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 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.

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  • Published 7/21/2025

    Smit RAJ, Wade KH, Hui Q, Arias JD, Yin X, Christiansen MR, Yengo L, Preuss MH, Nakabuye M, Rocheleau G, Graham SE, Buchanan VL, Chittoor G, Graff M, Guindo-Martínez M, Lu Y, Marouli E, Sakaue S, Spracklen CN, Vedantam S, Wilson EP, Chen SH, Ferreira T, Ji Y, Karaderi T, Lüll K, Machado M, Malden DE, Medina-Gomez C, Moore A, Rüeger S, Akiyama M, Allison MA, Alvarez M, Andersen MK, Appadurai V, Arbeeva L, Bartell E, Bhaskar S, Bielak LF, Bis JC, Bollepalli S, Bork-Jensen J, Bradfield JP, Bradford Y, Brandl C, Braund PS, Brody JA, Broeckel U, Burgdorf KS, Cade BE, Cai Q, Camarda S, Campbell A, Cañadas-Garre M, Chai JF, Chesi A, Choi SH, Christofidou P, Couture C, Cuellar-Partida G, Danning R, Degenhardt F, Delgado GE, Delitala A, Demirkan A, Deng X, Dietl A, Dimitriou M, Dimitrov L, Dorajoo R, Eichelmann F, Eliasen AU, Engmann JE, Erdos MR, Fairhurst-Hunter Z, Farmaki AE, Faul JD, Fernandez-Lopez JC, Forer L, Frank M, Freitag-Wolf S, Fritsche LG, Fuchsberger C, Galesloot TE, Gao Y, Geller F, Giannakopoulou O, Giulianini F, Gjesing AP, Goel A, Gordon SD, Gorski M, Grove J, Guo X, Gustafsson S, Haessler J, Hansen TF, Havulinna AS, Haworth SJ, Heard-Costa N, Hemerich D, Highland HM, Hindy G, Ho YL, Hofer E, Holliday E, Horn K, Hornsby WE, Hottenga JJ, Huang H, Huang J, Huerta-Chagoya A, Huo S, Hwang MY, Hwu CM, Iha H, Ikeda DD, Isono M, Jackson AU, Jansen IE, Jiang Y, Johansson I, Jonsson A, Jørgensen T, Kalafati IP, Kanai M, Kanoni S, Kårhus LL, Kasturiratne A, Katsuya T, Kawaguchi T, Kember RL, Kentistou KA, Kim D, Kim HN, Kim YJ, Kleber ME, Knol MJ, Kurbasic A, Lauzon M, Le P, Lea R, Lee JY, Lee WJ, Leonard HL, Li H, Li SA, Li X, Li X, Liang J, Lin H, Lin K, Liu J, Liu X, Lo KS, Long J, Lores-Motta L, Luan J, Lyssenko V, Lyytikäinen LP, Mahajan A, Malik MZ, Mamakou V, Mangino M, Manichaikul A, Marten J, Mattheisen M, McDaid AF, Mei Q, Meiselbach H, Melendez TL, Milaneschi Y, Miller JE, Millwood IY, Mishra PP, Mitchell RE, Møllehave LT, Mononen N, Mucha S, Munz M, Mykkänen J, Nakatochi M, Nardone GG, Nelson CP, Nethander M, Nho CW, Nielsen AA, Nolte IM, Nongmaithem SS, Noordam R, Ntalla I, Nutile T, Pandit A, Pauper M, Petersen ERB, Petersen LV, Piluso F, Polašek O, Poveda A, Pyarajan S, Raffield LM, Rakugi H, Ramirez J, Rasheed A, Raven D, Rayner NW, Riveros C, Rohde R, Ruggiero D, Ruotsalainen SE, Ryan KA, Sabater-Lleal M, Santin A, Saxena R, Scholz M, Shen B, Shi J, Shin JH, Sidore C, Sidorenko J, Sim X, Slieker RC, Smith AV, Smith JA, Smyth LJ, Southam L, Steinthorsdottir V, Sun L, Takeuchi F, Taylor KD, Tayo BO, Tcheandjieu C, Terzikhan N, Tesolin P, Teumer A, Theusch E, Thompson DJ, Thorleifsson G, Timmers PRHJ, Trompet S, Turman C, Vaccargiu S, van der Laan SW, van der Most PJ, van Klinken JB, van Setten J, Verma SS, Verweij N, Veturi Y, Wang CA, Wang C, Wang JS, Wang L, Wang YX, Wang Z, Warren HR, Bin Wei W, Wen W, Wheeler WA, Wickremasinghe AR, Wielscher M, Winsvold BS, Wong A, Wuttke M, Xia R, Yamamoto K, Yang J, Yao J, Young H, Yousri NA, Yu L, Zeng L, Zhang W, Zhang X, Zhao JH, Zhao W, Zhou W, Zimmermann ME, Zoledziewska M, 't Hart LM, Adair LS, Adams HHH, Aguilar-Salinas CA, Al-Mulla F, Arnett DK, Asselbergs FW, Åsvold BO, Attia J, Banas B, Bandinelli S, Beilin LJ, Bennett DA, Bergler T, Bharadwaj D, Biino G, Boerwinkle E, Böger CA, Borja JB, Bouchard C, Bowden DW, Brandslund I, Brumpton B, Buring JE, Caulfield MJ, Chambers JC, Chandak GR, Chanock SJ, Chaturvedi N, Ida Chen YD, Chen Z, Cheng CY, Cho YS, Christensen K, Christophersen IE, Ciullo M, Cole JW, Collins FS, Concas MP, Cooper RS, Cruz M, Cucca F, Cutler MJ, Damrauer SM, Dantoft TM, de Borst GJ, de Geus EJC, de Groot LCPGM, De Jager PL, de Kleijn DPV, de Silva HJ, Dedoussis GV, den Hollander AI, Du S, Easton DF, Eckardt KU, Elders PJM, Eliassen AH, Ellinor PT, Elmståhl S, Erdmann J, Evans MK, Fatkin D, Feenstra B, Feitosa MF, Ferrucci L, Florez JC, Ford I, Fornage M, Franke A, Franks PW, Freedman BI, Gieger C, Girotto G, Golightly YM, et al. Polygenic prediction of body mass index and obesity through the life course and across ancestries. Nat Med. 2025 Sep; 31(9):3151-3168. PMID: 40691366.

