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About

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. Daniel Levy received a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1976 and an M.D. from Boston University School of Medicine in 1980. He then completed his residency in internal medicine at University Hospital, Boston and a research fellowship in cardiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard School of Public Health. He joined the NHLBI’s Framingham Heart Study in 1984 and became the Study’s fourth director in 1994. Dr. Levy is also jointly a professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine and holds an adjunct faculty appointment at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Levy has been the recipient of many awards for his research accomplishments including two NIH Director’s Awards and the American Heart Association’s Population Research Prize in 2009, the AHA’s highest recognition for research achievements in epidemiology. Dr. Levy is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association, and he is also a member of the American Society of Hypertension and Heart Failure Society of America. Dr. Levy is currently Editor-in-Chief of the journal Current Cardiovascular Risk Reports. He has published over 400 articles in leading medical journals, as well as two books and several book chapters.

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Skills

Experience

Organization
Chief, Population Sciences Branch

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Framingham

Jul-1984 to Present

Publication

  • dott image November, 2023

Natural History of Asymptomatic Left Ventricular Systolic Dysfunction in the Community

Background— Information is limited regarding the rates of progression to congestive heart failure (CHF) and death in individuals with asymptomatic left ventricular systolic dysfunction (AL...

  • dott image James B Meigs
  • dott image January, 2023

Impact of Glucose Intolerance and Insulin Resistance on Cardiac Structure and Function: Sex-Related Differences in the Framingham Heart Study

Background— Although insulin resistance has been implicated in the pathogenesis of left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy, previous studies have yielded inconsistent results and are limited by ...

70-year legacy of the Framingham Heart Study

The Framingham Heart Study (FHS) was established in 1948 to improve understanding of the epidemiology of coronary heart disease (CHD) in the USA. In 1961, seminal work identified major risk ...

Association of Cardiovascular Biomarkers With Incident Heart Failure With Preserved and Reduced Ejection Fraction

Importance Nearly half of all patients with heart failure have preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) as opposed to reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), yet associations of biomarkers with futur...

  • dott image December, 2017

Predictors and outcomes of heart failure with mid-range ejection fraction

Aims While heart failure with preserved (HFpEF) and reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) are well described, determinants and outcomes of heart failure with mid-range ejection fraction (HFmrEF...

  • dott image February, 2017

Bi-directional analysis between fatty liver and cardiovascular disease risk factors

Background & Aims The relations of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease to cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors are not fully understood. The objective of our study is to explore the bi-d...

  • dott image January, 2016

Atrial Fibrillation Begets Heart Failure and Vice Versa: Temporal Associations and Differences in Preserved Versus Reduced Ejection Fraction

Background— Atrial fibrillation (AF) and heart failure (HF) frequently coexist and together confer an adverse prognosis. The association of AF with HF subtypes has not been well described...

  • dott image November, 2015

Relation of Central Arterial Stiffness to Incident Heart Failure in the Community

Background Arterial stiffness, pressure pulsatility, and wave reflection are associated with cardiovascular disease. Left ventricular function is coupled to proximal aortic properties, but ...

50 year trends in atrial fibrillation prevalence, incidence, risk factors, and mortality in the Framingham Heart Study: a cohort study

Background Comprehensive long-term data on atrial fibrillation trends in men and women are scant. We aimed to provide such data through analysis of the Framingham cohort over 50 years. Met...

Long-Term Outcomes of Secondary Atrial Fibrillation in the Community: The Framingham Heart Study

Background— Guidelines have proposed that atrial fibrillation (AF) can occur as an isolated event, particularly when precipitated by a secondary, or reversible, condition. However, knowle...