Christopher J. O’Donnell, MD

Adjunct Associate Professor, Medicine

Christopher O'Donnell

Biography

Dr. O’Donnell research is broadly focused on the epidemiology of complex cardiovascular disease (CVD), the leading cause of death and disability in men and women. More specifically, Dr. O’Donnell has focused on the genetic and genomic epidemiology of clinical and subclinical forms of atherosclerosis, ventricular hypertrophy and thrombosis. A large genome-wide association study is being directed by Dr. O’Donnell in a large, well-phenotyped prospective study of multigenerational families drawn from a general population (the NHLBI’s Framingham Heart Study SHARe Project). Heritable clinical and intermediate CVD phenotypes of interest include premature onset CVD, circulating biomarkers (e.g., hemostasis and thrombosis factors) and subclinical atherosclerosis detected by high resolution cardiovascular imaging (e.g., coronary artery calcium by cardiac computed tomography and aortic plaque detected by cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging). Using both genome-wide linkage and newer association methods, Dr. O’Donnell’s group has identified a number of single nucleotide polymorphisms and haplotypes with evidence for causal associations with atherosclerosis, hypertrophy and thrombosis. The long-term goal for this marriage of genomic science with well-designed studies of human populations is to better understand the etiology of CVD and to discover new targets for preventing, pre-empting and treating CVD.

Other Positions

  • VA Boston Healthcare System

Education

  • Harvard Medical School, MD

Publications

  • Published on 2/28/2024

    Small AM, Melloni GEM, Kamanu FK, Bergmark BA, Bonaca MP, O'Donoghue ML, Giugliano RP, Scirica BM, Bhatt D, Antman EM, Raz I, Wiviott SD, Truong B, Wilson PWF, Cho K, O'Donnell CJ, Braunwald E, Lubitz SA, Ellinor P, Peloso GM, Ruff CT, Sabatine MS, Natarajan P, Marston NA. Novel Polygenic Risk Score and Established Clinical Risk Factors for Risk Estimation of Aortic Stenosis. JAMA Cardiol. 2024 Feb 28. PMID: 38416462.

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  • Published on 11/8/2023

    Rogers MA, Bartoli-Leonard F, Zheng KH, Small AM, Chen HY, Clift CL, Asano T, Kuraoka S, Blaser MC, Perez KA, Natarajan P, Yeang C, Stroes ESG, Tsimikas S, Engert JC, Thanassoulis G, O'Donnell CJ, Aikawa M, Singh SA, Aikawa E. Major Facilitator Superfamily Domain Containing 5 Inhibition Reduces Lipoprotein(a) Uptake and Calcification in Valvular Heart Disease. Circulation. 2024 Jan 30; 149(5):391-401. PMID: 37937463.

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  • Published on 9/28/2023

    Kavousi M, Bos MM, Barnes HJ, Lino Cardenas CL, Wong D, Lu H, Hodonsky CJ, Landsmeer LPL, Turner AW, Kho M, Hasbani NR, de Vries PS, Bowden DW, Chopade S, Deelen J, Benavente ED, Guo X, Hofer E, Hwang SJ, Lutz SM, Lyytikäinen LP, Slenders L, Smith AV, Stanislawski MA, van Setten J, Wong Q, Yanek LR, Becker DM, Beekman M, Budoff MJ, Feitosa MF, Finan C, Hilliard AT, Kardia SLR, Kovacic JC, Kral BG, Langefeld CD, Launer LJ, Malik S, Hoesein FAAM, Mokry M, Schmidt R, Smith JA, Taylor KD, Terry JG, van der Grond J, van Meurs J, Vliegenthart R, Xu J, Young KA, Zilhão NR, Zweiker R, Assimes TL, Becker LC, Bos D, Carr JJ, Cupples LA, de Kleijn DPV, de Winther M, den Ruijter HM, Fornage M, Freedman BI, Gudnason V, Hingorani AD, Hokanson JE, Ikram MA, Išgum I, Jacobs DR, Kähönen M, Lange LA, Lehtimäki T, Pasterkamp G, Raitakari OT, Schmidt H, Slagboom PE, Uitterlinden AG, Vernooij MW, Bis JC, Franceschini N, Psaty BM, Post WS, Rotter JI, Björkegren JLM, O'Donnell CJ, Bielak LF, Peyser PA, Malhotra R, van der Laan SW, Miller CL. Multi-ancestry genome-wide study identifies effector genes and druggable pathways for coronary artery calcification. Nat Genet. 2023 Oct; 55(10):1651-1664. PMID: 37770635.