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  • Published 7/1/2025

    Shen J, Valentim W, Friligkou E, Overstreet C, Choi KW, Koller D, O'Donnell CJ, Stein MB, Gelernter J, Lv H, Sun L, Falcone GJ, Polimanti R, Pathak GA. Shared genetic architecture of posttraumatic stress disorder with cardiovascular imaging, risk, and diagnoses. Nat Commun. 2025 Jul 01; 16(1):5631. PMID: 40595462.

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  • Published 6/13/2025

    Harris C, Kapingidza AB, San JE, Christopher J, Gavitt T, Rhodes B, Janowska K, O'Donnell C, Lindenberger J, Huang X, Sammour S, Berry M, Barr M, Parks R, Newman A, Overton M, Oguin T, Acharya P, Haynes BF, Saunders KO, Wiehe K, Azoitei ML. Design of SARS-CoV-2 RBD immunogens to focus immune responses toward conserved coronavirus epitopes. J Virol. 2025 Jul 22; 99(7):e0046525. PMID: 40511920.

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  • Published 5/27/2025

    He Y, Wu X, Serra-Roma A, Markiewicz M, Healy E, Yan JH, Kulmatycki K, Zhang T, Diener JL, Kinhikar AG, Yates DP, Nguyen D, Hinder M, Russo C, O'Donnell CJ. Blood Pressure Lowering Effects of a Novel Long-Acting NPR1 Agonist, XXB750, in Healthy Participants: A Randomized, First-in-Human Clinical Study. Circulation. 2025 May 27; 151(21):1544-1546. PMID: 40424329.

    Read at: PubMed