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“I'd rather take coffee than compliments

just now.”

​​

― Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

Research Summary
My research sits at the intersection of statistics education and applied work in nutrition, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. I am drawn to the challenges of analyzing complex, real-world data—particularly longitudinal data—and addressing issues like measurement error. My earlier work emphasized statistical inference, mathematical modeling, and simulation studies to predict health outcomes and inform policy interventions. More recently, I have been integrating these interests with community-engaged scholarship, connecting data, education, and public health impact.

A complete list of publications (28 peer-reviewed publications, 3 abstracts, 3 book chapters, and 7 technical reports) and research talks (over 60 invited, contributed, and guest lectures) can be found in my CV or google scholar page. See below for selected publications.
Research Themes
Statistics and Data Science Education
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Selected Publications:
* Indicate student
 

  1. Murillo AL, Tiwari HK, and Affuso O. “Analysis of the High School Longitudinal Study to eval-uate associations among mathematics achievement, mentorship and student participation in STEMprograms.” In New Frontiers of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, pp. 269-290. Springer (2018). [Book Chapter]

  2. Murillo AL, Maytin A*, “Teaching Regression Calibration to Correct for Measurement Error toDevelop Statistical Thinking.” IASE 2025 Satellite Conference - Statistics and Data Science Education in STEAM (2026).

  3. Goodman MS, Lopez A*, Murillo AL, Pierce KA. “A comparison of methods for coding race in linear and logistic regression models.” Annals of Epidemiology (2025).

Pediatric Clinical Practice and Medical Education
 
Selected Publications:
* Indicate student
​

  1. Golova N, Eskander J, Pho A, Chu TC, Murillo AL, Friedman JF, Musial S. Preventing the early introduction of juice and sugar-sweetened beverages in infants’ diets: a randomized controlled trial. Clinical Pediatrics. 2023 May;62(4):276-87. [link]

  2. MacDonell‐Yilmaz RE, Murillo A, Welch JG. A randomized controlled trial to examine the effect of the Pediatric Opioid Analgesia Self‐Instruction System (PedOASIS) tool on pediatric hematology/oncology trainee education. Pediatric blood & cancer. 2023 Jun;70(6):e30305. [link]

  3. Little RB*, Murillo AL, Van Der Pol WJ, Lefkowitz EJ, Morrow CD, Yi N, Carson TL. Diet quality and the gut microbiota in women living in Alabama. American journal of preventive medicine. 2022 Jul 1;63(1):S37-46. [link]

  4. Silva B, Kamath S, Panicker C, Puranam S, Lewis C, Murillo AL, and Watts D. “Comparisons of resident and faculty screening for social determinants of health in an academic pediatric practice,” Rhode Island Medical Journal 104 (6), 33-37, 2021. [link]

  5. Morris DB*, Gruppuso PA, McGee HA, Murillo AL, Grover A, and Adashi EY. “Diversity of the National Medical Student Body: Forty Years of Persistent Inequities.” New England Journal of Medicine, New England Journal of Medicine, 384(17), pp.1661-1668, DOI: 10.1056/NEJMsr2028487, 2021. [link]

  6. Musial S, Abioye A, Murillo AL, Eskander J, Sykes O, Rodriguez L, Friedman JF, Bancroft B, Golova N. “Introducing Juice and Sugar-Sweetened Beverages in Early Infancy: Parental Knowledge and Intended Behaviors.” Clin Pediatr (Phila). DOI: 10.1177/0009922820961080. Epub ahead of print, 2020. [link]

  7. Cedillo YE*, Murillo AL, Fernandez JR. “The association between allostatic load and anthropometric measurements among a multiethnic cohort of children.” Pediatric obesity, e12501-e12501, 2019. [link]

research2
research3
Applications in Diabetes, Cardiovascular Disease, and Obesity
Selected Publications:​​
​

  1. Bagheri M, Tiwari HK, Murillo AL, Al-Tobasei R, Arnett DK, Kind T, Barupal DK, Fan S, Fiehn O, O’Connell J, Montasser M, Aslibekyan S, and Irvin MR. “A lipidome-wide association study of the lipoprotein insulin resistance index.” Lipids in health and disease, 19(1), pp.1-14, 2020. [link]

  2. Murillo AL, Affuso O, Peterson CM, Li P, Wiener HW, Tekwe CD, and Allison DB. “Illustration of measurement error models for reducing biases in nutrition and obesity research using 2D body composition data.” Obesity (Silver Spring), 27 (3): p. 489-495, 2019. [link]

  3. Murillo AL, Li J, and Castillo-Chavez C. “A dynamic model of glucose, insulin, and free fatty acids with time delay: the impact of bariatric surgery on type 2 diabetes mellitus,” Mathematical Biosciences and Engineering, Mathematical Biosciences and Engineering, 16(5), p 5765-5787, 2019. [link]

  4. Safan M, Murillo AL, Wadhera D, and Castillo-Chavez C. “Modeling the diet dynamics of children: the roles of socialization and school environments.” Letters in Biomathematics, 1(5), p 275-306, 2018. [link]

  5. Murillo AL, Safan M, Castillo-Chavez C, Capaldi Phillips ED, and Wadhera D. “Modeling eating behaviors: the role of environment and food association learning via a ratatouille effect.” Mathematical Biosciences and Engineering, 13(4), p 841-855, 2016. [link]

research4
Predictive Models in Epidemiology and Infectious Diseases
 
Selected Publications:​​
* Indicate student
​

  1. Ogbunugafor CB, Miller-Dickson MD*, Meszaros VA*, Gomez LM, Murillo, AL and Scarpino SV. “Variation in microparasite free-living survival and indirect transmission can modulate the intensity of emerging outbreaks.” Scientific Reports. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-77048-4, 2020. [link]

  2. Almonte-Vega L*, Colon-Vargas M*, Luna-Jarrin L*, Martinez J*, Rodriguez-Rincon J*, Patil R*, Espinoza B, Thakur M*, Murillo AL, Arriola L, Viswanathan A, and Mubayi A. “A cost-effective analysis of treatment strategies for the control of HSV-2 infections in the U.S.: a mathematical modeling-based case study.” Mathematical Biosciences, Mathematical Biosciences, 108347, 2020. [link]

  3. Bichara D, Holechek SA, Castro JV, Murillo AL, and Castillo-Chavez C. “On the dynamics of dengue disease 2 with residence times and vertical transmission.” Letters in Biomathematics, 3(1), p 140-160, 2016. [link]

  4. Murillo D, Holechek SA, Murillo AL, Sanchez F, and Castillo-Chavez C.  “Vertical transmission in a two-strain model of dengue fever.” Letters in Biomathematics, 1(2), p 249-271, 2014. [link]

  5. Vera DM, Hora RA, Murillo A, Wong JF, Torre AJ, Wang D, Boulay D, Hancock K, Katz JM, Ramos M, Loayza L, Quispe J, Reaves EJ, Bausch DG, Chowell G, and Montgomery JM. “Assessing the impact of public health interventions on the transmission of pandemic H1N1 influenza a virus aboard a Peruvian navy ship.” Influenza and other respiratory viruses, 8(3), p 353-359, 2014. [link]

Acknowledgements
I am grateful for support from the NSF LSAMP program, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, NIH NIDDK/NHLBI T32 program, NHLBI PRIDE RISE program, and the American Institute of Mathematics Structured Quartet Research Ensembles (SQuaREs).

© 2021 by Anarina L. Murillo, Ph.D.

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