Oregon State University’s Department of Statistics is proud to announce that faculty members Dr. Yuan Jiang and Dr. Lan Xue have received a three-year grant of $150,000 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support their project, Flexible and Scalable Cluster Analysis of Longitudinal Microbiome Data to Define Functional Groups. This research addresses a critical gap in microbiome science by developing statistical methods that can detect and analyze functional groups of microbes, intermediate clusters that influence both human and environmental health. The project seeks to create new, flexible clustering tools capable of capturing subtle dynamic patterns within complex longitudinal microbiome data.

The foundation emphasized the project’s alignment with national priorities in advancing health, biological sciences, and data-driven research. The work will blend methodological innovation with real-world application by incorporating external ecosystem and host factors and applying the developed tools to ecological and biomedical datasets. This award strengthens OSU’s leadership in interdisciplinary data science and highlights the department’s continued commitment to research that advances public health, environmental understanding, and scientific discovery.