Alexa S. Beiser, PhD

Professor, Biostatistics

Alexa Beiser
617.638.5140
alexab@bu.edu
72 E. Concord St Robinson (B)
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Biography

Alexa Beiser has been on the faculty at Boston University School of Public Health since 1985, engaged in teaching and collaborative public health research; she co-directed the biostatistics program from 2000-2004, and is currently Associate Chair for Education. She formerly taught and now coordinates the sections of Introduction to Statistical Computing. For more than twenty years, Dr. Beiser has served as the lead biostatistician for the Framingham Heart Study (FHS) neurology group, examining risk factors and prevalence and incidence of clinical and sub-clinical neurological outcomes including MRI measures of brain structure, cognitive performance, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, Parkinson’s disease, and epilepsy. Dr. Beiser currently leads the FHS neurology group data management team, responsible for surveillance and tracking of incident dementia, for supervision of recruitment of participants for various grant funded studies, and for management of data collected at FHS as well as those measured or processed at other institutions (e.g., brain MRI or PET scans); and the FHS neurology group biostatistics team of six biostatisticians. Decades of examining risk factors for neurological diseases has naturally led to studying factors associated with accelerated brain aging. She has coauthored FHS publications relating risk factors including midlife vascular factors, plasma homocysteine, plasma leptin levels, cardiac index, red blood cell omega-3 fatty acids, metabolic dysregulation, visceral fat, air pollution; serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor; and insulin-like growth factor 1, to measures of brain aging. Dr. Beiser also has made use of the richness of the multigenerational Framingham data to examine temporal trends in prevalent and incident neurological disease and to relate documented parental dementia and stroke to offspring stroke, cognitive performance and MRI measures of brain structure. In all these studies, Dr. Beiser plays a key role in project conceptualization, is responsible for supervision of statistical data management, analysis, and interpretation of results, and contributes to manuscript preparation and critical review.

Other Positions

  • Professor, Neurology, Boston University School of Medicine
  • Associate Chair, Biostatistics, Boston University School of Public Health
  • Boston Medical Center
  • Framingham Heart Study

Websites

Education

  • Boston University, PhD
  • University of California, San Diego, MA
  • University of California, Santa Cruz, BA

Publications

  • Published on 9/26/2018

    Vojinovic D, Adams HH, Jian X, Yang Q, Smith AV, Bis JC, Teumer A, Scholz M, Armstrong NJ, Hofer E, Saba Y, Luciano M, Bernard M, Trompet S, Yang J, Gillespie NA, van der Lee SJ, Neumann A, Ahmad S, Andreassen OA, Ames D, Amin N, Arfanakis K, Bastin ME, Becker DM, Beiser AS, Beyer F, Brodaty H, Bryan RN, Bülow R, Dale AM, De Jager PL, Deary IJ, DeCarli C, Fleischman DA, Gottesman RF, van der Grond J, Gudnason V, Harris TB, Homuth G, Knopman DS, Kwok JB, Lewis CE, Li S, Loeffler M, Lopez OL, Maillard P, El Marroun H, Mather KA, Mosley TH, Muetzel RL, Nauck M, Nyquist PA, Panizzon MS, Pausova Z, Psaty BM, Rice K, Rotter JI, Royle N, Satizabal CL, Schmidt R, Schofield PR, Schreiner PJ, Sidney S, Stott DJ, Thalamuthu A, Uitterlinden AG, Valdés Hernández MC, Vernooij MW, Wen W, White T, Witte AV, Wittfeld K, Wright MJ, Yanek LR, Tiemeier H, Kremen WS, Bennett DA, Jukema JW, Paus T, Wardlaw JM, Schmidt H, Sachdev PS, Villringer A, Grabe HJ, Longstreth WT, van Duijn CM, Launer LJ, Seshadri S, Ikram MA, Fornage M. Genome-wide association study of 23,500 individuals identifies 7 loci associated with brain ventricular volume. Nat Commun. 2018 Sep 26; 9(1):3945. PMID: 30258056.

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  • Published on 9/19/2018

    Pase MP, Davis-Plourde K, Himali JJ, Satizabal CL, Aparicio H, Seshadri S, Beiser AS, DeCarli C. Vascular risk at younger ages most strongly associates with current and future brain volume. Neurology. 2018 Oct 16; 91(16):e1479-e1486. PMID: 30232248.

