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 4/16/2025

    Balte PP, Kim JS, Sun Y, Allen N, Angelini E, Arynchyn A, Barr RG, Blaha M, Bowler R, Carr J, Cole SA, Couper D, Demmer RT, Doyle M, Elkind M, San José Estépar R, Garcia-Bedoya O, Garudadri S, Hansel NN, Hermann EA, Hoffman EA, Humphries SM, Hunninghake GM, Kaplan R, Krishnan JA, Laine A, Lee JS, Lynch DA, Make B, Matsushita K, McKleroy W, Min YI, Naik SN, O'Connor G, O'Driscoll O, Oren E, Podolanczuk AJ, Post WS, Pottinger T, Regan E, Rusk A, Salvatore M, Schwartz DA, Smith B, Sotres-Alvarez D, Umans JG, Vasan RS, Washko G, Wenzel S, Woodruff P, Xanthakis V, Ortega VE, Oelsner EC. Associations of Pre-Pandemic Lung Function and Structure with COVID-19 Outcomes: The C4R Study. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2025 Apr 16. PMID: 40238945.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 3/4/2025

    Zhang J, Hobbs BD, Silverman EK, Sparrow D, Ortega VE, Xu H, Zhang C, Dupuis J, Walkey AJ, O'Connor GT, Cho MH, Moll M. Polygenic Risk Score Added to Conventional Case Finding to Identify Undiagnosed Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. JAMA. 2025 Mar 04; 333(9):784-792. PMID: 39841442.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 3/1/2025

    Bhatt SP, Wu C, Sun Y, Balte PP, Schwartz JE, Divo MJ, Jaeger BC, Chaves PH, Couper D, Jacobs DR, Lloyd-Jones D, Kalhan R, Newman AB, O'Connor GT, Umans JG, White WB, Yende S, Oelsner EC. Low Lung Function Is Associated with High Population Attributable Fraction for Cardiovascular Mortality. Ann Am Thorac Soc. 2025 Mar; 22(3):359-366. PMID: 39447115.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 2/10/2025

    Oelsner EC, Krishnaswamy A, Rustamov R, Balte PP, Ali T, Allen NB, Andrews HF, Anugu P, Arynchyn A, Bateman LA, Cai J, Chang H, Chen L, Elkind MSV, Floyd JS, Gabriel KP, Gharib SA, Gutierrez JD, Stukovsky KH, Howard VJ, Isasi CR, Jager L, Jin L, Judd SE, Kanaya AM, Kandula NR, Kelly MR, Khan SS, Kucharska-Newton A, Lee JS, Levitan EB, Lewis CE, Make BJ, Malloy K, Manly JJ, Mauger D, Min YI, Murabito JM, Murphy CG, Norwood AF, O'Connor GT, Ortega VE, Patel AA, Pirzada A, Regan EA, Ring KB, Rosamond WD, Schwartz DA, Shikany JM, Sotres-Alvarez D, Tarlton C, Tse J, Meneses EMU, Vankineni M, Wenzel SE, Woodruff PG, Xanthakis V, Yang JH, Zakai NA, Zhang Y, Post WS. Classifying COVID-19 hospitalizations in epidemiology cohort studies: The C4R study. PLoS One. 2025; 20(2):e0316198. PMID: 39928595.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 1/7/2025

    Gaberino CL, Altman MC, Gill MA, Bacharier LB, Gruchalla RS, O'Connor GT, Kumar R, Khurana Hershey GK, Kattan M, Liu AH, Teach SJ, Zoratti EM, Becker PM, Togias A, Visness C, Gern JE, Busse WW, Jackson DJ. Dysregulation of airway and systemic interferon responses promotes asthma exacerbations in urban children. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2025 May; 155(5):1499-1509. PMID: 39788435.

    Read at: PubMed

View All 362 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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