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  • Published on 9/9/2023

    Urbut SM, Koyama S, Hornsby W, Bhukar R, Kheterpal S, Truong B, Selvaraj MS, Neale B, O'Donnell CJ, Peloso GM, Natarajan P. Bayesian multivariate genetic analysis improves translational insights. iScience. 2023 Oct 20; 26(10):107854. PMID: 37766997.

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  • Published on 8/22/2023

    Zhang X, Brody JA, Graff M, Highland HM, Chami N, Xu H, Wang Z, Ferrier K, Chittoor G, Josyula NS, Li X, Li Z, Allison MA, Becker DM, Bielak LF, Bis JC, Boorgula MP, Bowden DW, Broome JG, Buth EJ, Carlson CS, Chang KM, Chavan S, Chiu YF, Chuang LM, Conomos MP, DeMeo DL, Du M, Duggirala R, Eng C, Fohner AE, Freedman BI, Garrett ME, Guo X, Haiman C, Heavner BD, Hidalgo B, Hixson JE, Ho YL, Hobbs BD, Hu D, Hui Q, Hwu CM, Jackson RD, Jain D, Kalyani RR, Kardia SLR, Kelly TN, Lange EM, LeNoir M, Li C, Marchand LL, McDonald MN, McHugh CP, Morrison AC, Naseri T, O'Connell J, O'Donnell CJ, Palmer ND, Pankow JS, Perry JA, Peters U, Preuss MH, Rao DC, Regan EA, Reupena SM, Roden DM, Rodriguez-Santana J, Sitlani CM, Smith JA, Tiwari HK, Vasan RS, Wang Z, Weeks DE, Wessel J, Wiggins KL, Wilkens LR, Wilson PWF, Yanek LR, Yoneda ZT, Zhao W, Zöllner S, Arnett DK, Ashley-Koch AE, Barnes KC, Blangero J, Boerwinkle E, Burchard EG, Carson AP, Chasman DI, Chen YI, Curran JE, Fornage M, Gordeuk VR, He J, Heckbert SR, Hou L, Irvin MR, Kooperberg C, Minster RL, Mitchell BD, Nouraie M, Psaty BM, Raffield LM, Reiner AP, Rich SS, Rotter JI, Shoemaker MB, Smith NL, Taylor KD, Telen MJ, Weiss ST, Zhang Y, Costa NH, Sun YV, Lin X, Cupples LA, Lange LA, Liu CT, Loos RJF, North KE, Justice AE. WHOLE GENOME SEQUENCING ANALYSIS OF BODY MASS INDEX IDENTIFIES NOVEL AFRICAN ANCESTRY-SPECIFIC RISK ALLELE. medRxiv. 2023 Aug 22. PMID: 37662265.

