George T. O’Connor MD
Professor, Pulmonary, Allergy, Sleep & Critical Care Medicine
Member, Genome Science Institute
72 E. Concord Street | (617) 638-4470george.oconnor@bmc.org
goconnor@bu.edu
Sections
Pulmonary, Allergy, Sleep & Critical Care Medicine
Centers
Pulmonary Center
Framingham Heart Study
Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research
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.
Websites
Boston Medical Center Provider Profile
Pulmonary, Allergy, Sleep & Critical Care Medicine Faculty
Education
MD, Boston University School of Medicine
MS, Harvard School of Public Health
BA, Boston University
Publications
Foris V, Kim K, Tern C, Qian Y, Yu J, Washko G, Wade RC, Wells JM, Lin H, O'Connor GT, Smith AV, Gabriel SB, Gupta N, Silverman EK, Boueiz A, Cho MH. Genetic Determinants of Pulmonary Artery Size in over 50,000 Subjects with and without COPD. medRxiv. 2026 Jul 04. PMID: 42428084.
Published on 7/1/2026Bhatt SP, Sun Y, Wang Y, Balte PP, Schwartz JE, Cassano P, Chaves PH, Couper D, Jacobs DR, Kalhan R, Kaplan RC, Lloyd-Jones D, Newman AB, O'Connor GT, Sadatsafavi M, Umans JG, White WB, Yende S, Oelsner EC. Life Expectancy in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. JAMA Intern Med. 2026 Jul 01; 186(7):852-860. PMID: 42143630.
Published on 7/1/2026Saw WY, Kim K, Huang Y, Yun JH, Ma X, Bacon J, Pershad Y, Levy D, O'Connor GT, Boerwinkle E, Barr RG, Rich SS, Rotter JI, Carson AP, Raffield LM, Gharib SA, Bartz TM, Psaty BM, Sofer T, North KE, Kaplan RC, Oelsner EC, Manichaikul A, Bick AG, Scheet P, Reiner AP, Jakubek YA, Auer PL, Cho MH, DeMeo DL. Mosaic loss of Y chromosome associates with lung function, emphysema, and epigenetic aging. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2026 Jul 01; 212(7):1483-1494. PMID: 42085243.
Published on 6/30/2026Ambatipudi M, McNeill JN, Roshandelpoor A, Alotaibi M, Mounsey LA, Hoffman E, O'Connor G, Choi SH, Allen NB, Barr RG, Jain M, Cheng S, Ho JE. The association of eicosanoids with lung structure and function: Findings from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis lung study and Framingham Heart Study. PLoS One. 2026; 21(6):e0351692. PMID: 42378232.
Published on 6/16/2026Prichina AY, Seroogy CM, Eapen AA, Singh S, Visness CM, Bacharier LB, Gold DR, Herbstman JB, Kattan M, Miller RL, O'Connor GT, Rivera-Spoljaric K, VanWormer JJ, Weiss ST, Wood RA, Oken E, Lasky-Su J, Schoettler N, Levin AM, Jackson DJ, Gern JE, DeMeo DL, McKennan CG, Ober C, Thompson EE. Epigenetic gestational age acceleration in cord blood is associated with activated inflammatory gene pathways and childhood asthma. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2026 Jun 16. PMID: 42302975.
Published on 6/9/2026Kim W, Hu X, Kim K, Chun S, Orchard P, Qiao D, Ruczinski I, Saferali A, Aguet F, Antonacci-Fulton L, Balte PP, Bartz TM, Anamika WJ, Zhou X, Duan J, Brody JA, Cade BE, Daviglus ML, Doddapaneni H, Dugan-Perez S, Dutcher SK, Frazar CD, Gabriel SB, Gharib SA, Gupta N, Hobbs BD, Kasela S, Loehr LR, Metcalf GA, Muzny DM, Oelsner EC, Rasmussen-Torvik LJ, Sitlani CM, Smith J, Sofer T, Xu H, Yu B, Zhang D, Ziniti J, Barr RG, Carson AP, Fornage M, Hou L, Kalhan R, Kaplan R, Lappalainen T, London SJ, Morrison AC, O'Connor GT, Psaty BM, Raffield LM, Redline S, Rich SS, Rotter JI, Silverman EK, Manichaikul A, Cho MH. Publisher Correction: Whole genome sequence analysis of pulmonary function and COPD in 44,287 multi-ancestry participants. Genome Biol. 2026 Jun 09; 27(1). PMID: 42265570.
Published on 6/4/2026Steininger HM, McCauley KE, Braga GE, Morin A, Lee KE, Visness CM, Fadrosh DW, Dapas M, O'Connor GT, Bacharier LB, Rivera-Spoljaric K, Kattan M, Lemanske RF, Zoratti EM, Martinez FD, Gold DR, Hartert TV, Johnson CC, Miller RL, Seroogy CM, Wood RA, Togias A, Jackson DJ, Gern JE, Ober C, Lynch SV. Upper airway microbiome interacts with GSDMB and ORMDL3 asthma risk SNPs to influence early-life wheeze risk. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2026 Jun 04. PMID: 42248217.
Published on 6/1/2026Chiles JW, Rocco A, Srinivasasainagendra V, Rossiter HB, Casaburi R, Thalacker-Mercer A, Wells JM, Wan ES, Silverman EK, Cho MH, Hersh CP, Psaty BM, Gharib SA, Gao Y, O'Connor GT, Lange LA, Rich SS, Manichaikul AW, Barr RG, Ortega VE, Meyers DA, Smith AV, Tiwari HK, McDonald MN. Whole Genome Sequence Analysis of Weight Loss in 16?972 Participants With COPD Reveals Novel Risk Loci in DRAIC and RFX3. J Cachexia Sarcopenia Muscle. 2026 Jun; 17(3):e70293. PMID: 42026014.
Published on 5/1/2026Zhang J, Moll M, Debban CL, Hobbs BD, Rijhwani H, Washko GR, Celli BR, Silverman EK, Bakke P, Oelsner EC, Barr RG, Agustà A, Faner R, Bruselle GG, Humphries SM, Lynch DA, Dupuis J, Manichaikul AW, O'Connor GT, Cho MH. Body Mass Index-related genetic factors and COPD imaging phenotypes. Ann Am Thorac Soc. 2026 May 01; 23(5):720-727. PMID: 41721747.
Published on 4/9/2026Aggarwal M, Joehanes R, Huan T, Courchesne P, Dupuis J, O'Connor G, Levy D. Integrative Proteomic Profiling of Blood Pressure and Hypertension. Hypertension. 2026 Jun; 83(6):e26407. PMID: 41953991.
Media Mentions
Published on 4/8/2024
Massachusetts-based Framingham Heart Study celebrates 75 years of research
Published on 9/28/2023
How one health study, inspired by FDR's death, changed life in America forever
Published on 9/28/2023
Olive Oil: The Key to Better Health According to Harvard Research
Published on 9/27/2023
Framingham Heart Study celebrates 75th anniversary
Published on 5/22/2023
Mucus Plugs in Airways of COPD Patients Linked to Higher Mortality
Published on 5/11/2022
COPD Screening for Asymptomatic Adults? USPSTF Weighs In, Again
Published on 5/10/2022
USPSTF finalizes recommendation against COPD screening in asymptomatic adults
Published on 12/7/2020
New asthma guidelines advise single maintenance and reliever therapy
Published on 12/3/2020
NHLBI Updates Asthma Tx Guidelines
Published on 2/21/2019
E-Cigarettes More Effective Than Nicotine-Replacement Therapy For Smoking-Cessation
View full list of 14 media mentions.