Hi, I'm Rolando

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Rolando J. Acosta Nuñez

Manager Biostatistics at Regeneron

I am a biostatistician at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc working in the Biostatistical Engineering team, where I leverage advanced statistical methodologies to drive impactful decision-making in pharmaceutical development. Specifically, I help develop novel digital endpoints for clinical trials through the assessment of wearable devices. I also spend my time working in Hematology Oncology clinical trials, where I oversee the design, analysis, and execution of clinical studies. I have a PhD in Biostatistics from Harvard University, where I worked with Rafael Irizarry. My research focused on estimating human mortality and mobility after natural hazards. I received a Master’s in Biostatistics in 2020 from Harvard University and a Bachelor’s in Computational Mathematics in 2017 from the University of Puerto Rico at Humacao, More broadly, I am interested in developing statistical methods and computational tools to elucidate problems in medicine, public health and society in general. Other interests of mine are to the right.

Biostatistics
Digital Health
Clinical Trials
Data Science
Causal Inference
Machine Learning

Sample Projects

Quantifying the dynamics of migration after Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico
Co-first Author Dec 2020

Understanding the population composition and distribution of a region affected by a major natural disaster is vital for the allocation of resources to communities in need and critical to inform mortality estimates. Currently, the US Census Bureau is the only institution that publishes reliable population estimates for the United States and its territories. Since these are published once per year, it is impossible to use census-based population estimates to assess short-term postdisaster out-of-jurisdiction migration and within-jurisdiction migration. The utilization of social media traces, coupled with mobile phone data, could provide live estimates of postdisaster population changes in disaster-affected areas.

Details
Monitoring Health Systems by Estimating Excess Mortality
First Author Jun 2020

Monitoring health systems during and after natural disasters, epidemics, or outbreaks is critical for guiding policy decisions and interventions. In the case of natural disasters the effects on public health can be direct or indirect. In the case of outbreaks and epidemics, lack of comprehensive testing or reporting can lead to challenges in measuring direct effects, while indirect effects can arise due to, for example, increased stress levels or reduced access to health services. When the effects are long lasting and difficult to detect in the short term, the accumulated effects can actually be devastating. Here we describe a statistical methodology and software that facilitates data-driven approaches.

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Post-Hurricane Vital Statistics Expose Fragility of Puerto Rico’s Health System
First Author Sep 2018

Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017. As recently as May of this year (2018), the official death count was 64. After a study describing a household survey reported a much higher death count estimate, as well as evidence of population displacement, extensive loss of services, and a prolonged death rate the government released death registry data. These newly released data will permit a better understanding of the effects of this hurricane. Here we fit a statistical model to mortality data that accounts for seasonal and non-hurricane related yearly effects. We then estimated the deviation from the expected death rate as a function of time.

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Excess Mortality Tracker
Owner Nov 2020 - Present

R Shiny tool to assess excesss mortality in all 50 US states, and a myriad of countries around the world from Jan 2020 to the present.

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Monitoreo Covid-19 en Puerto Rico
Contributor Jun 2020 - Present

R Shiny tool to assess the Covid-19 landscape in Puerto Rico

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Twitter Visualizations
Owner Jun 2020 - Present

GGplot-based visualizations that I create on my free time.

Teaching

Experiences

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Manager Biostatistician
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Jan 2024 - Present, Cambridge, MA

Regeneron is a leading biotechnology company that invents, develops and commercializes life-transforming medicines for people with serious diseases.

Responsibilities:
  • Lead the design and analysis of clinical trials and pilot studies.
  • Apply advanced statistical methods to support pharmaceutical development.
  • Dual role across Biostatistical Engineering and Clinical Hematology teams.
  • Develop novel digital endpoints using data from wearable devices.
  • Oversees design, analysis, and execution of clinical trials in Hematology Oncology.
  • Skilled in cross-functional collaboration and regulatory reporting.
  • Engages in innovative statistical research to support therapeutic advancements.
Statistical Advisory Committee Member
Digital Medicine Society

Dec 2023 - Mar 2025, Boston, MA

The Digital Medicine Society (DiMe) is a global non-profit and the professional home for digital medicine. Together, we drive broad adoption of digital approaches to advance the practice of medicine to enhance public health.

Responsibilities:
  • Served as a SAC member for the Digital Medicine Society’s Validating Novel Digital Clinical Measures project.
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Principal Biostatistician
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Jul 2022 - Dec 2023, Cambridge, MA

Regeneron is a leading biotechnology company that invents, develops and commercializes life-transforming medicines for people with serious diseases.

Responsibilities:
  • Lead the design and analysis of pilot studies in healthy populations, and first-in-human studies in populations of interest, to assess the operating characteristics of novel wearable devices, driving the development of innovative digital endpoints.
  • Advanced pharmaceutical innovations through cutting-edge statistical, machine learning, and artificial intelligence methodologies.
  • Collaborated extensively with cross-functional teams, including medical, clinical, operations, and regulatory departments to drive project outcomes.
Data Science Intern
Google

Jun 2021 - Aug 2021, Boston, MA (Remote)

Google LLC is an American multinational technology company that specializes in Internet-related services and products.

Responsibilities:
  • Research and develop statistical methods to find and estimate treatment heterogeneity in causal inference settings
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Affiliated Researcher
Covid-19 Mobility Data Network

Jun 2020 - Oct 2020,

We are a network of infectious disease epidemiologists at universities around the world working with technology companies to use aggregated mobility data to support the COVID-19 response. Our goal is to provide daily updates to decision-makers at the state and local levels on how well social distancing interventions are working, using anonymized, aggregated data sets from mobile devices, along with analytic support for interpretation.

Responsibilities:
  • Analyze mobility patterns for the City of Miami, FL (US), to ascertain the effectiveness of social distancing policies
  • Create mobility maps of the counties in the City of Miami
  • The mobility data was provided by the Facebook Data for Good Program
Biostatistics Student Ambassador to C-CHANGE
Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment (C-CHANGE)

Sep 2019 - May 2020, Boston, MA

The Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (Harvard Chan C-CHANGE) translates innovative research from faculty and students across the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health to inform actions that improve public health today and create a more just, sustainable, and healthy future for all.

Responsibilities:
  • Serve as a liason between the Biostatistics department and C-CHANGE
  • Provide monthly reports to C-CHANGE of updates in the Biostatistics field related to climate health and the environment
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Biostatistics Consultant
Biostatistics Student Consulting Center (BSCC)

Sep 2019 - May 2020, Boston, MA

The Biostatistics Student Consulting Center (BSCC) is a free statistical consulting service provided by doctoral students in the Department of Biostatistics. The center is open to any student in the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health or the Harvard Integrated Life Sciences (HILS) federation for statistical questions that arise outside of coursework. This may include guidance on study design, analysis planning, statistical programming, and more. The BSCC was made possible by a grant from the Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching and is currently funded by the Department of Biostatistics.

Responsibilities:
  • Work one-on-one with students inquiring help with their projects
Mentor for the IQB Hackathon
Interdisciplinary and Quantitative Biology Hackathon (IQB Hackathon)

Jul 2019 - Jul 2019, San Juan, PR

IQ BIO REU is a summer research and student development program funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that offers opportunities for undergraduate students from universities and colleges that lack a strong research component and those from groups that have been historically underrepresented in STEM fields.

Responsibilities:
  • Provide mentorships to the students participating in the hackathon
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