Heart disease is the leading cause of death for Americans. Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute (KPWHRI) scientists are working to understand how to reduce our risk of heart attacks, stroke, and other cardiovascular diseases throughout life.
Addressing risk factors, improving diagnosis, and exploring how medications, genes, and everyday life affect our cardiovascular health at different ages and stages are central to this work — as is translating research findings into practical, personalized care.
“We’ve found that helping patients and health care teams work together on personalized care plans is the best path to lifelong heart health,” says Beverly Green, MD, MPH, whose recent work has focused on improving the diagnosis of high blood pressure.
Additional focus areas for KPWHRI scientists include exploring the impact of cardiovascular diseases on other health conditions — and vice versa. Recently, this has led researchers Sascha Dublin, MD, PhD, and Laura B. Harrington, PhD, MPH, to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular health.
Below are other research highlights from KPWHRI’s cardiovascular health scientists (please visit their bios to learn more):
Christophersen IE, Rienstra M, Roselli C, Yin X, Geelhoed B, Barnard J, Lin H, Arking DE, Smith AV, Albert CM, Chaffin M, Tucker NR, Li M, Klarin D, Bihlmeyer NA, Low SK, Weeke PE, Müller-Nurasyid M, Smith JG, Brody JA, Niemeijer MN, Dörr M, Trompet S, Huffman J, Gustafsson S, Schurmann C, Kleber ME, Lyytikäinen LP, Seppälä I, Malik R, R V R Horimoto A, Perez M, Sinisalo J, Aeschbacher S, Thériault S, Yao J, Radmanesh F, Weiss S, Teumer A, Choi SH, Weng LC, Clauss S, Deo R, Rader DJ, Shah SH, Sun A, Hopewell JC, Debette S, Chauhan G, Yang Q, Worrall BB, Paré G, Kamatani Y, Hagemeijer YP, Verweij N, Siland JE, Kubo M, Smith JD, Van Wagoner DR, Bis JC, Perz S, Psaty BM, Ridker PM, Magnani JW, Harris TB, Launer LJ, Shoemaker MB, Padmanabhan S, Haessler J, Bartz TM, Waldenberger M, Lichtner P, Arendt M, Krieger JE, Kähönen M, Risch L, Mansur AJ, Peters A, Smith BH, Lind L, Scott SA, Lu Y, Bottinger EB, Hernesniemi J, Lindgren CM, Wong JA, Huang J, Eskola M, Morris AP, Ford I, Reiner AP, Delgado G, Chen LY, Chen YI, Sandhu RK, Li M, Boerwinkle E, Eisele L, Lannfelt L, Rost N, Anderson CD, Taylor KD, Campbell A, Magnusson PK, Porteous D, Hocking LJ, Vlachopoulou E, Pedersen NL, Nikus K, Orho-Melander M, Hamsten A, Heeringa J, Denny JC, Kriebel J, Darbar D, Newton-Cheh C, Shaffer C, Macfarlane PW, Heilmann-Heimbach S, Almgren P, Huang PL, Sotoodehnia N, Soliman EZ, Uitterlinden AG, Hofman A, Franco OH, Völker U, Jöckel KH, Sinner MF, Lin HJ, Guo X; METASTROKE Consortium of the ISGC, Neurology Working Group of the CHARGE Consortium, Dichgans M, Ingelsson E, Kooperberg C, Melander O, J F Loos R, Laurikka J, Conen D, Rosand J, van der Harst P, Lokki ML, Kathiresan S, Pereira A, Jukema JW, Hayward C, Rotter JI, März W, Lehtimäki T, Stricker BH, Chung MK, Felix SB, Gudnason V, Alonso A, Roden DM, Kääb S, Chasman DI, Heckbert SR, Benjamin EJ, Tanaka T, Lunetta KL, Lubitz SA, Ellinor PT, AFGen Consortium. Erratum: large-scale analyses of common and rare variants identify 12 new loci associated with atrial fibrillation. Nat Genet. 2017;49(8):1286. doi: 10.1038/ng0817-1286c. PubMed