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  • Published on 8/2/2023

    van de Vegte YJ, Eppinga RN, van der Ende MY, Hagemeijer YP, Mahendran Y, Salfati E, Smith AV, Tan VY, Arking DE, Ntalla I, Appel EV, Schurmann C, Brody JA, Rueedi R, Polasek O, Sveinbjornsson G, Lecoeur C, Ladenvall C, Zhao JH, Isaacs A, Wang L, Luan J, Hwang SJ, Mononen N, Auro K, Jackson AU, Bielak LF, Zeng L, Shah N, Nethander M, Campbell A, Rankinen T, Pechlivanis S, Qi L, Zhao W, Rizzi F, Tanaka T, Robino A, Cocca M, Lange L, Müller-Nurasyid M, Roselli C, Zhang W, Kleber ME, Guo X, Lin HJ, Pavani F, Galesloot TE, Noordam R, Milaneschi Y, Schraut KE, den Hoed M, Degenhardt F, Trompet S, van den Berg ME, Pistis G, Tham YC, Weiss S, Sim XS, Li HL, van der Most PJ, Nolte IM, Lyytikäinen LP, Said MA, Witte DR, Iribarren C, Launer L, Ring SM, de Vries PS, Sever P, Linneberg A, Bottinger EP, Padmanabhan S, Psaty BM, Sotoodehnia N, Kolcic I, Arnar DO, Gudbjartsson DF, Holm H, Balkau B, Silva CT, Newton-Cheh CH, Nikus K, Salo P, Mohlke KL, Peyser PA, Schunkert H, Lorentzon M, Lahti J, Rao DC, Cornelis MC, Faul JD, Smith JA, Stolarz-Skrzypek K, Bandinelli S, Concas MP, Sinagra G, Meitinger T, Waldenberger M, Sinner MF, Strauch K, Delgado GE, Taylor KD, Yao J, Foco L, Melander O, de Graaf J, de Mutsert R, de Geus EJC, Johansson Å, Joshi PK, Lind L, Franke A, Macfarlane PW, Tarasov KV, Tan N, Felix SB, Tai ES, Quek DQ, Snieder H, Ormel J, Ingelsson M, Lindgren C, Morris AP, Raitakari OT, Hansen T, Assimes T, Gudnason V, Timpson NJ, Morrison AC, Munroe PB, Strachan DP, Grarup N, Loos RJF, Heckbert SR, Vollenweider P, Hayward C, Stefansson K, Froguel P, Groop L, Wareham NJ, van Duijn CM, Feitosa MF, O'Donnell CJ, Kähönen M, Perola M, Boehnke M, Kardia SLR, Erdmann J, Palmer CNA, Ohlsson C, Porteous DJ, Eriksson JG, Bouchard C, Moebus S, Kraft P, Weir DR, Cusi D, Ferrucci L, Ulivi S, Girotto G, Correa A, Kääb S, Peters A, Chambers JC, Kooner JS, März W, Rotter JI, Hicks AA, Smith JG, Kiemeney LALM, Mook-Kanamori DO, Penninx BWJH, Gyllensten U, Wilson JF, Burgess S, Sundström J, Lieb W, Jukema JW, Eijgelsheim M, Lakatta ELM, Cheng CY, Dörr M, Wong TY, Sabanayagam C, Oldehinkel AJ, Riese H, Lehtimäki T, Verweij N, van der Harst P. Genetic insights into resting heart rate and its role in cardiovascular disease. Nat Commun. 2023 Aug 02; 14(1):4646. PMID: 37532724.

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  • Published on 6/29/2023

    Verma A, Huffman JE, Rodriguez A, Conery M, Liu M, Ho YL, Kim Y, Heise DA, Guare L, Panickan VA, Garcon H, Linares F, Costa L, Goethert I, Tipton R, Honerlaw J, Davies L, Whitbourne S, Cohen J, Posner DC, Sangar R, Murray M, Wang X, Dochtermann DR, Devineni P, Shi Y, Nandi TN, Assimes TL, Brunette CA, Carroll RJ, Clifford R, Duvall S, Gelernter J, Hung A, Iyengar SK, Joseph J, Kember R, Kranzler H, Levey D, Luoh SW, Merritt VC, Overstreet C, Deak JD, Grant SFA, Polimanti R, Roussos P, Sun YV, Venkatesh S, Voloudakis G, Justice A, Begoli E, Ramoni R, Tourassi G, Pyarajan S, Tsao PS, O'Donnell CJ, Muralidhar S, Moser J, Casas JP, Bick AG, Zhou W, Cai T, Voight BF, Cho K, Gaziano MJ, Madduri RK, Damrauer SM, Liao KP. Diversity and Scale: Genetic Architecture of 2,068 Traits in the VA Million Veteran Program. medRxiv. 2023 Jun 29. PMID: 37425708.

