Claudia L. Satizabal, PhD

Adjunct Assistant Professor, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

Biography

Prior to joining the Framingham Heart Study in 2013, Satizabal earned her doctorate degree, studying the relationship between inflammatory proteins and cerebrovascular and neurodegenerative MRI markers of abnormal brain aging in the French Three-City Study at the INSERM Neuro-Epidemiology laboratory of the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris. In 2007, she was awarded a two-year Utrecht Excellence Scholarship to pursue a master’s degree in epidemiology from Utrecht University. In addition to her work at BUSM and the FHS, Satizabal is actively involved in the neurology and cognitive working groups of the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) consortium, where she leads projects investigating the genetic variation in fine motor speed, visual memory, and subcortical brain structures. She participates in several other international collaborations including the AD Cohorts Consortium and the replication phase of the AD sequencing project. She is currently investigating the impact of midlife obesity, as well as different dietary, inflammatory and neurotrophic biomarkers, in association with stroke, cognitive function, MRI markers of abnormal brain aging and dementia.

Publications

  • Published 9/22/2025

    Greenberg SM, Albert MS, An H, Arfanakis K, Evia AM, Caprihan A, Ford AL, Fornage M, Day GS, Hinman JD, Jicha GA, Kashani AH, Kramer JH, Lachner C, Lee JM, Liu P, Lu H, Maillard P, Petersen RC, Psaty BM, Ringman JM, Rosenberg GA, Satizabal CL, Savitz SI, Schneider JA, Seshadri S, Vemuri P, Wang DJJ, Wilcock DM, Windham BG, Zhang R, Tuozzo C, Singh H, Moy S, Okey-Ewurum V, Page CB, Mulder H, Kivisäkk P, Blacker D, Mazina L, Helmer KG, Schwab K, Wruck LM, Corriveau RA. MarkVCID2 Consortium for Clinical Validation of Biomarkers of Cerebral Small Vessel Disease: Validation Framework and Baseline Characteristics. Ann Neurol. 2025 Sep 22. PMID: 40977537.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 9/9/2025

    McGrath ER, Scott MR, Buckley RF, Satizabal CL, Werry AE, DeCarli CS, Ghosh S, Vasan RS, Bhasin S, Murabito JM, Beiser AS, Seshadri S. The association between reproductive factors and neurocognitive and neuroimaging markers of brain aging. J Alzheimers Dis. 2025 Sep 09; 13872877251372430. PMID: 40924581.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 8/27/2025

    De Leon R, Garza S, Mejia-Arango S, Vatcheva KP, Charisis S, Satizabal C, Mena LJ, Lee JH, Terwilliger JD, Manusov E, Seshadri S, Gutierrez J, Maestre GE, Brickman AM, Melgarejo JD. Associations of Blood Pressure Level and Variability with Cortical Thickness: A Cross-Sectional Analysis from The Maracaibo Aging Study. Am J Hypertens. 2025 Aug 27. PMID: 40878761.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 8/5/2025

    Chakkarai S, Sadowski M, Yang Q, Ray A, Wang R, Thomas LF, Fuentes RP, Tabar MS, Cui B, Jian X, Nyquist PA, Gill D, Aiello AE, Montine TJ, Bukhari S, Rogalski E, Edland SE, Haan ME, Kawas CH, Corrada MM, Salardini A, Chen ZZ, Himali JJ, Satizabal CL, Gerszten RE, Åsvold BO, Fornage M, Cruchaga C, Habes M, Chasman DI, Launer LJ, Flanagan ME, Brumpton BM, Georgakis MK, Zaitlen N, Ruiz A, Debette S, Seshadri S, Sargurupremraj M. Cross-tissue omics-guided drug repurposing triangulates novel targetable mechanisms for Alzheimer's disease and candidate genetic biomarkers for treatment stratification. Res Sq. 2025 Aug 05. PMID: 40799764.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 7/31/2025

    Wadop YN, Bernal R, Njamnshi WY, Satizabal CL, Beiser A, Ruiz A, Njamnshi AK, Vasan RS, Seshadri S, Himali JJ, Fongang B. Altered Gut Microbiota Mediates the Association between APOE Genotype and Amyloid-ß Accumulation in Middle-Aged Adults. bioRxiv. 2025 Jul 31. PMID: 40766561.

    Read at: PubMed

Other Positions

  • Investigator
    Framingham Heart Study

Education

  • Pierre and Marie Curie University (Paris VI), PhD
  • Utrecht University, MSc
  • Universidad de Los Andes, BSc