Sanders JL, Guo W, O'Meara ES, Kaplan RC, Pollak MN, Bartz TM, Newman AB, Fried LP, Cappola AR. Trajectories of IGF-1 predict mortality in older adults: the Cardiovascular Health Study. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2018 Jun 14;73(7):953-959. doi: 10.1093/gerona/glx143. PubMed
Zillikens MC, Demissie S, Hsu YH, Yerges-Armstrong LM, Chou WC, Stolk L, Livshits G, Broer L, Johnson T, Koller DL, Kutalik Z, Luan J, Malkin I, Ried JS, Smith AV, Thorleifsson G, Vandenput L, Hua Zhao J, Zhang W, Aghdassi A, Åkesson K, Amin N, Baier LJ, Barroso I, Bennett DA, Bertram L, Biffar R, Bochud M, Boehnke M, Borecki IB, Buchman AS, Byberg L, Campbell H, Campos Obanda N, Cauley JA, Cawthon PM, Cederberg H, Chen Z, Cho NH, Jin Choi H, Claussnitzer M, Collins F, Cummings SR, De Jager PL, Demuth I, Dhonukshe-Rutten RAM, Diatchenko L, Eiriksdottir G, Enneman AW, Erdos M, Eriksson JG, Eriksson J, Estrada K, Evans DS, Feitosa MF, Fu M, Garcia M, Gieger C, Girke T, Glazer NL, Grallert H, Grewal J, Han BG, Hanson RL, Hayward C, Hofman A, Hoffman EP, Homuth G, Hsueh WC, Hubal MJ, Hubbard A, Huffman KM, Husted LB, Illig T, Ingelsson E, Ittermann T, Jansson JO, Jordan JM, Jula A, Karlsson M, Khaw KT, Kilpeläinen TO, Klopp N, Kloth JSL, Koistinen HA, Kraus WE, Kritchevsky S, Kuulasmaa T, Kuusisto J, Laakso M, Lahti J, Lang T, Langdahl BL, Launer LJ, Lee JY, Lerch MM, Lewis JR, Lind L, Lindgren C, Liu Y, Liu T, Liu Y, Ljunggren Ö, Lorentzon M, Luben RN, Maixner W, McGuigan FE, Medina-Gomez C, Meitinger T, Melhus H, Mellström D, Melov S, Michaëlsson K, Mitchell BD, Morris AP, Mosekilde L, Newman A, Nielson CM, O'Connell JR, Oostra BA, Orwoll ES, Palotie A, Parker S, Peacock M, Perola M, Peters A, Polasek O, Prince RL, Räikkönen K, Ralston SH, Ripatti S, Robbins JA, Rotter JI, Rudan I, Salomaa V, Satterfield S, Schadt EE, Schipf S, Scott L, Sehmi J, Shen J, Soo Shin C, Sigurdsson G, Smith S, Soranzo N, Stancáková A, Steinhagen-Thiessen E, Streeten EA, Styrkarsdottir U, Swart KMA, Tan ST, Tarnopolsky MA, Thompson P, Thomson CA, Thorsteinsdottir U, Tikkanen E, Tranah GJ, Tuomilehto J, van Schoor NM, Verma A, Vollenweider P, Völzke H, Wactawski-Wende J, Walker M, Weedon MN, Welch R, Wichman HE, Widen E, Williams FMK, Wilson JF, Wright NC, Xie W, Yu L, Zhou Y, Chambers JC, Döring A, van Duijn CM, Econs MJ, Gudnason V, Kooner JS, Psaty BM, Spector TD, Stefansson K, Rivadeneira F, Uitterlinden AG, Wareham NJ, Ossowski V, Waterworth D, Loos RJF, Karasik D, Harris TB, Ohlsson C, Kiel DP. Large meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies identifies five loci for lean body mass. Nat Commun. 2017 Jul 19;8(1):80. doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-00031-7. PubMed
Seyerle AA, Sitlani CM, Noordam R, Gogarten SM, Li J, Li X, Evans DS, Sun F, Laaksonen MA, Isaacs A, Kristiansson K, Highland HM, Stewart JD, Harris TB, Trompet S, Bis JC, Peloso GM, Brody JA, Broer L, Busch EL, Duan Q, Stilp AM, O'Donnell CJ, Macfarlane PW, Floyd JS, Kors JA, Lin HJ, Li-Gao R, Sofer T, Méndez-Giráldez R, Cummings SR, Heckbert SR, Hofman A, Ford I, Li Y, Launer LJ, Porthan K, Newton-Cheh C, Napier MD, Kerr KF, Reiner AP, Rice KM, Roach J, Buckley BM, Soliman EZ, de Mutsert R, Sotoodehnia N, Uitterlinden AG, North KE, Lee CR, Gudnason V, Stürmer T, Rosendaal FR, Taylor KD, Wiggins KL, Wilson JG, Chen YD, Kaplan RC, Wilhelmsen K, Cupples LA, Salomaa V, van Duijn C, Jukema JW, Liu Y, Mook-Kanamori DO, Lange LA, Vasan RS, Smith AV, Stricker BH, Laurie CC, Rotter JI, Whitsel EA, Psaty BM, Avery CL. Pharmacogenomics study of thiazide diuretics and QT interval in multi-ethnic populations: the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology. Pharmacogenomics J. 2017 Jul 18. doi: 10.1038/tpj.2017.10. