J. Michael Gaziano, MD

Adjunct Professor, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

Biography

Dr. Michael J. Gaziano, MD, MPH is an internationally recognized chronic disease epidemiologist and trialist. He received his MD from Yale Medical School and his MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health.

At the VA Boston Healthcare System, he is one of the Director the Massachusetts Veterans Epidemiology Research and Information Center (MAVERIC), a national epidemiology and trial center funded by CSR&D where he directs the epidemiology research center. He is national PI for the Million Veteran Program (MVP), a large project designed to enroll a million veterans into a large observational cohort with stored biospecimens. He also serves as the director of the Boston Geriatric Research and Education Center (GRECC). At VA Boston he runs a preventive cardiology program with an associated fellowship. He is the Chief of the Division of Aging at Brigham and Women’s Hospital where he is principal investigator for the ongoing Physicians' Health Study (PHS) II study, a large-scale trial of vitamins in the prevention of chronic disease. The Physicians’ Health Study cohort is comprised of 29,000 physicians who have been followed for up to 28 years. He is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Gaziano’s research interests include the epidemiology of chronic diseases, with a particular interest in the roles that individual lifestyle choices (diet, exercise, smoking), metabolic factors (obesity, high cholesterol, and hypertension), and biochemical and genetic markers play on the risk of coronary artery disease and stroke. Also of interest is the impact that vascular disease has on other organ systems. Recently, Dr. Gaziano has initiated a number of research projects to investigate the diverse nature of atherosclerosis. While atherosclerosis plaques form only in certain large and medium-sized vessels, the process of atherogenesis affects arteries of all sizes. For example, renal dysfunction, cognitive decline and osteoporosis-related fractures have been linked to various cardiovascular disease risk factors, suggesting a role for small vessel disease in vascular dementia, in abnormal bone remodeling and chronic renal disease. These projects are intended to explore the extent to which atherosclerotic disease in small vessels leads to these and other chronic conditions.

He has published over 350 original reports, reviews, book chapters, and books. He teaches advanced epidemiology and has mentored over 50 trainees. He is a contributing editor for JAMA.

Publications

  • Published 5/14/2025

    Pathak GA, Koller D, Cabrera-Mendoza B, Nono Djotsa ABS, Wendt FR, De Lillo A, Friligkou E, He J, Kouakou MR, Duong LM, Vahey J, Steele L, Quaden R, Harrington KM, Ahmed ST, Gaziano JM, Concato J, Zhao H, Radhakrishnan K, Gelernter J, Gifford E, Aslan M, Helmer DA, Hauser ER, Polimanti R. Unraveling the genetics of gulf war illness in diverse participants enrolled in the million veteran program. Hum Mol Genet. 2025 May 14. PMID: 40366759.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 4/16/2025

    Dorantes-Gilardi R, Ivey KL, Costa L, Matty R, Cho K, Gaziano JM, Barabási AL. Quantifying the impact of biobanks and cohort studies. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2025 Apr 22; 122(16):e2427157122. PMID: 40238453.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 4/11/2025

    Chandrashekar M, Goethert I, Haque MIU, McMahon B, Dhaubhadel S, Knight K, Erdos J, Reagan D, Taylor C, Kuzmak P, Gaziano JM, McAllister E, Costa L, Ho YL, Cho K, Tamang S, Fodeh-Jarad S, Ovchinnikova OS, Justice AC, Hinkle J, Danciu I. Domain Shift Analysis in Chest Radiographs Classification in a Veterans Healthcare Administration Population. J Imaging Inform Med. 2025 Apr 11. PMID: 40216674.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 4/1/2025

    Li G, Gerlovin H, Figueroa Muñiz MJ, Wise JK, Madenci AL, Robins JM, Aslan M, Cho K, Gaziano JM, Lipsitch M, Casas JP, Hernán MA, Dickerman BA. Erratum: Comparison of the Test-negative Design and Cohort Design With Explicit Target Trial Emulation for Evaluating COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness. Epidemiology. 2025 May 01; 36(3):e11. PMID: 40173425.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 4/1/2025

    Wittes J, DeMets DL, Kim K, Maki DG, Pfeffer MA, Gaziano JM, Kitsantas P, Hennekens CH, Wood SK. Aspirin in primary prevention: Undue reliance on an uninformative trial led to misinformed clinical guidelines. Clin Trials. 2025 Apr 01; 17407745251324866. PMID: 40165541.

    Read at: PubMed

Education

  • Yale University School of Medicine, MD
  • Harvard School of Public Health, MPH
  • West Virginia University, BA