Matthew G. Fillingim
Delray Beach
Summary
Health data scientist with a PhD in Neuroscience and 8+ years of experience building population-scale models in biomedical research. Led an international consortium (134 studies, 113 countries; 5.63M participants) to derive normative pain trajectories and an external benchmarking framework. Expertise in mixed-effects/hierarchical modeling and applied machine learning for multimodal biobank and population data, with a focus on pain and biopsychosocial determinants of health.
Overview
10
10
years of professional experience
Work History
Doctoral Researcher / Health Data Scientist
McGill University
Montreal
08.2020 - Current
- Led a global consortium mapping pain trajectories across the lifespan; harmonized IPD across 134 studies (113 countries; 5.6M participants)
- Developed global normative reference curves for site-specific pain prevalence using hierarchical modeling.
- Built a benchmarking framework (manuscript in preparation) enabling users to quantify cohort deviations from global pain norms.
- Applied ML to UK Biobank-scale multimodal data to derive rs-fMRI and blood-assay biomarkers for pain-associated diagnoses (e.g., fibromyalgia, gout, rheumatoid arthritis); showed that psychosocial context conditions biomarker utility.
- Designed end-to-end analysis pipelines in Python and R, including data QC, feature harmonization, model fitting, and publication-ready visualizations.
Research Assistant, Phase III clinical trial (tDCS + cognitive training)
University of Florida
Gainesville
01.2018 - 01.2020
- Supported Phase III tDCS plus cognitive training trial (older adults, 65–89); administered neuropsych testing and MRI visits.
- Managed REDCap operations for scheduling, protocol tracking, and QC.
Researcher, Brain Tumor Immunotherapy Lab
University of Florida
Gainesville
01.2017 - 01.2018
- Analyzed murine MRI data to relate lymph node imaging features to dendritic cell counts as a biomarker of anti-tumor vaccine response.
Researcher, Laboratory for Rehabilitation Neuroscience
University of Florida
Gainesville
01.2016 - 01.2018
- Supported murine fMRI studies of dystonia and Parkinson’s disease; performed animal handling, imaging sessions, and preprocessing.
Education
Ph.D. - Neuroscience
McGill University
Montreal, QC05-2026
Bachelor of Science - Psychology
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL04-2018
Skills
- Big Data
- Applied machine learning
- Statistical modeling
- Model evaluation and calibration
- Data QC and feature engineering
- Python (pandas, numpy, scipy, scikit-learn)
- R (datatable, lme4, tidyverse)
- XGBoost; SnapML; PyTorch (basic)
- Data visualization and figure design (ggplot2, Matplotlib)
- Neuroimaging toolkits (FSL, FreeSurfer, Nilearn)
Honors And Fellowships
- Alan Edwards Foundation PhD Studentship, 2023-2026
- Integrated Program in Neuroscience GREAT Travel Award, 2024
- Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences Studentship, Declined, 2023
- Quebec Bio-Imaging Network Scholarship, 2022
- Healthy Brains Healthy Lives Fellowship, 2021
- Integrated Program in Neuroscience Graduate Excellence Award, 2020
Selected Publications
- Fillingim, M., Tanguay-Sabourin, C., Parisien, M. et al., Biological markers and psychosocial factors predict chronic pain conditions., Nature Human Behaviour, 9, 1710-1725, 2025
- Tanguay-Sabourin, C., Fillingim, M., Guglietti, G. V. et al., A prognostic risk score for development and spread of chronic pain., Nature Medicine, 29, 1821-1831, 2023
- Fillingim, M., Woods, A. J., The Neuromuscular System., Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging., Springer, 2019
- Fillingim, M. et al., Global Prevalence Rates of Pain across the Lifespan: Normative Modeling in 5.63 million Individuals from 113 Countries., manuscript in preparation
- Parisien M, Fillingim M, Tanguay-Sabourin C, M. et al., Sex-specific genetics underlie increased chronic pain risk in women: genome-wide association studies from the UK Biobank., Br J Anaesth., 135, 2, 401-415, 08/01/25
- Hobeika, L., Fillingim, M., Tanguay-Sabourin, C. et al., Tinnitus risk factors and its evolution over time., Nat Commun, 16, 4244, 2025
Timeline
Doctoral Researcher / Health Data Scientist
McGill University
08.2020 - Current
Research Assistant, Phase III clinical trial (tDCS + cognitive training)
University of Florida
01.2018 - 01.2020
Researcher, Brain Tumor Immunotherapy Lab
University of Florida
01.2017 - 01.2018
Researcher, Laboratory for Rehabilitation Neuroscience
University of Florida
01.2016 - 01.2018
Ph.D. - Neuroscience
McGill University
Bachelor of Science - Psychology
University of Florida