George T. O'Connor, MD

Professor, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

Biography

My research focuses on epidemiology, including genetic epidemiology, and clinical investigations of asthma, allergy, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and sleep apnea. I am currently a multiple PI and Co-director of the NHLBI's Framingham Heart Study, and I am a co-investigator in the Risk Underlying Rural Areas Longitudinal (RURAL) Cohort Study. I am the Boston University-Boston Medical Center principal investigator of multiple NIH-funded multi-center investigations, including the All of Us Research Program, the Childhood Asthma in Urban Settings (CAUSE) consortium, and the Vitamin D Antenatal Asthma Reduction Trial (VDAART). I have led the BU-BMC site of clinical trials in children and adolescents with asthma and the Urban Environment and Childhood Asthma (URECA) birth-cohort study examining the risk factors for asthma and allergy in urban settings. l conduct epidemiologic and genetic epidemiologic research at the Framingham Heart Study, including genome-wide association studies seeking novel genetic determinants of lung function impairment, interstitial lung abnormalities, and atopy. My research spans disciplines including adult medicine, pediatrics, epidemiology, genetics and genomics, immunology, and environmental science. At Boston Medical Center, my outpatient practice focuses on adults with asthma, COPD, and bronchiectasis. I am an Associate Editor of JAMA.

Publications

  • Published 10/1/2026

    Gern JE, Bacharier LB, Kattan M, Rivera-Spoljarik K, Wood RA, Ober C, Visness CM, Gagalis L, Togias A, Becker PM, Jackson DJ, Busse WW, O'Connor GT. Scientific Advances from Sharing URECA Data in Collaborative Analyses. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2026 Oct 01. PMID: 42822700.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 10/1/2026

    Thames AH, Schutt M, Gadd S, Barrera L, Cho S, Wentworth-Sheilds W, Pongracic J, Liu AH, Gruchalla R, Kercsmar C, Hershey GK, Zoratti E, Johnson C, Teach S, Kattan M, Nodzenski M, Gaberino C, Bacharier L, O'Connor GT, Gern J, Visness C, Coleman A, Gergen P, Becker P, Ober C, Jackson D, Altman M, Kumar R. SERPINE1 promoter variants and differential airway responses to virus and biological therapy. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2026 Oct 01. PMID: 42820896.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 9/15/2026

    Zhang J, Bertels X, Xu H, Gereige JD, Choi SH, Brusselle GG, Uitterlinden AG, Dupuis J, O'Connor GT, Lahousse L. Cluster analysis of obstructive lung disease phenotypes: the Framingham heart study and the Rotterdam study. Respir Med. 2026 Sep 15; 263:109161. PMID: 42744204.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 7/24/2026

    Zhang J, Hong SH, Wang X, Jurgens SJ, Liu CT, Dupuis J, Ellinor PT, O'Connor GT, Mei Q, Choi SH. Transcript-aware rare genetic variant association analyses of cardiopulmonary traits in participants from the All of Us Research Program. Nat Commun. 2026 Jul 24; 17(1). PMID: 42642362.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 7/4/2026

    Foris V, Kim K, Tern C, Qian Y, Yu J, Washko G, Wade RC, Wells JM, Lin H, O'Connor GT, Smith AV, Gabriel SB, Gupta N, Silverman EK, Boueiz A, Cho MH. Genetic Determinants of Pulmonary Artery Size in over 50,000 Subjects with and without COPD. medRxiv. 2026 Jul 04. PMID: 42428084.

    Read at: PubMed

View All 393 Publications:   View Full Profile in BUMC

Other Positions

  • Ad-interim Director; Co-Principle Investigator
    Framingham Heart Study
  • Member, Pulmonary Center
    Boston University
  • Member, Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research
    Boston University
  • Member, Genome Science Institute
    Boston University

Websites

Education

  • Boston University School of Medicine, MD
  • Harvard School of Public Health, MS
  • Boston University, BA

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