Interests

Oncology Biostatistics

Titles

Associate Professor of Oncology

Research Summary

The primary research focus of the Ochs group is on pattern recognition and modeling in biological systems, including development of Bayesian methods that correctly model the nonorthogonality of biological processes and allow incorporation of the wealth of prior information gathered over the last many decades of research in molecular biology. Present research projects focus in three areas: 1) modeling of cell signaling networks at multiple resolutions to allow insight into fundamental developmental processes and drug targeting in cancer, 2) identification of genetic bases of complex diseases, and 3) high-throughput distributed systems for integration and analysis of biological data. Dr. Ochs also collaborates with several groups in the Kimmel Cancer Center providing expertise in data analysis, gene annotation, and experimental design.

Dr. Ochs developed the Bayesian Decomposition algorithm together with Dr. Truman Brown at the Fox Chase Cancer Center for use in medical spectroscopic imaging. He extended this algorithm for use in microarray data analysis, and incorporated prior knowledge of class information (supervised learning) and transcription factor regulation. He developed the APSampler algorithm with Dr. Alexander Favorov of GosNIIGenetika for identification of multiple genetic variants associated with phenotype, and together with Dr. Olga Favorova of the Russian State Medical University, he was the first to report a combination of three allelic variants associated with MS.

Dr. Ochs holds a Ph.D. in Physics from Brandeis University with a focus on radio astronomy and the astrophysics of quasars. He migrated into medical research through in vivo spectroscopic imaging research, and directed the Bioinformatics Group at the Fox Chase Cancer Center until September 2006, when he joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins.

Journal Citations

Burchardt, M.; Engers, R.; Muller, M.; Burchardt, T.; Willers, R.; Epstein, J.I.; Ackermann, R.; Gabbert, H.E.; de la Taille, A.; Rubin, M.A. Interobserver reproducibility of Gleason grading: evaluation using prostate cancer tissue microarrays. Journal of cancer research and clinical oncology. 2008 Oct;134(10):1071-1078.

Zhang, L.; Samet, J.; Caffo, B.; Bankman, I.; Punjabi, N.M. Power spectral analysis of EEG activity during sleep in cigarette smokers. Chest. 2008 Feb;133(2):427-432.

Garner, M.M.; Helmick, K.; Ochsenreiter, J.; Richman, L.K.; Latimer, E.; Wise, A.G.; Maes, R.K.; Kiupel, M.; Nordhausen, R.W.; Zong, J.C.; Hayward, G.S. Clinico-pathologic features of fatal disease attributed to new variants of endotheliotropic herpesviruses in two Asian elephants (Elephas maximus). Vet Pathol. 2009 Jan;46(1):97-104.