Senior Investigator Research Interests
Dr. Levy’s main areas of research interest include the epidemiology and genetics of cardiovascular disease, with a focus on coronary disease, hypertension, and heart failure. He aims to merge the robust clinical and longitudinal data available from the Framingham Heart Study with the latest advances in genomic sciences to gain insight into the complex relations between complex cardiovascular traits and the onset of heart disease.
Dr. Levy was recently part of an international consortium that identified 29 genetic variants that influence blood pressure and heart disease risk, included 16 previously unrecognized variants found in both expected and unexpected locations. Another smaller scale study identified the genetic variants in the mitochondrial genome potentially associated with blood pressure and fasting glucose levels. These and other efforts have provided new clues into how blood pressure is regulated.
Dr. Levy has also had a long-standing interest in the causes and manifestations of heart failure. Using the Framingham cohort and others, he has conducted extensive studies into the development of heart failure, as well as studies examining the clinical differences in risk factors and prognosis of people with heart failure in the setting of preserved versus reduced ejection fractions. One of his most recent discoveries was identifying galectin-3, a protein associated with cardiac fibrosis, as a predictor of heart failure.
Most recently, Dr. Levy has begun spearheading a new research program known as the SABRe CVD (Systems Approach to Biomarker Research in Cardiovascular Disease) Initiative, which seeks to identify new biomarkers and pathways involved in cardiovascular disease through the introduction of discovery proteomics and metabolomics, and gene expression and microRNA profiling. These resources will be united with the Framingham Study’s unparalleled genetic and phenotypic databases and will be made freely accessible to the scientific community at large. With these new resources available, Dr. Levy and his colleagues hope to contribute research discoveries to improve the options for primary and secondary prevention of coronary heart disease.
Meet the Team
Daniel Levy, M.D.
Daniel Levy, M.D. is Chief of the Population Sciences Branch of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, NIH Distinguished Investigator, Senior Scientist at the Framingham Heart Study, and Professor of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine. His main areas of research include epidemiology and applying multidimensional “omics” data to the study of cardiovascular disease and its risk factors to unravel their molecular mechanisms. As one of the founders of an international genetics consortium, he has led genome-wide association studies that have identified many of the known genes associated with hypertension. He leads an NIH research team that integrates multi-omics data resources from thousands of Framingham Heart Study participants using genetic variation in their DNA, gene expression, microRNA expression, proteomics, and DNA methylation to identify casual genes, proteins, and pathways contributing to cardiovascular disease and its risk factors. Dr. Levy has received the National Institutes of Health Director’s Award three times for his research accomplishments. In November 2009 he was the recipient of the American Heart Association’s highest recognition for research achievements in epidemiology, the Population Research Prize. In recognition of his contributions to his field of research, the American Heart Association conferred the 2021 Excellence Award for Hypertension Research on Dr. Levy. In 2023, Dr. Levy was promoted to the rank of NIH Distinguished Investigator. Dr. Levy has published over 900 articles in leading medical journals. He was named by Thomson-Reuters/Clarivate Analytics as one of the world’s most highly cited scientists for seven consecutive years. Dr. Levy authored an acclaimed book about the revolution in our understanding the causes of heart disease titled “A Change of Heart” (published by Alfred A. Knopf), and served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the American Society of Hypertension from 2014-2018 and as Editor-in-Chief of International Journal of Cardiology: Cardiovascular Risk and Prevention (2018-present). He has served on multiple U.S. guideline committees for hypertension and cholesterol treatment and has delivered keynote addresses at scores of national and international conferences.
Contact the lab
Roby Joehanes, Ph.D.
Jiantao Ma, MBBS, Ph.D.
Paul Courchesne, M.B.A.
Tianxiao Huan, Ph.D.
Xiao Zhang, Ph.D.
Mohit Aggarwal, Ph.D.
Krista Rudd, M.A.Ed.
