Alex M. Alsup, Ph.D.

Professional Background

Dr. Alsup is a Research Assistant Professor of Biostatistics & Data Science at the University of Kansas Medical Center. He received his Ph.D. in Biostatistics from KUMC in 2025, with a dissertation focused on compositional methods for immune composition analysis. During his PhD, he worked as a Senior Research Analyst and then a Data Scientist for KUMC. With over five years of experience at KUMC, his research interests span compositional data analysis, statistical genomics, DNA methylation-based deconvolution, real-world data analysis, and healthcare workforce research. In addition to his methodological work, Dr. Alsup has a strong applied focus in nursing workforce science, contributing to statewide and national efforts to understand nursing supply, demand, and outcomes. He currently serves as a data scientist and researcher for the Kansas Nursing Workforce Center, a founding member of that center, and participates in data science and informatics committees through the Kansas Nursing Workforce Center, National Forum of State Nursing Workforce Centers, and the Kansas Rural Health Council.

• PhD, Statistics, University of Kansas Medical Center
• MS, Biostatistics, University of Kansas Medical Center
• BS, Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, University of Kansas

Research

Overview

My motivation for pursuing biostatistics is simple: biostatisticians have a unique ability to contribute meaningfully across virtually every area of human health research, and I find deep fulfillment in that breadth of impact. My research reflects this by spanning statistical methodology for high-dimensional epigenomic data to applied workforce science, but both threads share the same underlying purpose: helping people.
My methodological research focuses on compositional methods for the analysis of omics data, with a particular emphasis on DNA methylation-based immune deconvolution. Epigenomics is an exciting and rapidly evolving field, and I believe DNA methylation in particular represents an underappreciated but highly relevant factor in overall human health. Biological measurements like cell-type proportion estimates are inherently compositional (they are constrained to sum to a constant) and standard statistical approaches often fail to account for this structure. My dissertation work addressed this challenge directly, evaluating how compositional methods perform in the context of deconvolution-based immune composition analysis, with the goal of ensuring that the statistical tools researchers rely on are up to the task.
In parallel, my applied work with the Kansas Nursing Workforce Center is driven by a different but equally important dimension of helping people: ensuring that Kansans have access to care when and where they need it. Nurses are the backbone of that access, and understanding the dynamics of nursing supply, demand, and distribution across Kansas is essential to protecting it. Through this work I have led the development of statewide workforce reports, and interactive data dashboards that put actionable information in the hands of policymakers, educators, and health system leaders.
Across both areas, I am guided by the belief that good statistical work should ultimately be performed in service of people.

• Alsup Alexander, Nissen Emily, Salas Lucas A, Molinaro Annette M, Reiner Alexander, Liu Simin, Madsen Tracy E, Liu Longjian, Auer Paul L, Christensen Brock C, others. 2024. An assessment of compositional methods for the analysis of DNA methylation-based deconvolution estimates. Epigenomics, 1--14
• Boomer Jonathan, Choi Jiwoong, Alsup Alexander, McGregor Mary Clare, Lieu Julia, Johnson Cooper, Hall Chase, Shi Xiaosong, Kim Taewon, Goss Charles, Lew Daphne, Christensen Stephanie, Woodruff Prescott, Hastie Annette, Mauger David, Wenzel Sally E, Hoffman Eric, Schechtman Kenneth B, Castro Mario. 2024. Increased Muc5AC and Decreased Ciliated Cells in Severe Asthma Partially Restored by Inhibition of IL-4Rα Receptor. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 210 (12), 1409-1420. https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.202307-1266oc
• Cano Urrego Brahian, Alsup Alexander, Thompson Jeffrey A, Koestler Devin C. 2026. A stochastic approach to k-nearest neighbors search using a fixed radius method. Computational Statistics, 41 (1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00180-025-01674-7
• Mudaranthakam Dinesh Pal, Alsup Alexander M, Murakonda Vinay, Lin Tara, Thompson Jeffrey, Gajewski Byron, Mayo Matthew S. 2022. Accelerating cancer patient recruitment through a mobile application (clinical trial finder). Cancer Informatics, 21, 11769351211073114
• Srinivasan Ashokkumar, Giri Allan, Duraisamy Santhosh Kumar, Alsup Alexander, Castro Mario, Sundar Isaac Kirubakaran. 2023. Acute HDM exposure shows time-of-day and sex-based differences in the severity of lung inflammation and circadian clock disruption. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: Global, 2 (4), 100155
• Mudaranthakam Dinesh Pal, Pepper Sam, Alsup Alexander, Lin Tara, Streeter Natalie, Thompson Jeffrey, Gajewski Byron, Mayo Matthew S, Khan Qamar. 2022. Bolstering the complex study start-up process at NCI cancer centers using technology. Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications, 30, 101050