An annual blood test with analysis of methylation sites from key epigenetic aging clocks (e.g. Horvath). Epigenetic aging clocks have already been shown to reliably predict age, time-to-death, all cause mortality, cog. function, immune function, CV disease, cancer, and more. They may also become a key tool to demonstrate the reversibility of disease risk through dietary and therapeutic regimens, as epigenetic states are... more »

Establish CYP profiling as a standard part of data collection in all large studies, especially related to pain management, immunology, cardiovascular dysfunction, pharmacology. Based upon existing research, it can be anticipated that CYP profiles and polymorphism data may partition certain studies' patient populations into groups with common outcomes (negative, positive, neutral.) Regarding the opioid crisis alone, CYP... more »

We are constantly exposed to environmental exposures such as air pollution, allergens, and man-made chemicals. AoU offers a unique opportunity to collect such exposures both passively (e.g., linking to local environmental data) and actively (e.g., using novel mHealth devices to measure new data from individual AoU participants). These can be overlaid with behavioral, clinical, genomics, and biological data in AoU to assess... more »

2 possible designs:
1) Enroll women diagnosed with preeclampsia (PEC) during current pregnancy and collect data (phenotype & biomarkers), follow up prospectively until cardiovascular events (acute coronary events, strokes, including cardiac surgery)
2) Ambidirectional design: enroll women with a PEC history now having cardiac surgery/cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB); collect biomarkers & clinical outcomes (phenotype after... more »

Cardio- and cerebrovascular disease are linked to poor brain health outcomes, including dementia. To increase public health impact of this knowledge, better train care providers to identify and counter vascular risk and disease (e.g. hypertension, clots, diabetes, metabolic syndrome) in everyday care settings, and better educate patients on the importance of vascular health and related lifestyle decisions for brain health.... more »

Severe maternal morbidities are rare, but increasing in the U.S., and the causes and long-term consequences are poorly understood. All of Us would provide a study population with enough participants, detail, and follow-up time to thoroughly investigate how complications during pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum affect future health in women and their children to inform prevention of negative outcomes, such as cardiovascular... more »

Recent findings from 15,744 black and white adults in the ARIC Cohort Study found that several cardiovascular (CV) risk factors in middle age (smoking, diabetes, prehypertension & hypertension) are linked to higher risk of dementia later in life, and that blacks have higher rates of dementia v. whites. AoU offers ability to evaluate differential associations of specific CV risk factors, & their interactions with other... more »

Following AoU participants for decades could uncover common trajectories of body mass index (BMI) across lifespan and their associations/impact on cardiovascular diseases (CVD). AoU’s size/diversity also enables precise measure of the associations by different subgroups (e.g., race, sex, social factors, presence of multiple risk factors). The findings could further shed light on optimal timing for initiating and/or intensifying... more »

Goal: Identify and quantify health benefits of energy efficiency measures in single- or multi-family housing.

Data tools: Resident surveys, air pollution monitors, temperature monitors, energy usage data from electric utilities.

Expected outcomes: Previous qualitative and quantitative work suggests residents of more energy efficient homes experience fewer cardiovascular symptoms (e.g., asthma attacks) and fewer exposures... more »

Heart failure (HF), though relatively common in U.S. adults, can be thought of as a syndrome with many subtypes that require different treatments. All of Us provides a rich platform on which to collect more data (e.g., novel biomarkers and imaging studies) on HF patients. This, coupled with AoU’s existing rich genomics, behavioral, and clinical data, can be analyzed to refine the phenotyping and sub-classification of... more »

People who smoke or have hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia are at increased risk of developing cardiovascular diseases (CVD). However, not all do, and it would be interesting to identify those with CVD risk factors but remain free of CVD. Studying these people phenotypically, genomically, environmentally, and molecularly (via -omics) could provide great insight into novel mechanisms by which new treatments... more »

Genetics can be the earlier risk predictor of common, heritable traits such as atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). Longitudinal environmental exposures and behavioral practices subsequently modify risk. Uniform dense ascertainment of environmental exposures and behavior is feasible through wearable sensors. We and others are beginning to look at the comprehensive set of exposures that influence ASCVD risk.... more »

Most data from U.S. registries, EHR, death cert., & cohort studies do not differentiate among Asian American subgroups (6 largest: Chinese, S. Asian, Filipino, Vietnamese, Korean & Japanese). Limited data to date suggests evidence of subgroup heterogeneity, including differences in prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors and diseases, which would be masked if subgroups are aggregated. AoU deserves kudos for collecting... more »

The ASCVD risk scores was introduced by American College of Cardiology (ACC) & American Heart Association (AHA) in 2013 to provide 10-year risk for use in Blood Cholesterol Guideline. Absence of Asian Americans in the cohorts that provided the data for developing the scores may limit its precision in these individuals. AoU offers unique opportunity to collect CVD risk factors & outcomes in Asian Americans and its heterogeneous... more »

Prevalence of heart failure (HF) in U.S. has risen to ~6.1 million among those ≥20 years of age. AoU provides a rich platform to identify HF patients through EHR (including clinical laboratory and imaging reports) and claims data. Ability to follow and collect data prospectively in the patients, including ancillary studies of more surveys and imaging/biomarker collections, could advance discovery science and address... more »