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  • Published on 8/9/2018

    Seiler S, Fletcher E, Hassan-Ali K, Weinstein M, Beiser A, Himali JJ, Satizabal CL, Seshadri S, DeCarli C, Maillard P. Cerebral tract integrity relates to white matter hyperintensities, cortex volume, and cognition. Neurobiol Aging. 2018 Aug 09; 72:14-22. PMID: 30172922.

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  • Published on 7/12/2018

    Jian X, Satizabal CL, Smith AV, Wittfeld K, Bis JC, Smith JA, Hsu FC, Nho K, Hofer E, Hagenaars SP, Nyquist PA, Mishra A, Adams HHH, Li S, Teumer A, Zhao W, Freedman BI, Saba Y, Yanek LR, Chauhan G, van Buchem MA, Cushman M, Royle NA, Bryan RN, Niessen WJ, Windham BG, DeStefano AL, Habes M, Heckbert SR, Palmer ND, Lewis CE, Eiriksdottir G, Maillard P, Mathias RA, Homuth G, Valdés-Hernández MDC, Divers J, Beiser AS, Langner S, Rice KM, Bastin ME, Yang Q, Maldjian JA, Starr JM, Sidney S, Risacher SL, Uitterlinden AG, Gudnason VG, Nauck M, Rotter JI, Schreiner PJ, Boerwinkle E, van Duijn CM, Mazoyer B, von Sarnowski B, Gottesman RF, Levy D, Sigurdsson S, Vernooij MW, Turner ST, Schmidt R, Wardlaw JM, Psaty BM, Mosley TH, DeCarli CS, Saykin AJ, Bowden DW, Becker DM, Deary IJ, Schmidt H, Kardia SLR, Ikram MA, Debette S, Grabe HJ, Longstreth WT, Seshadri S, Launer LJ, Fornage M. Exome Chip Analysis Identifies Low-Frequency and Rare Variants in MRPL38 for White Matter Hyperintensities on Brain Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Stroke. 2018 Jul 12. PMID: 30002152.

