J. Michael Gaziano MD
Adjunct Professor, Cardiovascular Medicine
72 E. Concord Street michael.gaziano@va.gov
Sections
Cardiovascular 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.
Websites
Education
MD, Yale University School of Medicine
MPH, Harvard School of Public Health
BA, West Virginia University
Publications
Hamaya R, Rist PM, Kupelian V, Gotter AL, Sohn J, Rubel CE, Gaziano JM, Manson JE, Sesso HD. Short- and long-term natural history of three neurodegenerative biomarkers among middle-aged and older adults. J Neuromuscul Dis. 2025 May 21; 22143602241301636. PMID: 40396978.
Published on 5/14/2025Pathak 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.
Published on 5/13/2025Strom NI, Gerring ZF, Galimberti M, Yu D, Halvorsen MW, Abdellaoui A, Rodriguez-Fontenla C, Sealock JM, Bigdeli T, Coleman JR, Mahjani B, Thorp JG, Bey K, Burton CL, Luykx JJ, Zai G, Alemany S, Andre C, Askland KD, Bäckman J, Banaj N, Barlassina C, Nissen JB, Bienvenu OJ, Black D, Bloch MH, Børte S, Bosch R, Breen M, Brennan BP, Brentani H, Buxbaum JD, Bybjerg-Grauholm J, Byrne EM, Cabana-Dominguez J, Camarena B, Camarena A, Cappi C, Carracedo A, Casas M, Cavallini MC, Ciullo V, Cook EH, Crosby J, Cullen BA, De Schipper EJ, Delorme R, Djurovic S, Elias JA, Estivill X, Falkenstein MJ, Fundin BT, Garner L, Gironda C, Goes FS, Grados MA, Grove J, Guo W, Haavik J, Hagen K, Harrington K, Havdahl A, Höffler KD, Hounie AG, Hucks D, Hultman C, Janecka M, Jenike E, Karlsson EK, Kelley K, Klawohn J, Krasnow JE, Krebs K, Lange C, Lanzagorta N, Levey D, Lindblad-Toh K, Macciardi F, Maher B, Mathes B, McArthur E, McGregor N, McLaughlin NC, Meier S, Miguel EC, Mulhern M, Nestadt PS, Nurmi EL, O'Connell KS, Osiecki L, Ousdal OT, Palviainen T, Pedersen NL, Piras F, Piras F, Potluri S, Rabionet R, Ramirez A, Rauch S, Reichenberg A, Riddle MA, Ripke S, Rosário MC, Sampaio AS, Schiele MA, Skogholt AH, Sloofman LG, Smit J, Artigas MS, Thomas LF, Tifft E, Vallada H, van Kirk N, Veenstra-VanderWeele J, Vulink NN, Walker CP, Wang Y, Wendland JR, Winsvold BS, Yao Y, Zhou H, Agrawal A, Alonso P, Berberich G, Bucholz KK, Bulik CM, Cath D, Denys D, Eapen V, Edenberg H, Falkai P, Fernandez TV, Fyer AJ, Gaziano JM, Geller DA, Grabe HJ, Greenberg BD, Hanna GL, Hickie IB, Hougaard DM, Kathmann N, Kennedy J, Lai D, Landén M, Hellard SL, Leboyer M, Lochner C, McCracken JT, Medland SE, Mortensen PB, Neale BM, Nicolini H, Nordentoft M, Pato M, Pato C, Pauls DL, Piacentini J, Pittenger C, Posthuma D, Ramos-Quiroga JA, Rasmussen SA, Richter MA, Rosenberg DR, Ruhrmann S, Samuels JF, Sandin S, Sandor P, Spalletta G, Stein DJ, Stewart SE, Storch EA, Stranger BE, Turiel M, Werge T, Andreassen OA, Børglum AD, Walitza S, Hveem K, Hansen BK, Rück C, Martin NG, Milani L, Mors O, Reichborn-Kjennerud T, Ribasés M, Kvale G, Mataix-Cols D, Domschke K, Grünblatt E, Wagner M, Zwart JA, Breen G, Nestadt G, Kaprio J, Arnold PD, Grice DE, Knowles JA, Ask H, Verweij KJ, Davis LK, Smit DJ, Crowley JJ, Scharf JM, Stein MB, Gelernter J, Mathews CA, Derks EM, Mattheisen M. Genome-wide analyses identify 30 loci associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Nat Genet. 2025 Jun; 57(6):1389-1401. PMID: 40360802.
Published on 4/16/2025Dorantes-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.
Published on 4/14/2025Galimberti M, Levey DF, Deak JD, Adhikari K, Overstreet C, Gupta P, Nitin R, Zhou H, Lake NJ, Harrington KM, Djousse L, Davis LK, Gaziano JM, Stein MB, Gelernter J. A contextual genomic perspective on physical activity and its relationship to health, well-being and illness. medRxiv. 2025 Apr 14. PMID: 40321252.
Published on 4/11/2025Chandrashekar 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.
Published on 4/1/2025Li 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.
Published on 4/1/2025Wittes 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.
Published on 4/1/2025Larsen JR, Zheng C, La J, Wu JT, Kelley M, Gaziano JM, Brophy M, Do NV, Kim DH, Driver JA, DuMontier C, Fillmore NR. Multimorbidity and Its Impact in Older U.S. Veterans Newly Treated for Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer. Ann Am Thorac Soc. 2025 Apr; 22(4):598-608. PMID: 39680869.
Published on 3/19/2025Johannsen AL, Danowski ME, Sitter KE, Preys CL, Gerety HL, Brunette CA, Christensen KD, Gaziano JM, Knowles JW, Muralidhar S, Sturm AC, Sun YV, Whitbourne SB, Yi T, Vassy JL. Primary care providers' perspectives on receiving opportunistic genomic results from a national study: The Million Veteran Program Return Of Actionable Results (MVP-ROAR) Study. Genet Med. 2025 Mar 19; 27(6):101416. PMID: 40121538.