# Discovery and Application of Germline and Somatic Mutations for Risk Prediction and Personalized Therapy to Prevent Recurrent Myocardial Infarction

> **NIH NIH K08** · BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL · 2021 · $128,843

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Despite significant advances in secondary prevention, recurrent myocardial infarction (MI) remains a major
cause of morbidity and mortality. In the U.S., nearly 1 million adults have an MI each year, approximately 1/3 of
which are recurrent. Patients surviving their first MI are at a high risk of recurrent events. In those who do develop
recurrent MI, the annual mortality rate increases to 10%, two-fold higher than after their first MI. While much work
has been done to identify common genetic variation for incident coronary artery disease, there is a large gap in
the literature as to what variants contribute to recurrent MI. While overlap likely exists, there are distinct biological
features between the development of atherosclerosis and recurrent MI. In Dr. Marston’s preliminary work, he
tested a validated incident CAD genome-wide polygenic risk score in a post-MI population and found that it did
not predict recurrent MI. This finding formed his central hypothesis that genetic predictors for recurrent MI differ
from those that predict incident CAD. Until recently, datasets did not exist to test this hypothesis. However, large
amounts of genotyped and sequenced data from randomized clinical trials in post-MI patients are now available,
allowing both discovery and clinical application of germline and somatic mutations associated with recurrent MI.
In this proposal, Dr. Marston will leverage 9 cardiovascular clinical trials from the TIMI Study Group to test his
hypothesis in three specific aims. First, Dr. Marston will define the role of common genetic variation and develop
a polygenic risk score for predicting recurrent MI using 14K cases of recurrent MI and 69K MI controls. Novel
variants for recurrent MI will be identified through large-scale genome-wide association studies and validated for
their ability to predict risk in patients following their first MI. Second, Dr. Marston will determine whether rare
genetic variation or clonal hematopoiesis is associated with recurrent MI using exome sequencing data in 9K
recurrent MI cases and 39K MI controls. Third, Dr. Marston will use randomized clinical trial data to test for gene
x treatment interactions across 5 secondary prevention therapies with a polygenic risk score and across 2
secondary prevention therapies with CHIP. The presence of a gene x treatment interaction can be used to inform
therapeutic decision making and tailored therapy. This work will take place in the Division of Cardiovascular
Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a core teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. Dr. Marston
will perform the research under the mentorship of Dr. Marc Sabatine, Chairman of the TIMI Study Group, and
Dr. Patrick Ellinor, Director of the Cardiovascular Disease Initiative at the Broad Institute. Dr. Marston’s goal is
to become a genetic epidemiologist and clinical trialist with the ability to build large important datasets and use
state of the art computational approac...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10217255
- **Project number:** 5K08HL153950-02
- **Recipient organization:** BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** Nicholas Marston
- **Activity code:** K08 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $128,843
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-07-15 → 2025-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10217255

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10217255, Discovery and Application of Germline and Somatic Mutations for Risk Prediction and Personalized Therapy to Prevent Recurrent Myocardial Infarction (5K08HL153950-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10217255. Licensed CC0.

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