Publications by authors named "Jeffrey Haessler"

Polygenic scores (PGS) have promising clinical applications for risk stratification, disease screening, and personalized medicine. However, most PGS are trained on predominantly European ancestry cohorts and have limited portability to external populations. While cross-population PGS methods have demonstrated greater generalizability than single-ancestry PGS, they fail to properly account for individuals with recent admixture between continental ancestry groups.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Polygenic scores (PGSs) for body mass index (BMI) may guide early prevention and targeted treatment of obesity. Using genetic data from up to 5.1 million people (4.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Substantial efforts have been dedicated to exploring the link between genetic regulation and the proteome, informing studies of complex trait mechanisms. Most of these efforts have been limited to populations of European ancestry.

Results: We conduct an Olink protein quantitative trait locus (pQTL) analysis on 1245 proteins involving 1033 self-identified African American (AA) and 1764 non-Hispanic White (NHW) participants from the Women's Health Initiative and Framingham Heart Study.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP) is associated with increased mortality and malignancy risk, yet the determinants of clonal expansion remain poorly understood. We performed sequencing at a depth of coverage of >4000× for CHIP mutations in 6976 postmenopausal women from the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) at 2 time points: the WHI baseline examination and ∼16 years later at the Long Life Study (LLS) visit. Among 3685 CH mutations detected at baseline (variant allele fraction [VAF] of ≥0.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Previous work has shown a role of CCL2, a key chemokine governing monocyte trafficking, in atherosclerosis. However, it remains unknown whether targeting CCR2, the cognate receptor of CCL2, provides protection against human atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

Methods: Computationally predicted damaging or loss-of-function (REVEL > 0.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Polygenic risk scores (PRS) hold prognostic value for identifying individuals at higher risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D). However, further characterization is needed to understand the generalizability of T2D PRS in diverse populations across various contexts. We characterized a multi-ancestry T2D PRS among 244,637 cases and 637,891 controls across eight populations from the Population Architecture Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) Study and 13 additional biobanks and cohorts.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP) is associated with increased mortality and malignancy risk, yet the determinants of clonal expansion remain poorly understood. We performed sequencing at >4,000x depth of coverage for CHIP mutations in 6,986 postmenopausal women from the Women's Health Initiative at two timepoints approximately 15 years apart. Among 3,685 mutations detected at baseline (VAF ≥ 0.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The relationship between mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) heteroplasmy and nuclear DNA (nDNA) methylation (CpGs) remains to be studied. We conducted an epigenome-wide association analysis of heteroplasmy burden scores across 10,986 participants (mean age 77, 63% women, and 54% non-White races/ethnicities) from seven population-based observational cohorts. We identified 412 CpGs (FDR p < 0.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Large genome-wide association studies (GWASs) using case-control study designs have now identified tens of loci associated with ischemic stroke (IS). As a complement to these studies, we performed GWAS in a case-only design to identify loci influencing the age at onset (AAO) of ischemic stroke.

Methods: Analyses were conducted in a discovery cohort of 10,857 ischemic stroke cases using a linear regression framework.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Genetic studies have highlighted the need for more diverse research on plasma fibrinogen levels, as previous studies largely focused on Europeans, leading to gaps in understanding and missing heritability.
  • By analyzing data from whole-genome sequencing and genotype data from large cohorts, researchers identified 18 genetic loci related to fibrinogen levels, some of which are more common in African populations and include variants that may impact protein function.
  • The study's findings indicate a connection between fibrinogen levels and various health conditions, emphasizing the importance of whole-genome sequencing in discovering genetic factors in diverse populations and enhancing knowledge about fibrinogen regulation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Understanding the genetic basis of neuro-related proteins is essential for dissecting the molecular basis of human behavioural traits and the disease aetiology of neuropsychiatric disorders. Here the SCALLOP Consortium conducted a genome-wide association meta-analysis of over 12,000 individuals for 184 neuro-related proteins in human plasma. The analysis identified 125 cis-regulatory protein quantitative trait loci (cis-pQTL) and 164 trans-pQTL.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to find genetic risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in individuals with type 2 diabetes (T2D) through a genome-wide association approach.
  • Out of 49,230 T2D participants, 8,956 experienced incident CVD events, revealing three new genetic loci associated with increased CVD risk and confirming five known coronary artery disease variants.
  • The findings suggest both novel and established genetic factors contribute to CVD risk in T2D patients, highlighting the importance of genetic screening in this population.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The circulating proteome may encode early pathways of diabetes susceptibility in young adults for surveillance and intervention. Here, we define proteomic correlates of tissue phenotypes and diabetes in young adults.