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed
Sims R, van der Lee SJ, Naj AC, Bellenguez C, Badarinarayan N, Jakobsdottir J, Kunkle BW, Boland A, Raybould R, Bis JC, Martin ER, Grenier-Boley B, Heilmann-Heimbach S, Chouraki V, Kuzma AB, Sleegers K, Vronskaya M, Ruiz A, Graham RR, Olaso R, Hoffmann P, Grove ML, Vardarajan BN, Hiltunen M, Nöthen MM, White CC, Hamilton-Nelson KL, Epelbaum J, Maier W, Choi SH, Beecham GW, Dulary C, Herms S, Smith AV, Funk CC, Derbois C, Forstner AJ, Ahmad S, Li H, Bacq D, Harold D, Satizabal CL, Valladares O, Squassina A, Thomas R, Brody JA, Qu L, Sánchez-Juan P, Morgan T, Wolters FJ, Zhao Y, Garcia FS, Denning N, Fornage M, Malamon J, Naranjo MCD, Majounie E, Mosley TH, Dombroski B, Wallon D, Lupton MK, Dupuis J, Whitehead P, Fratiglioni L, Medway C, Jian X, Mukherjee S, Keller L, Brown K, Lin H, Cantwell LB, Panza F, McGuinness B, Moreno-Grau S, Burgess JD, Solfrizzi V, Proitsi P, Adams HH, Allen M, Seripa D, Pastor P, Cupples LA, Price ND, Hannequin D, Frank-García A, Levy D, Chakrabarty P, Caffarra P, Giegling I, Beiser AS, Giedraitis V, Hampel H, Garcia ME, Wang X, Lannfelt L, Mecocci P, Eiriksdottir G, Crane PK, Pasquier F, Boccardi V, Henández I, Barber RC, Scherer M, Tarraga L, Adams PM, Leber M, Chen Y, Albert MS, Riedel-Heller S, Emilsson V, Beekly D, Braae A, Schmidt R, Blacker D, Masullo C, Schmidt H, Doody RS, Spalletta G, Jr WTL, Fairchild TJ, Bossù P, Lopez OL, Frosch MP, Sacchinelli E, Ghetti B, Yang Q, Huebinger RM, Jessen F, Li S, Kamboh MI, Morris J, Sotolongo-Grau O, Katz MJ, Corcoran C, Dunstan M, Braddel A, Thomas C, Meggy A, Marshall R, Gerrish A, Chapman J, Aguilar M, Taylor S, Hill M, Fairén MD, Hodges A, Vellas B, Soininen H, Kloszewska I, Daniilidou M, Uphill J, Patel Y, Hughes JT, Lord J, Turton J, Hartmann AM, Cecchetti R, Fenoglio C, Serpente M, Arcaro M, Caltagirone C, Orfei MD, Ciaramella A, Pichler S, Mayhaus M, Gu W, Lleó A, Fortea J, Blesa R, Barber IS, Brookes K, Cupidi C, Maletta RG, Carrell D, Sorbi S, Moebus S, Urbano M, Pilotto A, Kornhuber J, Bosco P, Todd S, Craig D, Johnston J, Gill M, Lawlor B, Lynch A, Fox NC, Hardy J; ARUK Consortium, Albin RL, Apostolova LG, Arnold SE, Asthana S, Atwood CS, Baldwin CT, Barnes LL, Barral S, Beach TG, Becker JT, Bigio EH, Bird TD, Boeve BF, Bowen JD, Boxer A, Burke JR, Burns JM, Buxbaum JD, Cairns NJ, Cao C, Carlson CS, Carlsson CM, Carney RM, Carrasquillo MM, Carroll SL, Diaz CC, Chui HC, Clark DG, Cribbs DH, Crocco EA, DeCarli C, Dick M, Duara R, Evans DA, Faber KM, Fallon KB, Fardo DW, Farlow MR, Ferris S, Foroud TM, Galasko DR, Gearing M, Geschwind DH, Gilbert JR, Graff-Radford NR, Green RC, Growdon JH, Hamilton RL, Harrell LE, Honig LS, Huentelman MJ, Hulette CM, Hyman BT, Jarvik GP, Abner E, Jin LW, Jun G, Karydas A, Kaye JA, Kim R, Kowall NW, Kramer JH, LaFerla