# Data Core

> **NIH NIH U19** · BOSTON UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CAMPUS · 2022 · $493,469

## Abstract

The Framingham Heart Study (FHS), initiated by the National Heart, Lung, Blood Institute (NHLBI) to identify
determinants of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and stroke in 1948, has created a rich source of comprehensive
data, including demographic, health, lifestyle, social networks, genetic, serum, plasma biomarkers, cognitive and
neuroimaging data that together can be evaluated to deeply and longitudinally characterize CVD, stroke and
Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk. While these data present an unprecedented opportunity to address scientific
questions of AD risk across the entire disease spectrum (e.g., asymptomatic, preclinical, clinical) as well as
factors associated with cognitive resilience, management and sharing of all these data have relied on ad-hoc
operations funded through multiple National Institute on Aging (NIA) R01 grants that have become more difficult
to administrate as clinical data collection and data sharing efforts expanded. Further, due to the extremely
complex structure of FHS data, it has been difficult for external (and internal) investigators to understand the
characteristics of the data and the most appropriate use of the data even after they receive them. The proposed
Data Core will (1) establish a comprehensive and secure database of FHS AD-related phenotypic data that will
integrate all existing AD data available to date as well as new data collected from the Clinical and Neuropathology
Cores and Projects 1-3 (Aim 1); (2) review, modify and direct quality control pipelines for all data assembled in
Aim 1 and harmonize and curate all data to produce a centralized set of data that is ready for analysis and
sharing (Aim 2); (3) accelerate data sharing by transferring data from Clinical and Neuropathology cores and
Projects 1-3 to the FHS National Heart Lung Blood Institute (NHLBI) funded data repository on a quarterly basis;
prepare data to deposit in the publicly available National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Database
of Genotypes and Phenotypes (dbGaP) and NHLBI's Data Repository Information Coordinating Center
(BioLINCC); and facilitate data sharing with collaborators by pre-prepping all phenotypic data for FHS NHLBI
funded contract staff to disseminate (Aim 3); and (4) support the proposed Projects 1-3 by updating datasets
with newly acquired data from Clinical and Neuropathology Cores and providing statistical design and analytical
support, including explaining data, structures, recommending methods for combining different data formats for
analyses, and assisting with the development of computer scripts that are needed to perform the proposed
statistical analyses, particularly longitudinal and trajectory analyses (Aim 4).

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10468282
- **Project number:** 5U19AG068753-03
- **Recipient organization:** BOSTON UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CAMPUS
- **Principal Investigator:** Joseph Michael Massaro
- **Activity code:** U19 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $493,469
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-09-15 → 2025-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10468282

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10468282, Data Core (5U19AG068753-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10468282. Licensed CC0.

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