Christopher J. O'Donnell, MD

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

Biography

Dr. O’Donnell research is broadly focused on the epidemiology of complex cardiovascular disease (CVD), the leading cause of death and disability in men and women. More specifically, Dr. O’Donnell has focused on the genetic and genomic epidemiology of clinical and subclinical forms of atherosclerosis, ventricular hypertrophy and thrombosis. A large genome-wide association study is being directed by Dr. O’Donnell in a large, well-phenotyped prospective study of multigenerational families drawn from a general population (the NHLBI’s Framingham Heart Study SHARe Project). Heritable clinical and intermediate CVD phenotypes of interest include premature onset CVD, circulating biomarkers (e.g., hemostasis and thrombosis factors) and subclinical atherosclerosis detected by high resolution cardiovascular imaging (e.g., coronary artery calcium by cardiac computed tomography and aortic plaque detected by cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging). Using both genome-wide linkage and newer association methods, Dr. O’Donnell’s group has identified a number of single nucleotide polymorphisms and haplotypes with evidence for causal associations with atherosclerosis, hypertrophy and thrombosis. The long-term goal for this marriage of genomic science with well-designed studies of human populations is to better understand the etiology of CVD and to discover new targets for preventing, pre-empting and treating CVD.

Publications

  • Published 12/19/2025

    Small AM, Yang TY, Itoh S, Thériault S, Dufresne L, Kurosawa R, Komuro I, Matsuda K, Vy HMT, Farber-Eger EH, Shaffer LL, Boulier KM, Corey KM, Ramaker ME, Laporte F, Schott JJ, Le Scouarnec S, Singh SA, Sonawane AR, Smith HA, Rafaels N, Ghouse J, Raja AA, Ostrowski SR, Sørensen E, Mikkelsen C, Pedersen OB, Erikstrup C, Ullum H, Sveinbjornsson G, Gudbjartsson DF, Abner E, Lee J, Ganna A, Nowak-Göttl U, Finer S, Schumacher J, Maj C, Al-Kassou B, Nickenig G, Trenkwalder T, Dreßen M, Krane M, Nöthen MM, Moksnes MR, Brumpton BM, Knight S, Knowlton KU, Nadauld L, Debiec R, Musameh MD, Braund PS, Nelson CP, Czuba T, Melander O, Selvaraj MS, Koyama S, Bhukar R, Ruan Y, Ljungberg J, Damrauer SM, Levin MG, Franke A, Berger K, Ruff CT, Melloni GEM, Kamanu FK, Ito K, Do R, Loos RJF, Schunkert H, Wells QS, Shah SH, Le Tourneau T, Messika-Zeitoun D, Gignoux C, Bundgaard H, Larsson SC, Michaëlsson K, Holm H, Helgadottir A, Esko T, van Heel DA, Mathieu P, Samani NJ, Smith JG, Söderberg S, Rader DJ, Marston NA, Sabatine MS, Pasaniuc B, Cho K, Wilson PWF, O'Donnell CJ, Stefansson K, Bossé Y, Aikawa E, Engert JC, Peloso GM, Natarajan P, Thanassoulis G. Genomic and transcriptomic analyses of aortic stenosis enhance therapeutic target discovery and disease prediction. Nat Genet. 2026 Jan; 58(1):57-66. PMID: 41419686.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 11/20/2025

    Mathieu C, Quinlan M, Wagner K, Kompa J, Hartmann N, Hughes MF, Hinder M, O'Donnell CJ, Goldfine AB. A Phase 2 (2a) Randomized Trial of Iscalimab in Adolescents and Young Adults with New-Onset Type 1 Diabetes. Diabetes Technol Ther. 2025 Nov 20. PMID: 41311212.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 10/31/2025

    Huffman JE, Gaziano L, Al Sayed ZR, Judy RL, Raffield LM, Biddinger KJ, Charest B, Chopra A, Gagnon D, Guo X, Koledova V, Levin MG, Min YI, Pirruccello JP, Reza N, Ruan R, Verma SS, Venkatesh BA, Verma A, Yao J, Carr JJ, Casas JP, Cho K, Lima JAC, Post WS, Rader DJ, Ritchie MD, Shah A, Taylor KD, Terry JG, Rich SS, O'Donnell CJ, Phillips LS, Lunetta KL, Rotter JI, Wilson PWF, Gaziano JM, Damrauer SM, Sun YV, Ellinor PT, Joseph J, Aragam KG. An African ancestry-specific nonsense variant in CD36 is associated with a higher risk of dilated cardiomyopathy. Nat Genet. 2025 Nov; 57(11):2682-2690. PMID: 41174181.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 9/12/2025

    Lubitz SA, Taggart AKP, Gimpelewicz C, O'Donnell CJ. Emerging antiarrhythmic drug therapy for atrial fibrillation. Heart Rhythm O2. 2025 Nov; 6(11):1686-1687. PMID: 41357274.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 8/21/2025

    Landmesser U, Thum T, Tokgözoglu L, Guzik TJ, Cosentino F, Hajjar R, Goncalves A, Laguna-Fernandez A, Nioi P, Prochaska JH, Rocha R, Kathiresan S, März J, Maurer MS, O'Donnell CJ, Passacquale G, Tavridou A, Van Heetvelde M, Himmelmann A, Meder B, Roessig L, Crea F, Lüscher TF. Pharmacotherapy of cardiovascular diseases from herbs and pills to nucleic acids. Eur Heart J. 2025 Aug 21. PMID: 40838984.

    Read at: PubMed

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Websites

Education

  • Harvard Medical School, MD

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