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  • Published on 6/1/2023

    Graham SE, Clarke SL, Wu KH, Kanoni S, Zajac GJM, Ramdas S, Surakka I, Ntalla I, Vedantam S, Winkler TW, Locke AE, Marouli E, Hwang MY, Han S, Narita A, Choudhury A, Bentley AR, Ekoru K, Verma A, Trivedi B, Martin HC, Hunt KA, Hui Q, Klarin D, Zhu X, Thorleifsson G, Helgadottir A, Gudbjartsson DF, Holm H, Olafsson I, Akiyama M, Sakaue S, Terao C, Kanai M, Zhou W, Brumpton BM, Rasheed H, Ruotsalainen SE, Havulinna AS, Veturi Y, Feng Q, Rosenthal EA, Lingren T, Pacheco JA, Pendergrass SA, Haessler J, Giulianini F, Bradford Y, Miller JE, Campbell A, Lin K, Millwood IY, Hindy G, Rasheed A, Faul JD, Zhao W, Weir DR, Turman C, Huang H, Graff M, Mahajan A, Brown MR, Zhang W, Yu K, Schmidt EM, Pandit A, Gustafsson S, Yin X, Luan J, Zhao JH, Matsuda F, Jang HM, Yoon K, Medina-Gomez C, Pitsillides A, Hottenga JJ, Willemsen G, Wood AR, Ji Y, Gao Z, Haworth S, Mitchell RE, Chai JF, Aadahl M, Yao J, Manichaikul A, Warren HR, Ramirez J, Bork-Jensen J, Kårhus LL, Goel A, Sabater-Lleal M, Noordam R, Sidore C, Fiorillo E, McDaid AF, Marques-Vidal P, Wielscher M, Trompet S, Sattar N, Møllehave LT, Thuesen BH, Munz M, Zeng L, Huang J, Yang B, Poveda A, Kurbasic A, Lamina C, Forer L, Scholz M, Galesloot TE, Bradfield JP, Daw EW, Zmuda JM, Mitchell JS, Fuchsberger C, Christensen H, Brody JA, Feitosa MF, Wojczynski MK, Preuss M, Mangino M, Christofidou P, Verweij N, Benjamins JW, Engmann J, Kember RL, Slieker RC, Lo KS, Zilhao NR, Le P, Kleber ME, Delgado GE, Huo S, Ikeda DD, Iha H, Yang J, Liu J, Leonard HL, Marten J, Schmidt B, Arendt M, Smyth LJ, Cañadas-Garre M, Wang C, Nakatochi M, Wong A, Hutri-Kähönen N, Sim X, Xia R, Huerta-Chagoya A, Fernandez-Lopez JC, Lyssenko V, Ahmed M, Jackson AU, Yousri NA, Irvin MR, Oldmeadow C, Kim HN, Ryu S, Timmers PRHJ, Arbeeva L, Dorajoo R, Lange LA, Chai X, Prasad G, Lorés-Motta L, Pauper M, Long J, Li X, Theusch E, Takeuchi F, Spracklen CN, Loukola A, Bollepalli S, Warner SC, Wang YX, Wei WB, Nutile T, Ruggiero D, Sung YJ, Hung YJ, Chen S, Liu F, Yang J, Kentistou KA, Gorski M, Brumat M, Meidtner K, Bielak LF, Smith JA, Hebbar P, Farmaki AE, Hofer E, Lin M, Xue C, Zhang J, Concas MP, Vaccargiu S, van der Most PJ, Pitkänen N, Cade BE, Lee J, van der Laan SW, Chitrala KN, Weiss S, Zimmermann ME, Lee JY, Choi HS, Nethander M, Freitag-Wolf S, Southam L, Rayner NW, Wang CA, Lin SY, Wang JS, Couture C, Lyytikäinen LP, Nikus K, Cuellar-Partida G, Vestergaard H, Hildalgo B, Giannakopoulou O, Cai Q, Obura MO, van Setten J, Li X, Schwander K, Terzikhan N, Shin JH, Jackson RD, Reiner AP, Martin LW, Chen Z, Li L, Highland HM, Young KL, Kawaguchi T, Thiery J, Bis JC, Nadkarni GN, Launer LJ, Li H, Nalls MA, Raitakari OT, Ichihara S, Wild SH, Nelson CP, Campbell H, Jäger S, Nabika T, Al-Mulla F, Niinikoski H, Braund PS, Kolcic I, Kovacs P, Giardoglou T, Katsuya T, Bhatti KF, de Kleijn D, de Borst GJ, Kim EK, Adams HHH, Ikram MA, Zhu X, Asselbergs FW, Kraaijeveld AO, Beulens JWJ, Shu XO, Rallidis LS, Pedersen O, Hansen T, Mitchell P, Hewitt AW, Kähönen M, Pérusse L, Bouchard C, Tönjes A, Chen YI, Pennell CE, Mori TA, Lieb W, Franke A, Ohlsson C, Mellström D, Cho YS, Lee H, Yuan JM, Koh WP, Rhee SY, Woo JT, Heid IM, Stark KJ, Völzke H, Homuth G, Evans MK, Zonderman AB, Polasek O, Pasterkamp G, Hoefer IE, Redline S, Pahkala K, Oldehinkel AJ, Snieder H, Biino G, Schmidt R, Schmidt H, Chen YE, Bandinelli S, Dedoussis G, Thanaraj TA, Kardia SLR, Kato N, Schulze MB, Girotto G, Jung B, Böger CA, Joshi PK, Bennett DA, De Jager PL, Lu X, Mamakou V, Brown M, Caulfield MJ, Munroe PB, Guo X, Ciullo M, Jonas JB, Samani NJ, Kaprio J, Pajukanta P, Adair LS, Bechayda SA, de Silva HJ, Wickremasinghe AR, Krauss RM, Wu JY, Zheng W, den Hollander AI, Bharadwaj D, Correa A, Wilson JG, Lind L, Heng CK, Nelson AE, Golightly YM, Wilson JF, Penninx B, Kim HL, Attia J, Scott RJ, Rao DC, Arnett DK, Hunt SC, Walker M, Koistinen HA, Chandak GR, Yajnik CS, Mercader JM, Tusié-Luna T, Aguilar-Salinas CA, Villalpando CG, Orozco L, Fornage M, et al. Author Correction: The power of genetic diversity in genome-wide association studies of lipids. Nature. 2023 Jun; 618(7965):E19-E20. PMID: 37237109.

