George T. O’Connor MD

Professor, Pulmonary, Allergy, Sleep & Critical Care Medicine

Member, Genome Science Institute

72 E. Concord Street | (617) 638-4470
george.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

BU Profile

Boston Medical Center Provider Profile

Pulmonary, Allergy, Sleep & Critical Care Medicine Faculty

College of Engineering Faculty

Public Relations - BU Experts

Education

MD, Boston University School of Medicine

MS, Harvard School of Public Health

BA, Boston University

Publications

Published on 10/1/2026

Gern JE, Bacharier LB, Kattan M, Rivera-Spoljarik K, Wood RA, Ober C, Visness CM, Gagalis L, Togias A, Becker PM, Jackson DJ, Busse WW, O'Connor GT. Scientific Advances from Sharing URECA Data in Collaborative Analyses. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2026 Oct 01. PMID: 42822700.

PubMed

Published on 10/1/2026

Thames AH, Schutt M, Gadd S, Barrera L, Cho S, Wentworth-Sheilds W, Pongracic J, Liu AH, Gruchalla R, Kercsmar C, Hershey GK, Zoratti E, Johnson C, Teach S, Kattan M, Nodzenski M, Gaberino C, Bacharier L, O'Connor GT, Gern J, Visness C, Coleman A, Gergen P, Becker P, Ober C, Jackson D, Altman M, Kumar R. SERPINE1 promoter variants and differential airway responses to virus and biological therapy. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2026 Oct 01. PMID: 42820896.

PubMed

Published on 9/26/2026

Zhang J, Bosch NA, Law AC, Choi SH, Wilson KC, Dupuis J, Washko GR, Cho MH, O'Connor GT. Intrathoracic Adipose Tissue and Airway Structure, Lung Function, and Respiratory Symptoms: The Framingham Heart Study. medRxiv. 2026 Sep 26. PMID: 42818452.

PubMed

Published on 9/24/2026

Synn AJ, Tsao CW, Manning WJ, Foppa M, Chuang ML, Nassikas NJ, Dao ND, Rahaghi FN, Washko GR, San José Estépar R, O'Connor GT, Mittleman MA, Rice MB. Pulmonary Vascular Volumes, Right Heart Function, and Survival in the Framingham Heart Study. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2026 Sep 24. PMID: 42786615.

PubMed

Published on 9/15/2026

Zhang J, Bertels X, Xu H, Gereige JD, Choi SH, Brusselle GG, Uitterlinden AG, Dupuis J, O'Connor GT, Lahousse L. Cluster analysis of obstructive lung disease phenotypes: the Framingham heart study and the Rotterdam study. Respir Med. 2026 Sep 15; 263:109161. PMID: 42744204.

PubMed

Published on 7/24/2026

Zhang J, Hong SH, Wang X, Jurgens SJ, Liu CT, Dupuis J, Ellinor PT, O'Connor GT, Mei Q, Choi SH. Transcript-aware rare genetic variant association analyses of cardiopulmonary traits in participants from the All of Us Research Program. Nat Commun. 2026 Jul 24; 17(1). PMID: 42642362.

PubMed

Published on 7/4/2026

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.

PubMed

Published on 7/1/2026

Bhatt 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.

PubMed

Published on 7/1/2026

Saw 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.

PubMed

Published on 6/30/2026

Ambatipudi 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.

PubMed

View full list of 395 publications.