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  • Published on 6/22/2018

    Anttila V, Bulik-Sullivan B, Finucane HK, Walters RK, Bras J, Duncan L, Escott-Price V, Falcone GJ, Gormley P, Malik R, Patsopoulos NA, Ripke S, Wei Z, Yu D, Lee PH, Turley P, Grenier-Boley B, Chouraki V, Kamatani Y, Berr C, Letenneur L, Hannequin D, Amouyel P, Boland A, Deleuze JF, Duron E, Vardarajan BN, Reitz C, Goate AM, Huentelman MJ, Kamboh MI, Larson EB, Rogaeva E, St George-Hyslop P, Hakonarson H, Kukull WA, Farrer LA, Barnes LL, Beach TG, Demirci FY, Head E, Hulette CM, Jicha GA, Kauwe JSK, Kaye JA, Leverenz JB, Levey AI, Lieberman AP, Pankratz VS, Poon WW, Quinn JF, Saykin AJ, Schneider LS, Smith AG, Sonnen JA, Stern RA, Van Deerlin VM, Van Eldik LJ, Harold D, Russo G, Rubinsztein DC, Bayer A, Tsolaki M, Proitsi P, Fox NC, Hampel H, Owen MJ, Mead S, Passmore P, Morgan K, Nöthen MM, Rossor M, Lupton MK, Hoffmann P, Kornhuber J, Lawlor B, McQuillin A, Al-Chalabi A, Bis JC, Ruiz A, Boada M, Seshadri S, Beiser A, Rice K, van der Lee SJ, De Jager PL, Geschwind DH, Riemenschneider M, Riedel-Heller S, Rotter JI, Ransmayr G, Hyman BT, Cruchaga C, Alegret M, Winsvold B, Palta P, Farh KH, Cuenca-Leon E, Furlotte N, Kurth T, Ligthart L, Terwindt GM, Freilinger T, Ran C, Gordon SD, Borck G, Adams HHH, Lehtimäki T, Wedenoja J, Buring JE, Schürks M, Hrafnsdottir M, Hottenga JJ, Penninx B, Artto V, Kaunisto M, Vepsäläinen S, Martin NG, Montgomery GW, Kurki MI, Hämäläinen E, Huang H, Huang J, Sandor C, Webber C, Muller-Myhsok B, Schreiber S, Salomaa V, Loehrer E, Göbel H, Macaya A, Pozo-Rosich P, Hansen T, Werge T, Kaprio J, Metspalu A, Kubisch C, Ferrari MD, Belin AC, van den Maagdenberg AMJM, Zwart JA, Boomsma D, Eriksson N, Olesen J, Chasman DI, Nyholt DR, Avbersek A, Baum L, Berkovic S, Bradfield J, Buono R, Catarino CB, Cossette P, De Jonghe P, Depondt C, Dlugos D, Ferraro TN, French J, Hjalgrim H, Jamnadas-Khoda J, Kälviäinen R, Kunz WS, Lerche H, Leu C, Lindhout D, Lo W, Lowenstein D, McCormack M, Møller RS, Molloy A, Ng PW, Oliver K, Privitera M, Radtke R, Ruppert AK, Sander T, Schachter S, Schankin C, Scheffer I, Schoch S, Sisodiya SM, Smith P, Sperling M, Striano P, Surges R, Thomas GN, Visscher F, Whelan CD, Zara F, Heinzen EL, Marson A, Becker F, Stroink H, Zimprich F, Gasser T, Gibbs R, Heutink P, Martinez M, Morris HR, Sharma M, Ryten M, Mok KY, Pulit S, Bevan S, Holliday E, Attia J, Battey T, Boncoraglio G, Thijs V, Chen WM, Mitchell B, Rothwell P, Sharma P, Sudlow C, Vicente A, Markus H, Kourkoulis C, Pera J, Raffeld M, Silliman S, Boraska Perica V, Thornton LM, Huckins LM, William Rayner N, Lewis CM, Gratacos M, Rybakowski F, Keski-Rahkonen A, Raevuori A, Hudson JI, Reichborn-Kjennerud T, Monteleone P, Karwautz A, Mannik K, Baker JH, O'Toole JK, Trace SE, Davis OSP, Helder SG, Ehrlich S, Herpertz-Dahlmann B, Danner UN, van Elburg AA, Clementi M, Forzan M, Docampo E, Lissowska J, Hauser J, Tortorella A, Maj M, Gonidakis F, Tziouvas K, Papezova H, Yilmaz Z, Wagner G, Cohen-Woods S, Herms S, Julià A, Rabionet R, Dick DM, Ripatti S, Andreassen OA, Espeseth T, Lundervold AJ, Steen VM, Pinto D, Scherer SW, Aschauer H, Schosser A, Alfredsson L, Padyukov L, Halmi KA, Mitchell J, Strober M, Bergen AW, Kaye W, Szatkiewicz JP, Cormand B, Ramos-Quiroga JA, Sánchez-Mora C, Ribasés M, Casas M, Hervas A, Arranz MJ, Haavik J, Zayats T, Johansson S, Williams N, Dempfle A, Rothenberger A, Kuntsi J, Oades RD, Banaschewski T, Franke B, Buitelaar JK, Arias Vasquez A, Doyle AE, Reif A, Lesch KP, Freitag C, Rivero O, Palmason H, Romanos M, Langley K, Rietschel M, Witt SH, Dalsgaard S, Børglum AD, Waldman I, Wilmot B, Molly N, Bau CHD, Crosbie J, Schachar R, Loo SK, McGough JJ, Grevet EH, Medland SE, Robinson E, Weiss LA, Bacchelli E, Bailey A, Bal V, Battaglia A, Betancur C, Bolton P, Cantor R, Celestino-Soper P, Dawson G, De Rubeis S, Duque F, Green A, Klauck SM, Leboyer M, Levitt P, Maestrini E, Mane S, De-Luca DM, Parr J, Regan R, Reichenberg A, Sandin S, Vorstman J, Wassink T, Wijsman E, Cook E, Santangelo S, Delorme R, et al. Analysis of shared heritability in common disorders of the brain. Science. 2018 06 22; 360(6395). PMID: 29930110.