Methods: We used penalized models and principal components analysis to generate parsimonious proteomic signatures of diabetes susceptibility based on phenotypes and on diabetes diagnosis across 184 proteins in >2000 young adults in the CARDIA (Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults study; mean age, 32 years; 44% women; 43% Black; mean body mass index, 25.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Large genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have found many genetic loci related to ischemic stroke (IS), and this study aimed to explore the genetic factors influencing the age of onset (AAO) of IS using a case-only design.
  • In a cohort of 10,857 ischemic stroke cases, the study identified the rs429358 variant associated with the APOE-ϵ4 allele as linked to an earlier onset of stroke by about 1.29 years in women.
  • Researchers suggest that the connection between this variant and AAO might be influenced by a survival bias rather than a direct effect on the onset of ischemic stroke itself.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study introduces HAMSTA, a new method for estimating heritability in mixed populations while correcting for biases caused by population structure.
  • Through simulations, HAMSTA demonstrates more accurate and unbiased heritability estimates compared to existing methods, especially in cases of ancestral stratification.
  • The application of HAMSTA to data from African American individuals revealed minimal bias in admixture mapping, indicating its effectiveness for evaluating heritability across multiple traits.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - The study investigated the link between a type 1 diabetes (T1D) polygenic score and the risk of developing type 2 diabetes (T2D) using large datasets from the CHARGE consortium and MGB Biobank.
  • - Researchers found no significant association between the T1D polygenic score and T2D prevalence in both biobanks, although a specific human leukocyte antigen score showed a slight association with T2D in one cohort.
  • - While the T1D score had a weak association with insulin use among T2D cases in one dataset, the overall results suggest that a common variant score for T1D does not reliably predict T2D risk, highlighting the need for further studies
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • * Findings validate previous associations, revealing that lower mtDNA CN correlates with a higher risk of coronary heart disease but within the context of no causal relationship established in either direction.
  • * Strong evidence suggests that high low-density lipoprotein cholesterol influences mtDNA CN levels, indicating it may play a key role in the relationship between mtDNA CN and cardiovascular health.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: The independent and causal cardiovascular disease risk factor lipoprotein(a) (Lp(a)) is elevated in >1.5 billion individuals worldwide, but studies have prioritised European populations.

Methods: Here, we examined how ancestrally diverse studies could clarify Lp(a)'s genetic architecture, inform efforts examining application of Lp(a) polygenic risk scores (PRS), enable causal inference and identify unexpected Lp(a) phenotypic effects using data from African (n=25 208), East Asian (n=2895), European (n=362 558), South Asian (n=8192) and Hispanic/Latino (n=8946) populations.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the role of CCR2, a receptor for CCL2 involved in monocyte movement, in the risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, particularly through examining genetic variants in a large population sample from the UK Biobank.
  • Researchers identified 45 harmful genetic variants linked to lower monocyte counts, finding that carriers had a reduced risk of myocardial infarction and coronary artery disease, especially the M249K variant.
  • The M249K variant was associated with significantly lower risks for heart issues without increasing infection risk, suggesting its potential protective role against cardiovascular diseases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Expression quantitative trait methylation (eQTM) analysis identifies DNA CpG sites at which methylation is associated with gene expression. The present study describes an eQTM resource of CpG-transcript pairs derived from whole blood DNA methylation and RNA sequencing gene expression data in 2115 Framingham Heart Study participants. We identified 70,047 significant cis CpG-transcript pairs at p < 1E-7 where the top most significant eGenes (i.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - The study investigates the genetic factors contributing to increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) by analyzing data from multiple studies within the CHARGE Consortium.
  • - Researchers performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) on 49,230 T2D participants, identifying three novel genetic loci significantly associated with incident CVD and confirming associations with 32 out of 204 known coronary artery disease variants.
  • - Findings point to specific genetic variants that may help better understand the underlying mechanisms of CVD in T2D patients, potentially informing future research and treatments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The heritability explained by local ancestry markers in an admixed population provides crucial insight into the genetic architecture of a complex disease or trait. Estimation of can be susceptible to biases due to population structure in ancestral populations. Here, we present a novel approach, Heritability estimation from Admixture Mapping Summary STAtistics (HAMSTA), which uses summary statistics from admixture mapping to infer heritability explained by local ancestry while adjusting for biases due to ancestral stratification.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Understanding the genetic foundation of neuro-related proteins is vital for exploring human behavior and neuropsychiatric disorders.
  • The SCALLOP Consortium analyzed genetic data from over 12,500 individuals, identifying numerous cis- and trans-regulatory loci affecting neuro-related proteins.
  • Their findings also suggest potential causal relationships between these proteins and traits like sleep, smoking, mental health, and highlight new opportunities for drug repurposing and therapeutic targets.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • * Findings highlight important pathways connected to heart development, muscle contraction, and overall heart health related to these angles.
  • * The research also shows genetic links between QRS-T angles and various heart conditions like atrial fibrillation and blockages, suggesting potential areas for future research and risk assessments in cardiovascular health.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF