The Biostatistics and Research Information Systems Core (BIC), part of Wake Forest School of Medicines’ Claude Pepper Older American Independence Center (OAIC) is composed of a team of highly qualified investigators with expertise in:

  • Clinical trials: single site and multi-center
  • Observational Studies
  • Development of novel statistical methods
  • Data management: REDCap, customized system, and hybrid system (REDCap and DEACON)
  • Various statistical analyses including machine learning

Highlighted Research

Faculty members of BIC Core contribute to aging research through collaboration on aging studies and development of innovative analytical methods.

Contribution to gerontologic biostatistics:

  • Dr. Leng and other OAIC investigators coin the concept of Gerontologic Biostatistics (Van Ness et al. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2010).
  • Dr. Speiser was a contributing author to a paper on “Gerontologic Biostatistics 2.0”, which focuses on developments in data science with applications in gerontology (Chen et al. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 2024). 
  • Ms. Ehrig and Dr. Speiser, collaborating with Drs. Leng and Pajewski, led a simulation study that evaluated the performance of the missing indicator method for dealing with missingness in longitudinal data, modeled after the context of examining associations with injurious falls based on electronic health record data (Ehrig et al. JMIR Med Inform 2025).

Collaborative aging research:

  • Dr. Leng collaborates in dual declines (physical and cognitive) among older adults (Handing et al. Innovation in Aging 2010; Handing et al. Front. Aging Neurosci 2023) as well as interactions of ADRC blood biomarkers and mobility (Thompson et al. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 2025)
  • Dr. Leng collaborates on the role of mitochondrial bioenergetics in resilience of older cancer patients (Kuan-Celarier et al. Geroscience 2025)