Dr. Mitra's primary research interests include the design and analysis of observational studies, causal inference, and statistical approaches for cost-effectiveness analysis. In addition, she has expertise in statistical genetics, an area in which she has worked extensively on SNP and haplotype problems in the context of family-based and population based association studies.She has collaborated with investigators in a number of medical areas, including clinical genetics and oncology. Specifically she has worked on studies that have investigated genetic associations in melanoma and in breast, lung and colon cancers. She has also worked on population-based outcomes and cost-effectiveness studies using SEER-Medicare data in the areas of colon, prostate and bladder cancer.

Dr. Mitra joined Penn's faculty in 2005, after having previously completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Harvard School of Public Health in statistical genetics and after serving on the faculty of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.