Spotlight on Brooke Smith

Name: Brooke Smith

Role: Data Analyst

Education: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, M.S. Biostatistics, University of Connecticut, B.A. Economics

Hometown: Simsbury, CT

1.     What are you working on in the lab right now?

I am working primarily on a team that is helping to uncover the genetic and epigenetic links to depression through data analysis.

2.     What are the 3 big questions you are interested in answering?

·      What are causing the rates of depression and anxiety to possibly rise or stay as high as they are?

·      How much of this can be attributed to nature versus nurture?

·      What are the most effective ways to combat depression and anxiety from developing and/or persisting?

3.     Of your most recent accomplishments, which one are you most proud of?

I am most proud of recently completing my master’s thesis. My thesis looked at data from multiple sleep latency tests (a test for narcolepsy) to uncover if there is a statistically significant difference in the time to REM sleep onset in a population of patients with depression, anxiety, and/or bipolar disorder who are taking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) versus not. From a statistical standpoint, this paper discussed the best way to analyze this data given that it has a time-to-event outcome, is observational in nature, and is clustered at the patient level. I collaborated with a great team of researchers and enjoyed taking ownership of this project from start to finish.

4.     If you could visit anywhere in the world you’ve never been, where would you go?

There are few places on the planet that I’m not interested in visiting, but on the shortlist of places I want to go to are Brazil and Vietnam. Both seem like really beautiful countries with great food!

5.     What’s a quote that you live by?

“If not now, when?”