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  • Published on 6/1/2023

    Vassy JL, Posner DC, Ho YL, Gagnon DR, Galloway A, Tanukonda V, Houghton SC, Madduri RK, McMahon BH, Tsao PS, Damrauer SM, O'Donnell CJ, Assimes TL, Casas JP, Gaziano JM, Pencina MJ, Sun YV, Cho K, Wilson PWF. Cardiovascular Disease Risk Assessment Using Traditional Risk Factors and Polygenic Risk Scores in the Million Veteran Program. JAMA Cardiol. 2023 Jun 01; 8(6):564-574. PMID: 37133828.

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  • Published on 6/1/2023

    Barat A, Chen CW, Patel-Murray N, McMurray JJV, Packer M, Solomon SD, Desai AS, Rouleau JL, Zile MR, Attari Z, Zhang C, Xu H, Hartman N, Hon C, Healey M, Chutkow W, O'Donnell CJ, Jacob J, Lefkowitz M, Mendelson MM, Wandel S, Yates D, Gimpelewicz C. Clinical characteristics of heart failure with reduced ejection fraction patients with rare pathogenic variants in dilated cardiomyopathy-associated genes: A subgroup analysis of the PARADIGM-HF trial. Eur J Heart Fail. 2023 Aug; 25(8):1256-1266. PMID: 37191081.

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