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  • Published on 4/16/2018

    Dufouil C, Beiser A, Chêne G, Seshadri S. Are Trends in Dementia Incidence Associated With Compression in Morbidity? Evidence From The Framingham Heart Study. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2018 Apr 16; 73(suppl_1):S65-S72. PMID: 29669105.

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  • Published on 3/12/2018

    Malik R, Chauhan G, Traylor M, Sargurupremraj M, Okada Y, Mishra A, Rutten-Jacobs L, Giese AK, van der Laan SW, Gretarsdottir S, Anderson CD, Chong M, Adams HHH, Ago T, Almgren P, Amouyel P, Ay H, Bartz TM, Benavente OR, Bevan S, Boncoraglio GB, Brown RD, Butterworth AS, Carrera C, Carty CL, Chasman DI, Chen WM, Cole JW, Correa A, Cotlarciuc I, Cruchaga C, Danesh J, de Bakker PIW, DeStefano AL, den Hoed M, Duan Q, Engelter ST, Falcone GJ, Gottesman RF, Grewal RP, Gudnason V, Gustafsson S, Haessler J, Harris TB, Hassan A, Havulinna AS, Heckbert SR, Holliday EG, Howard G, Hsu FC, Hyacinth HI, Ikram MA, Ingelsson E, Irvin MR, Jian X, Jiménez-Conde J, Johnson JA, Jukema JW, Kanai M, Keene KL, Kissela BM, Kleindorfer DO, Kooperberg C, Kubo M, Lange LA, Langefeld CD, Langenberg C, Launer LJ, Lee JM, Lemmens R, Leys D, Lewis CM, Lin WY, Lindgren AG, Lorentzen E, Magnusson PK, Maguire J, Manichaikul A, McArdle PF, Meschia JF, Mitchell BD, Mosley TH, Nalls MA, Ninomiya T, O'Donnell MJ, Psaty BM, Pulit SL, Rannikmäe K, Reiner AP, Rexrode KM, Rice K, Rich SS, Ridker PM, Rost NS, Rothwell PM, Rotter JI, Rundek T, Sacco RL, Sakaue S, Sale MM, Salomaa V, Sapkota BR, Schmidt R, Schmidt CO, Schminke U, Sharma P, Slowik A, Sudlow CLM, Tanislav C, Tatlisumak T, Taylor KD, Thijs VNS, Thorleifsson G, Thorsteinsdottir U, Tiedt S, Trompet S, Tzourio C, van Duijn CM, Walters M, Wareham NJ, Wassertheil-Smoller S, Wilson JG, Wiggins KL, Yang Q, Yusuf S, Bis JC, Pastinen T, Ruusalepp A, Schadt EE, Koplev S, Björkegren JLM, Codoni V, Civelek M, Smith NL, Trégouët DA, Christophersen IE, Roselli C, Lubitz SA, Ellinor PT, Tai ES, Kooner JS, Kato N, He J, van der Harst P, Elliott P, Chambers JC, Takeuchi F, Johnson AD, Sanghera DK, Melander O, Jern C, Strbian D, Fernandez-Cadenas I, Longstreth WT, Rolfs A, Hata J, Woo D, Rosand J, Pare G, Hopewell JC, Saleheen D, Stefansson K, Worrall BB, Kittner SJ, Seshadri S, Fornage M, Markus HS, Howson JMM, Kamatani Y, Debette S, Dichgans M, Malik R, Chauhan G, Traylor M, Sargurupremraj M, Okada Y, Mishra A, Rutten-Jacobs L, Giese AK, van der Laan SW, Gretarsdottir S, Anderson CD, Chong M, Adams HHH, Ago T, Almgren P, Amouyel P, Ay H, Bartz TM, Benavente OR, Bevan S, Boncoraglio GB, Brown RD, Butterworth AS, Carrera C, Carty CL, Chasman DI, Chen WM, Cole JW, Correa A, Cotlarciuc I, Cruchaga C, Danesh J, de Bakker PIW, DeStefano AL, Hoed MD, Duan Q, Engelter ST, Falcone GJ, Gottesman RF, Grewal RP, Gudnason V, Gustafsson S, Haessler J, Harris TB, Hassan A, Havulinna AS, Heckbert SR, Holliday EG, Howard G, Hsu FC, Hyacinth HI, Ikram MA, Ingelsson E, Irvin MR, Jian X, Jiménez-Conde J, Johnson JA, Jukema JW, Kanai M, Keene KL, Kissela BM, Kleindorfer DO, Kooperberg C, Kubo M, Lange LA, Langefeld CD, Langenberg C, Launer LJ, Lee JM, Lemmens R, Leys D, Lewis CM, Lin WY, Lindgren AG, Lorentzen E, Magnusson PK, Maguire J, Manichaikul A, McArdle PF, Meschia JF, Mitchell BD, Mosley TH, Nalls MA, Ninomiya T, O'Donnell MJ, Psaty BM, Pulit SL, Rannikmäe K, Reiner AP, Rexrode KM, Rice K, Rich SS, Ridker PM, Rost NS, Rothwell PM, Rotter JI, Rundek T, Sacco RL, Sakaue S, Sale MM, Salomaa V, Sapkota BR, Schmidt R, Schmidt CO, Schminke U, Sharma P, Slowik A, Sudlow CLM, Tanislav C, Tatlisumak T, Taylor KD, Thijs VNS, Thorleifsson G, Thorsteinsdottir U, Tiedt S, Trompet S, Tzourio C, van Duijn CM, Walters M, Wareham NJ, Wassertheil-Smoller S, Wilson JG, Wiggins KL, Yang Q, Yusuf S, Amin N, Aparicio HS, Arnett DK, Attia J, Beiser AS, Berr C, Buring JE, Bustamante M, Caso V, Cheng YC, Choi SH, Chowhan A, Cullell N, Dartigues JF, Delavaran H, Delgado P, Dörr M, Engström G, Ford I, Gurpreet WS, Hamsten A, Heitsch L, Hozawa A, Ibanez L, Ilinca A, Ingelsson M, Iwasaki M, Jackson RD, Jood K, Jousilahti P, Kaffashian S, Kalra L, Kamouchi M, Kitazono T, Kjartansson O, Kloss M, Koudstaal PJ, Krupinski J, Labovitz DL, Laurie CC, Levi CR, Li L, Lind L, Lindgren CM, Lioutas V, Liu YM, Lopez OL, Makoto H, Martinez-Majander N, Matsuda K, et al. Multiancestry genome-wide association study of 520,000 subjects identifies 32 loci associated with stroke and stroke subtypes. Nat Genet. 2018 Apr; 50(4):524-537. PMID: 29531354.