FM, Lah JJ, Leverenz JB, Levey AI, Li G, Lieberman AP, Lunetta KL, Lyketsos CG, Marson DC, Martiniuk F, Mash DC, Masliah E, McCormick WC, McCurry SM, McDavid AN, McKee AC, Mesulam M, Miller BL, Miller CA, Miller JW, Morris JC, Murrell JR, Myers AJ, O'Bryant S, Olichney JM, Pankratz VS, Parisi JE, Paulson HL, Perry W, Peskind E, Pierce A, Poon WW, Potter H, Quinn JF, Raj A, Raskind M, Reisberg B, Reitz C, Ringman JM, Roberson ED, Rogaeva E, Rosen HJ, Rosenberg RN, Sager MA, Saykin AJ, Schneider JA, Schneider LS, Seeley WW, Smith AG, Sonnen JA, Spina S, Stern RA, Swerdlow RH, Tanzi RE, Thornton-Wells TA, Trojanowski JQ, Troncoso JC, Van Deerlin VM, Van Eldik LJ, Vinters HV, Vonsattel JP, Weintraub S, Welsh-Bohmer KA, Wilhelmsen KC, Williamson J, Wingo TS, Woltjer RL, Wright CB, Yu CE, Yu L, Garzia F, Golamaully F, Septier G, Engelborghs S, Vandenberghe R, De Deyn PP, Fernadez CM, Benito YA, Thonberg H, Forsell C, Lilius L, Kinhult-Stählbom A, Kilander L, Brundin R, Concari L, Helisalmi S, Koivisto AM, Haapasalo A, Dermecourt V, Fievet N, Hanon O, Dufouil C, Brice A, Ritchie K, Dubois B, Himali JJ, Keene CD, Tschanz J, Fitzpatrick AL, Kukull WA, Norton M, Aspelund T, Larson EB, Munger R, Rotter JI, Lipton RB, Bullido MJ, Hofman A, Montine TJ, Coto E, Boerwinkle E, Petersen RC, Alvarez V, Rivadeneira F, Reiman EM, Gallo M, O'Donnell CJ, Reisch JS, Bruni AC, Royall DR, Dichgans M, Sano M, Galimberti D, St George-Hyslop P, Scarpini E, Tsuang DW, Mancuso M, Bonuccelli U, Winslow AR, Daniele A, Wu CK; GERAD/PERADES, CHARGE, ADGC, EADI, Peters O, Nacmias B, Riemenschneider M, Heun R, Brayne C, Rubinsztein DC, Bras J, Guerreiro R, Al-Chalabi A, Shaw CE, Collinge J, Mann D, Tsolaki M, Clarimón J, Sussams R, Lovestone S, O'Donovan MC, Owen MJ, Behrens TW, Mead S, Goate AM, Uitterlinden AG, Holmes C, Cruchaga C, Ingelsson M, Bennett DA, Powell J, Golde TE, Graff C, De Jager PL, Morgan K, Ertekin-Taner N, Combarros O, Psaty BM, Passmore P, Younkin SG, Berr C, Gudnason V, Rujescu D, Dickson DW, Dartigues JF, DeStefano AL, Ortega-Cubero S, Hakonarson H, Campion D, Boada M, Kauwe JK, Farrer LA, Van Broeckhoven C, Ikram MA, Jones L, Haines JL, Tzourio C, Launer LJ, Escott-Price V, Mayeux R, Deleuze JF, Amin N, Holmans PA, Pericak-Vance MA, Amouyel P, van Duijn CM, Ramirez A, Wang LS, Lambert JC, Seshadri S, Williams J, Schellenberg GD. Rare coding variants in PLCG2, ABI3, and TREM2 implicate microglial-mediated innate immunity in Alzheimer's disease. Nat Genet. 2017 Jul 17. doi: 10.1038/ng.3916. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed
Sascha Dublin, MD, PhDSenior Investigator |
Beverly B. Green, MD, MPHSenior Investigator |
Laura Harrington, PhD, MPHAssistant Investigator |
Ellen O'Meara, PhDPrincipal Collaborative Scientist |
Nicole M. Gatto, PhD, MPHPrincipal Collaborative Scientist |
Meagan C. Brown, PhD, MPHAssistant Investigator |
James Floyd, MD, MS
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology
University of Washington
Susan Heckbert, MD, PhD
University of Washington (UW) Department of Epidemiology; UW Cardiovascular Health Research Unit
Nicholas L. Smith, PhD, MPH
UW Professor, Epidemiology, Cardiovascular Health Research Unit
Director, Seattle Epidemiology and Information Resource Center, VA Puget Sound Health Care System