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 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

  • Published 7/1/2026

    Bhatt SP, Sun Y, Wang Y, Balte PP, Schwartz JE, Cassano P, Chaves PH, Couper D, Jacobs DR, Kalhan R, Kaplan RC, Lloyd-Jones D, Newman AB, O'Connor GT, Sadatsafavi M, Umans JG, White WB, Yende S, Oelsner EC. Life Expectancy in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. JAMA Intern Med. 2026 Jul 01; 186(7):852-860. PMID: 42143630.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 7/1/2026

    Saw WY, Kim K, Huang Y, Yun JH, Ma X, Bacon J, Pershad Y, Levy D, O'Connor GT, Boerwinkle E, Barr RG, Rich SS, Rotter JI, Carson AP, Raffield LM, Gharib SA, Bartz TM, Psaty BM, Sofer T, North KE, Kaplan RC, Oelsner EC, Manichaikul A, Bick AG, Scheet P, Reiner AP, Jakubek YA, Auer PL, Cho MH, DeMeo DL. Mosaic loss of Y chromosome associates with lung function, emphysema, and epigenetic aging. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2026 Jul 01; 212(7):1483-1494. PMID: 42085243.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 6/30/2026

    Ambatipudi M, McNeill JN, Roshandelpoor A, Alotaibi M, Mounsey LA, Hoffman E, O'Connor G, Choi SH, Allen NB, Barr RG, Jain M, Cheng S, Ho JE. The association of eicosanoids with lung structure and function: Findings from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis lung study and Framingham Heart Study. PLoS One. 2026; 21(6):e0351692. PMID: 42378232.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 6/16/2026

    Prichina AY, Seroogy CM, Eapen AA, Singh S, Visness CM, Bacharier LB, Gold DR, Herbstman JB, Kattan M, Miller RL, O'Connor GT, Rivera-Spoljaric K, VanWormer JJ, Weiss ST, Wood RA, Oken E, Lasky-Su J, Schoettler N, Levin AM, Jackson DJ, Gern JE, DeMeo DL, McKennan CG, Ober C, Thompson EE. Epigenetic gestational age acceleration in cord blood is associated with activated inflammatory gene pathways and childhood asthma. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2026 Jun 16. PMID: 42302975.

    Read at: PubMed

View All 388 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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