving prospective studies, prospective clinical trials, retrospective studies and survey studies. He has developed unique methods for cancer and control classifications and has patented methodology for ‘Liquid Biopsy’ in collaboration with Dr. Balaji Panchapakesan. The management of very active collaborations requires knowledge of many areas of statistics, including clinical trials, survival analysis, mixed effects (hierarchical) models, sample survey, bioinformatics, and quantitative risk assessment. He has published refereed manuscripts in each of these areas. He has mentored 10 PhD students with specialization in Bioinformatics (5) and Biostatistics (5) and is currently supervising 3 PhD students. His students have gone on to lead successful careers and are currently employed in a variety of academic and industry settings.