From Complex Data to Meaningful Insights: How Dr. Lin Zhang Advances Neuroimaging Research

As co-director of the Analytics Hub, Lin Zhang, PhD, brings expertise in statistics and high-dimensional data analysis to help researchers turn complex neuroimaging data into meaningful insights about brain health. Her work includes developing statistical methods for analyzing imaging and genetics data.

After earning her PhD in statistics from Texas A&M University and completing a postdoctoral fellowship in biostatistics at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Dr. Zhang joined the University of Minnesota as an assistant professor in biostatistics in 2015. Her research has increasingly focused on using statistical methods to analyze neuroimaging data and better understand the brain systems involved in mental disorders.

At the Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain, Dr. Zhang sees the Analytics Hub as an opportunity to bring this expertise to interdisciplinary research focused on child brain health. She collaborates with researchers across multiple departments, including Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and Radiology, to develop analytical approaches tailored to the unique complexities of the developing brain.

A key focus of Dr. Zhang's work is understanding how brain activity varies across individuals and conditions. Her research team has developed methods to identify patterns of communication between brain regions among people with schizophrenia while accounting for differences between individuals. The team has also studied how these patterns change during tasks among adolescents with depression.

The Analytics Hub is also helping build expertise in reproducible brain imaging research. The team was recently awarded an R25 grant to support a summer workshop focused on reproducible research in brain imaging genetics. Launched for the first time in July 2026, the workshop brought together graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, research associates and junior faculty to develop skills for conducting and sharing rigorous neuroimaging research.

As the field continues to evolve, Dr. Zhang and her team are exploring how machine learning can be combined with statistical methods to analyze increasingly complex neuroimaging data efficiently and reliably.

Interested in working with Dr. Zhang and the Analytics Hub? Submit a process for engagement request form to connect with the team and explore how they can support your research.