Nuria Perez-Alvarez

Biostatistician

Assistant Professor

Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - BarcelonaTech

nuria.perez@upc.edu

Biosketch

I am a biostatistician with more than 20 years of experience working at research institutes such as the Institut de Recerca de l’Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, BCN Health Economics and Outcomes Research, Fundació de Lluita contra la Sida, BCNPeptides, and IMIM-Research Mar. My work covers a wide range of health areas, including HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, COVID‑19, kidney and heart diseases, osteoporosis, and knee osteoarthritis, giving me broad experience in designing, analyzing, and interpreting clinical studies and trials.

In recent years, I have contributed to peptide drug development, projects to classify knee osteoarthritis patients for personalized treatments, and research on factors that increase cardiovascular risk in immune-related diseases.

My expertise includes planning, analyzing, and reporting clinical research, from observational studies to large clinical trials. A key part of my work is handling complex, longitudinal, and high-dimensional data, with particular attention to missing data, and translating these results into practical insights that help doctors and researchers make informed decisions.

To address the questions of each study, I adapt and develop statistical methods for data analysis, predictive modeling, and managing complex datasets. My approach combines rigorous statistical methods with practical clinical relevance to ensure results are accurate and useful.

Since 2002, I have contributed to biostatistical research as a member of the GRASS group, and since 2014, as part of the GRBIO research group, collaborating closely with clinicians to improve research methods. My work includes designing study protocols, performing advanced data analyses, and developing computational tools for reliable and reproducible research.

During my PhD in Statistics and Operations Research (2014), I gained expertise in health economic evaluation and cohort simulation, applying real-world data to answer relevant clinical and public health questions.

Research areas

Clinical Trials

Longitudinal and Missing Data

Pharmacoeconomics

Publication links: ORCID, ResearchID

Twitter: @StatsNuria

Bluesky: @nperezalvarez.bsky.social

Other links: LinkedIn

Education

I hold an MSc on Biostatistics and an MSc and PhD on Statistics and Operational Research.

I have travelled for education and I did 4 scientific visits at: Harvard School of Public Health, Boston (2009), Departamento de Demografía, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid (2006), World Health Organization, Geneva (2006) and at Sheffield University, Sheffield (2000-2001).

Teaching

Currently I am assistant professor at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya- BarcelonaTech. I use to supervise the final MSc research works of 5-6 students every academical year in the MSc on Bioinformatics and Biostatistics at the Open University of Catalonia.

I was professor responsible of area at Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, EIMT, coordinating and designing courses on statistics at different degrees and masters. I organized and participated in dissemination of statistical activities addressed to teenagers and high school professors (2022-2023).

I have been teaching 2 hours per a week at the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC) from 2006 to 2022. I participated in the course on Longitudinal data analysis in the MSc on Statistics and Operational Research and in the course of Probability and Statistics in the Bachelor Degree in Informatics Engineering.

Current editorial

Member of the Editorial Board of the ‘Clinical Drug Investigation’ (since 22^nd September 2014).

Referee for papers submitted to ‘Clinical Drug Investigation’.

Referee for papers submitted to ‘Trials’.

Referee for papers submitted to ‘Medicina Clínica’.

Other

Country Representative for Caucus for Women in Statistics and Data Science (2024–present).

Social Media Officer of International Biometric Society (2022–2024).

Member of the Board of the ‘Societat Catalana d’Estadística’ (since 14^th December 2016 to December 2025).

Member of the International Biometric Society Social Media committee (since 2022).