Vasan S. Ramachandran, MD
Adjunct Professor, Medicine
Biography
Vasan S. Ramachandran, M.D., Principal Investigator and Director of the Framingham Heart Study (FHS), and Principal Investigator of the Risk Underlying Rural Areas Longitudinal Study (RURAL).
Dr. Ramachandran is an Adjunct Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at BUSM/BUSPH, and Dean of the University of Texas School of Public Health San Antonio. He is a trained cardiologist with subspecialty training in echocardiography. He is a fellow of the AHA Councils on Epidemiology and Prevention and Functional Genomics and Translational Biology, and a fellow of the American College of Cardiology (ACC). Dr. Ramachandran has extensive experience in supervising trainees at many levels and has taught the foundational core course on Cardiovascular Epidemiology at BUSPH (EP751). He has several active R01 grants from the NHLBI/NIDDK/NIA, received two K24 Mid-Career Investigator mentoring grants from the NHLBI, and has mentored several K23 awardees. Overall, he has supervised over 75 trainees during the past 20 years (~40% women, 25% non-White); most are in key positions in academia. He received the Outstanding Mentor awards from the Department of Medicine, BUSM, and the AHA Council on Epidemiology and Prevention, the prestigious AHA Population Science Award in 2014 and the AHA Distinguished Scientist Award in 2021.
Importantly, Dr. Ramachandran’s own peer-reviewed funding spans thematic areas of genetics and genomics, cardiac and vascular remodeling, novel biomarkers, systems biology including proteomics and metabolomics, microbiome, and stem cell biology. He has a 25-year history in research in cardiovascular epidemiology, including the two years he trained as a FHS fellow (1993-1995). He established the first School of Public Health in Kerala, India, between 1996-1998, serving as its inaugural director and the coordinator of its MPH program. He is the founding member and leader of the international EchoGen consortium, and chairs the Steering Committee of the Chronic Kidney Disease Biomarker Consortium funded by the NIDDK (U01DK085689). He is recognized internationally for translational research in cardiovascular epidemiology and lectures regularly at the AHA early career session on “how to develop a career in translational research and epidemiology/genetics.” He is a Trained Mentor and has been been a past member of the NIH Cardiovascular and Sleep (CASE) SRG, and an active reviewer of grants for national and international funding agencies. He served for many years on the NHLBI panel for reviewing K23-K24-K25 career development grants. He served as an Associate Editor for Circulation, and the founding Editor-in-Chief of Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics. He directs the Center for Integrative Transdisciplinary Epidemiology within BUSM, that hosts multiple epidemiological datasets, including from multiple cohort studies, national surveys (NHANES), administrative databases and electronic health records; this center will be a valuable data source for trainees.
For the last 25 years, Dr. Ramachandran has focused his research on A) the genetic and non-genetic epidemiology of congestive heart failure, including identifying risk factors for the disease, characterizing the subgroups with diastolic heart failure, asymptomatic LV systolic and diastolic dysfunction, and evaluating the role of LV remodeling; B) population-based vascular testing and echocardiography, including identifying biological, environmental, and genetic determinants (correlates) of cardiac structure and function; normative standards; detailed assessment of biomarkers of the process of LV remodeling, including but not limited to role of natriuretic peptides, insulin resistance, cardiac extracellular matrix markers, oxidative stress, inflammation, growth factors; genetics of LV remodeling, LA and aortic structure and gene-environment interactions; brachial artery endothelial function, its correlates and tonometric assessment of large artery function; C) genetic and non-genetic epidemiology of high blood pressure, including characterizing the lifetime risk, rates of progression and risks associated with various degrees of elevation; large artery stiffness and function and role in systolic hypertension in the elderly; genetics of high blood pressure and large artery function; D) CVD risk estimation in the short, medium- and long-term, with novel biomarkers including genomic biomarkers; and E) rural health disparities via the RURAL cohort study.
Education
- All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), MD
- All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), MBBS
- All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), DM
Publications
- Published on 1/13/2025