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  • Published on 3/6/2018

    Pase MP, Himali JJ, Grima NA, Beiser AS, Satizabal CL, Aparicio HJ, Thomas RJ, Gottlieb DJ, Auerbach SH, Seshadri S. Author response: Sleep architecture and the risk of incident dementia in the community. Neurology. 2018 Mar 06; 90(10):487. PMID: 29507137.

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  • Published on 3/6/2018

    Tynkkynen J, Chouraki V, van der Lee SJ, Hernesniemi J, Yang Q, Li S, Beiser A, Larson MG, Sääksjärvi K, Shipley MJ, Singh-Manoux A, Gerszten RE, Wang TJ, Havulinna AS, Würtz P, Fischer K, Demirkan A, Ikram MA, Amin N, Lehtimäki T, Kähönen M, Perola M, Metspalu A, Kangas AJ, Soininen P, Ala-Korpela M, Vasan RS, Kivimäki M, van Duijn CM, Seshadri S, Salomaa V. Association of branched-chain amino acids and other circulating metabolites with risk of incident dementia and Alzheimer's disease: A prospective study in eight cohorts. Alzheimers Dement. 2018 Jun; 14(6):723-733. PMID: 29519576.

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  • Published on 1/1/2018

    Weinstein G, Zelber-Sagi S, Preis SR, Beiser AS, DeCarli C, Speliotes EK, Satizabal CL, Vasan RS, Seshadri S. Association of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease With Lower Brain Volume in Healthy Middle-aged Adults in the Framingham Study. JAMA Neurol. 2018 Jan 01; 75(1):97-104. PMID: 29159396.

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