# Using genetic variation to study biology of blood lipids & coronary heart disease

> **NIH NIH R01** · BOSTON UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CAMPUS · 2024 · $730,677

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide and elevated blood lipid levels are the
strongest risk factor. The goal of this R01 proposal is to continue discovering and characterize genetic variants
and genes associated with blood lipid levels using new methods, diverse cohorts, and clinical trials to identify
new therapeutic targets and risk mitigation frameworks for lipids and cardiovascular disease. Our research
team combines strengths in cardiovascular medicine, statistical genetics, high-throughput genetics and
genomics, and development and application of innovative computational and statistical methods. In Aim 1, we
will determine genetic variants associated with lipid levels leveraging over 2.5 million multi-ethnic samples. In
Aim 2, we will perform phenome-wide scans for lipid-associated alleles and bi-directional multi-phenotype
Mendelian randomization in ~1 million individuals. In Aim 3, we will build and evaluate multi-ethic polygenic risk
scores for lipid levels in epidemiologic studies and completed clinical trials. In Aim 4 we will create a web-
based compute engine to both provide our association results and calculate individual-level polygenic risk
scores to facilitate the standardization of scores across studies. This proposal is a renewal of the previous
Global Lipids Genetics Consortium (GLGC) award and established collaborative relationships, and will allow
for the continued effort and coordination of the consortium. Completion of our aims will provide new insights
that have the potential to catalyze breakthroughs in prevention, treatment, and diagnosis of cardiovascular
disease and may serve as a model for other large-scale genetic studies.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10880243
- **Project number:** 5R01HL127564-08
- **Recipient organization:** BOSTON UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CAMPUS
- **Principal Investigator:** Pradeep Natarajan
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $730,677
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2015-04-01 → 2026-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10880243

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10880243, Using genetic variation to study biology of blood lipids & coronary heart disease (5R01HL127564-08). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10880243. Licensed CC0.

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