Hameed P S, Kotakonda H, Sharma S, Nandishaiah R, Katagihallimath N, Rao R, Sadler C, Slater I, Morton M, Chandrasekaran A, Griffen E, Pillai D, Reddy S, Bharatham N, Venkatesan S, Jonnalagadda V, Jayaraman R, Nanjundappa M, Sharma M, Raveendran S, Rajagopal S, Tumma H, Watters A, Becker H, Lindley J, Flamm R, Huband M, Sahm D, Hackel M, Mathur T, Kolamunnage-Dona R, Unsworth J, Mcentee L, Farrington N, Manickam D, Chandrashekara N, Jayachandiran S, Reddy H, Shanker S, Richard V, Thomas T, Nagaraj S, Datta S, Sambandamurthy V, Ramachandran V, Clay R, Tomayko J, Das S, V B. Author Correction: BWC0977, a broad-spectrum antibacterial clinical candidate to treat multidrug resistant infections. Nat Commun. 2025 Jan 13; 16(1):625. PMID: 39805821.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 1/2/2025
Tasdighi E, Yao Z, Jha KK, Dardari ZA, Osuji N, Rajan T, Boakye E, Rodriguez CJ, Matsushita K, Simonsick EM, Lima JAC, Widome R, Cohen D, Appel LJ, Khera A, Hall ME, Judd S, Cole SA, Ramachandran VS, Benjamin EJ, Bhatnagar A, DeFilippis AP, Blaha MJ. Cigar, Pipe, and Smokeless Tobacco Use and Cardiovascular Outcomes From Cross Cohort Collaboration. JAMA Netw Open. 2025 Jan 02; 8(1):e2453987. PMID: 39804647.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 10/31/2024
Yu Z, Vromman A, Nguyen NQH, Schuermans A, Rentz T, Vellarikkal SK, Uddin MM, Niroula A, Griffin G, Honigberg MC, Lin AE, Gibson CJ, Katz DH, Tahir U, Fang S, Haidermota S, Ganesh S, Antoine T, Weinstock J, Austin TR, Ramachandran VS, Peloso GM, Hornsby W, Ganz P, Manson JE, Haring B, Kooperberg CL, Reiner AP, Bis JC, Psaty BM, Min YI, Correa A, Lange LA, Post WS, Rotter JI, Rich SS, Wilson JG, Ebert BL, Yu B, Ballantyne CM, Coresh J, Sankaran VG, Bick AG, Jaiswal S, Gerszten RE, Libby P, Gupta RM, Natarajan P. Human Plasma Proteomic Profile of Clonal Hematopoiesis. bioRxiv. 2024 Oct 31. PMID: 39554199.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 10/24/2024
Yao Z, Tasdighi E, Dardari ZA, Erhabor J, Jha KK, Osuji N, Rajan T, Boakye E, Rodriguez CJ, Lima JAC, Judd SE, Feldman T, Fialkow JA, Vasan RS, El Shahawy O, Benjamin EJ, Bhatnagar A, DeFilippis AP, Nasir K, Blaha MJ. Use of e-cigarettes, traditional combustible cigarettes, and high sensitivity C-reactive protein: The Cross Cohort Collaboration. Am Heart J. 2025 Feb; 280:1-6. PMID: 39461654.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 9/18/2024
Hameed P S, Kotakonda H, Sharma S, Nandishaiah R, Katagihallimath N, Rao R, Sadler C, Slater I, Morton M, Chandrasekaran A, Griffen E, Pillai D, Reddy S, Bharatham N, Venkatesan S, Jonnalagadda V, Jayaraman R, Nanjundappa M, Sharma M, Raveendran S, Rajagopal S, Tumma H, Watters A, Becker H, Lindley J, Flamm R, Huband M, Sahm D, Hackel M, Mathur T, Kolamunnage-Dona R, Unsworth J, Mcentee L, Farrington N, Manickam D, Chandrashekara N, Jayachandiran S, Reddy H, Shanker S, Richard V, Thomas T, Nagaraj S, Datta S, Sambandamurthy V, Ramachandran V, Clay R, Tomayko J, Das S, V B. BWC0977, a broad-spectrum antibacterial clinical candidate to treat multidrug resistant infections. Nat Commun. 2024 Sep 18; 15(1):8202. PMID: 39294149.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 9/6/2024
Gaye B, Valentin E, Xanthakis V, Perier MC, Celermajer DS, Shipley M, Marijon E, Song RJ, Empana JP, Ramachandran VS, Jouven X. Author Correction: Association between change in heart rate over years and life span in the Paris Prospective 1, the Whitehall 1, and Framingham studies. Sci Rep. 2024 Sep 06; 14(1):20868. PMID: 39242738.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 8/29/2024
Gaye B, Valentin E, Xanthakis V, Perier MC, Celermajer DS, Shipley M, Marijon E, Song RJ, Empana JP, Ramachandran VS, Jouven X. Association between change in heart rate over years and life span in the Paris Prospective 1, the Whitehall 1, and Framingham studies. Sci Rep. 2024 Aug 29; 14(1):20052. PMID: 39209972.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 8/26/2024
Wang N, Ockerman FP, Zhou LY, Grove ML, Alkis T, Barnard J, Bowler RP, Clish CB, Chung S, Drzymalla E, Evans AM, Franceschini N, Gerszten RE, Gillman MG, Hutton SR, Kelly RS, Kooperberg C, Larson MG, Lasky-Su J, Meyers DA, Woodruff PG, Reiner AP, Rich SS, Rotter JI, Silverman EK, Ramachandran VS, Weiss ST, Wong KE, Wood AC, Wu L, Yarden R, Blackwell TW, Smith AV, Chen H, Raffield LM, Yu B. Genetic Architecture and Analysis Practices of Circulating Metabolites in the NHLBI Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Program. bioRxiv. 2024 Aug 26. PMID: 39211135.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 8/12/2024
Charisis S, Short MI, Bernal R, Kautz TF, Treviño HA, Mathews J, Dediós AGV, Muhammad JAS, Luckey AM, Aslam A, Himali JJ, Shipp EL, Habes M, Beiser AS, DeCarli C, Scarmeas N, Ramachandran VS, Seshadri S, Maillard P, Satizabal CL. Leptin bioavailability and markers of brain atrophy and vascular injury in the middle age. Alzheimers Dement. 2024 Sep; 20(9):5849-5860. PMID: 39132759.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 8/9/2024
Dubin RF, Deo R, Ren Y, Wang J, Pico AR, Mychaleckyj JC, Kozlitina J, Arthur V, Lee H, Shah A, Feldman H, Bansal N, Zelnick L, Rao P, Sukul N, Raj DS, Mehta R, Rosas SE, Bhat Z, Weir MR, He J, Chen J, Kansal M, Kimmel PL, Ramachandran VS, Waikar SS, Segal MR, Ganz P. Incident heart failure in chronic kidney disease: proteomics informs biology and risk stratification. Eur Heart J. 2024 Aug 09; 45(30):2752-2767. PMID: 38757788.
Read at: PubMed
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