Framingham Heart Study Ad interim Leadership Named

Joanne Murabito, MD, and George O’Connor, MD, have agreed to serve as ad interim directors and co-principal investigators of the Framingham Heart Study (FHS), effective Sept. 1, replacing Vasan Ramachandran, MD, who will be leaving BU in September to become the founding Dean of the University of Texas School of Public Health at San Antonio. We are planning a national search for a permanent director and PI in partnership with the NHLBI.

Dr. Murabito studies the determinants of healthy aging and longevity and reproductive aging in the community, as well as genetic and genomic factors. Dr. Murabito is also introducing mobile health into the FHS and exploring the use of mHealth in older adults to improve health and function. She leads multidisciplinary international consortia including the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomics Epidemiology (CHARGE) and the Aging and Longevity working group. 

Dr. O’Connor studies genome-wide associations at the FHS seeking novel genetic determinants of lung function impairment, interstitial lung abnormalities and atopy. He has been the BU site PI of many NIH-funded, multi-center studies, including the Inner-City Asthma Consortium (ICAC), the Vitamin D Antenatal Asthma Reduction Trial (VDAART), and the All of Us Research Program.