MC Donohue
Michael C Donohue, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Neurology
Associate Director of Biostatistics
Alzheimer's Therapeutic Research Institute
Co-Lead, Biostatistics Unit
Alzheimer's Clinical Trial Consortium
Keck School of Medicine of USC
University of Southern California
9860 Mesa Rim Rd
San Diego, CA 92121
mdonohue@usc.edu

My methodological interests include semiparametric and generalized linear mixed-effects models, model selection, asymptotics, and clinical trials design. My applied work includes the design, monitoring, and analysis of clinical trials and observational studies, particularly in the field of Alzheimer's disease.

I received my PhD in Mathematics from the University of California San Diego in 2005. My thesis work involved related problems in rank regression and synergy detection. The proposed procedure fits a regression surface with linear level sets, which is useful for determining synergy between two or more agents. More recently I have been investigating model selection and asymptotics for generalized linear and proportional hazards mixed-effects models. I received a KL2 Post-Doctoral Scholar Award to investigate efficient analysis methods for longitudinal clinical trials, particularly in the face of missing data typical in Alzheimer's disease trials.

I am the Associate Director of Biostatistics at the Alzheimer's Therapeutic Research Institute (ATRI) of University of Southern California. I have worked on power and study design for prodromal or asymptomatic Alzheimer's disease incorporating recent advances from ADNI in neuroimaging and fluid assay biomarkers.

Principal Research Interests

  • Modelling long-term evolution of neurodegenerative diseases
  • Semiparametric and generalized linear mixed-effects models
  • Model selection
  • Asymptotics
  • Clinical trials design
  • Missing data
  • Alzheimer's Disease clinical trials

Collaborative Projects

  • Alzheimer's Therapeutic Research Insitute (ATRI)
  • Alzheimer's Clinical Trial Consortium (ACTC)
  • Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI)

Select Publications

Aisen, Paul S, Ronald C Petersen, Michael C Donohue, Anthony Gamst, Rema Raman, Ronald G Thomas, Sarah Walter, et al. 2010. “Clinical Core of the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative: Progress and Plans.” Alzheimer’s & Dementia 6 (3): 239–46.

Amariglio, Rebecca E, Michael C Donohue, Gad A Marshall, Dorene M Rentz, David P Salmon, Steven H Ferris, Stella Karantzoulis, Paul S Aisen, and Reisa A Sperling. 2015. “Tracking Early Decline in Cognitive Function in Older Individuals at Risk for Alzheimer Disease Dementia: The Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study Cognitive Function Instrument.” JAMA Neurology 72 (4): 446–54.

Donohue, Michael, Paul Aisen, Jean-Francois Dartigues, Hélène Jacqmin-Gadda, Anthony Gamst, and Le GoffMelanie. 2012. “Validating Alzheimer’s Pathological Cascade by Merging ADNI with PAQUID.” In Alzheimer’s and Dementia, 8:611. 4.

Donohue, Michael C, AC Gamst, RG Thomas, R Xu, L Beckett, Ronald Carl Petersen, MW Weiner, P Aisen, Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, and others. 2011. “The Relative Efficiency of Time-to-Threshold and Rate of Change in Longitudinal Data.” Contemporary Clinical Trials 32 (5): 685–93.

Donohue, Michael C, Rosanna Overholser, Ronghui Xu, and Florin Vaida. 2011. “Conditional Akaike Information Under Generalized Linear and Proportional Hazards Mixed Models.” Biometrika 98 (3): 685–700.

Donohue, Michael C, Reisa A Sperling, Ronald Petersen, Chung-Kai Sun, Michael W Weiner, and Paul S Aisen. 2017. “Association Between Elevated Brain Amyloid and Subsequent Cognitive Decline Among Cognitively Normal Persons.” JAMA 317 (22): 2305–16.

Donohue, Michael C, Reisa A Sperling, David P Salmon, Dorene M Rentz, Rema Raman, Ronald G Thomas, Michael Weiner, and Paul S Aisen. 2014. “The Preclinical Alzheimer Cognitive Composite: Measuring Amyloid-Related Decline.” JAMA Neurology 71 (8): 961–70.

Iddi, Samuel, Dan Li, Paul S Aisen, Michael S Rafii, Irene Litvan, Wesley K Thompson, and Michael C Donohue. 2018. “Estimating the Evolution of Disease in the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative.” Neurodegenerative Diseases 18 (4): 173–90.

Iddi, Samuel, Dan Li, Paul S Aisen, Michael S Rafii, Wesley K Thompson, Michael C Donohue, Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, and others. 2019. “Predicting the Course of Alzheimer’s Progression.” Brain Informatics 6 (1): 6.

Li, Dan, Samuel Iddi, Paul S Aisen, Wesley K Thompson, Michael C Donohue, Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, and others. 2019. “The Relative Efficiency of Time-to-Progression and Continuous Measures of Cognition in Presymptomatic Alzheimer’s Disease.” Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions 5: 308–18.

Li, Dan, Samuel Iddi, Wesley K Thompson, Michael C Donohue, and Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. 2019. “Bayesian Latent Time Joint Mixed Effect Models for Multicohort Longitudinal Data.” Statistical Methods in Medical Research 28 (3): 835–45.

Petersen, Ronald Carl, PS Aisen, Laurel A Beckett, MC Donohue, AC Gamst, Danielle J Harvey, CR Jack, et al. 2010. “Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI): Clinical Characterization.” Neurology 74 (3): 201–9.

Sperling, Reisa, Michael Donohue, and Paul Aisen. 2012. “The A4 Trial: Anti-Amyloid Treatment of Asymptomatic Alzheimer’s Disease.” Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association 8 (4): P425–P426.