Ming Ding (Chinese: 丁明) is an assistant professor in the Emergency Medicine Department at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I am a cardiovascular (CVD) epidemiologist, and my research focuses on the prevention and prediction of CVD integrating lifestyle factors, multi-omics data, and methods development. My CV can be found here.
EDUCATION
2011-2016 Doctor of science (ScD) in Nutrition and Epidemiology, Harvard University
2009-2011 Master of Science (MSc) in Nutrition, Peking University, China
2004-2009 Bachelor of Medicine in Preventive Medicine (M.D. equivalent), Peking University, China
RESEARCH AREAS
- Cardiovascular epidemiology integrating lifestyle factors, genetics, lipidomics, and proteomics. My research utilizes large cohort studies and clinical data to investigate the etiology and prevention of cardiometabolic disease, including CVD and type 2 diabetes.
- Precision prevention and prediction of CVD using a multi-state modeling approach.
- Multi-omics in prediction of competing risks of CHD and stroke using large cohort studies.
- Proteomics in the acute phase of myocardial infarction in a clinical setting.
- Epidemiological methods. I am passionate about developing new methods to understand cardiovascular disease from novel perspectives, with the hope that these methods can be generalized to other chronic diseases.
- A smoothing mixture model (SMM) for trajectory analysis.
- A Linear Mixed Model with Measurement Error Correction (LMM-MEC) for summary-data-based Multivariable Mendelian Randomization. The R macro of LMM-MEC can be found here.
- My current interest is multi-state modeling methods, which may improve precision prevention and prediction of chronic disease. Published papers include a new multi-state framework, and the summary metrics derived from this framework to characterize disease course.
- Emergency medicine. My work in this direction is twofold.
- Prevention and diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction.
- I collaborate with clinicians to provide support in epidemiological design and data analysis to address important questions in emergency medicine.
FUNDED GRANTS
04/01/2022-03/31/2024 A summary-data-based Mendelian randomization (MR) method with application to correlated lipidomic data.
NIH/NHGRI R21HG012365 Role: PI
10/01/2018-05/31/2020 Examining Trajectories of Lifestyle Factors Associated with Healthy Aging and Longevity Using a Novel Mixture Model
NIH/NIA R03 AG060247 Role: PI
PUBLICATIONS
A full list of my publications can be found here.
Cardiovascular epidemiology
Ding M, Fitzmaurice GM, Arvizu M, Willett WC, Manson JE, Rexrode KM, Hu FB, Chavarro JE. Associations between patterns of modifiable risk factors in mid-life to late life and longevity: 36 year prospective cohort study. BMJ Med. 2022;1(1):e000098. PubMed PMID: 36936601; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC9978682.
Ding M, Li J, Qi L, Ellervik C, Zhang X, Manson JE, Stampfer M, Chavarro JE, Rexrode KM, Kraft P, Chasman D, Willett WC, Hu FB. Associations of dairy intake with risk of mortality in women and men: three prospective cohort studies. BMJ. 2019 Nov 27;367:l6204. PubMed PMID: 31776125; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6880246.
Ding M, Bhupathiraju SN, Satija A, van Dam RM, Hu FB. Long-term coffee consumption and risk of cardiovascular disease: a systematic review and a dose-response meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. Circulation. 2014 Feb 11;129(6):643-59. Epub 2013 Nov 7. Review. PubMed PMID: 24201300; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3945962.
Epidemiological methods
Ding M, Chen H, Lin F. A discrete-time split-state framework for multi-state modeling with application to describing the course of heart disease. BMC Medical Research Methodology. 2025; 25, 54.
Ding M, Lin FC, Meyer ML. Summary Estimates Derived from a Multi-state Non-Markov Framework to Characterize the Course of Heart Disease. MedRxiv 2024. In submission.
Ding M, Zou F. A Linear Mixed Model with Measurement Error Correction (LMM-MEC): A Method for Summary-data-based Multivariable Mendelian Randomization. In submission.
Ding M, Chavarro JE, Fitzmaurice GM. Development of a mixture model allowing for smoothing functions of longitudinal trajectories. Stat Methods Med Res. 2021 Feb;30(2):549-562. PubMed PMID: 33106119; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8009804.
Emergency medicine
Markwalter DW, Lowe J, Ding M, Lyman M, Lavin K. Emergency department discharges directly to hospice: Longitudinal assessment of a streamlined referral program. Am J Emerg Med. 2024 Dec: 86: 56-61. doi: 10.1016/j.ajem.2024.09.049. PMID: 39332213.
Mauro Z, Padron C, Ding M, Patel M, Winslow JE, Grover J. EMS medical director compensation in North Carolina. Am J Emerg Med. 2024 Aug:82:194-196. doi: 10.1016/j.ajem.2024.06.021. Epub 2024 Jun 15. PMID: 38906744 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajem.2024.06.021