NHLBI Research and Outreach Programs
Research Studies
- A Genome-Wide Methylation Study on Essential Hypertension
- Arsenic and Child Respiratory Health in Bangladesh
- Epidemiology of CHD of men aged 40+ in US, Hawaii, Japan
- Genetics of Hypertension in Blacks
- Genetic Epidemiology of Chagas Disease Progression
- Genome-Wide Association Studies of Adiposity in Samoans
- Oxidative Response Networks in Chagasic Cardiomyopathy
- Phytoestrogen and Endogenous Estrogen Exposure and Risk of Stroke
- Retrovirus Epidemiology Donor Study-II (REDS-II)
- The Genetic Epidemiology of Asthma in Costa Rica
- The Genetic Epidemiology of COPD in Costa Rica
Clinical Trials
- FREEDOM Trial: Future Revascularization Evaluation in Patients with Diabetes Mellitus: Optimal Management of Multivessel Disease
- International HIV-associated Opportunistic Pneumonias (IHOP) Study
- Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy (TACT)
- Thalassemia (Cooley’s Anemia) Clinical Research Network
Research Studies
A Genome-Wide Methylation Study on Essential Hypertension
Description: Examines methylation sites genome-wide and determines the most relevant ones and relates the identified methylation changes to the clinical development of high-blood pressure (essential hypertension).
Lead Institution: Georgia Health Sciences University Research Institute, Augusta, Georgia, USA
Partner Organization: University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; University of Groningen,
Groningen, Netherlands
Site: Finland and Netherlands
Arsenic and Child Respiratory Health in Bangladesh
Description: Examine the possible detrimental effects of arsenic in drinking water on lung growth and function in 600 children, ages 6 to 16, living in, Bangladesh.
Lead Institution: University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA
Partner Organization: International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Site: Bangladesh
Epidemiology of CHD of men aged 40+ in US, Hawaii, Japan
Description: Examines whether a diet containing high amounts of marine n-3 fatty acids will help reduce the likelihood of developing atherosclerosis.
Lead Institution: University of Pittsburg, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Partner Organization: Shiga University of Medical Science, Shiga, Japan
International Site: Japan
Genetic Epidemiology of Chagas Disease Progression
Description: Genome-wide association study to identify genetic determinants of progression to the cardiac form of Chagas disease in a sample of 1000 infected individuals who belong to large extended pedigrees and 500 uninfected individuals in the same pedigrees. The most promising genes will be resequenced, and a confirmatory study will be conducted in 500 unrelated infected individuals with severe cardiac disease and 500 unrelated infected asymptomatic controls.
Lead Institution: Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research, San Antonio, Texas, USA
Partner Organization: Centro de Pesquisas René Rachou, FIOCRUZ, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
International Site: Brazil
Genetics of Hypertension in Blacks
Description: Conducts a genome-wide association study for high-blood pressure (hypertension) in the Yoruba population of Nigeria to help understand the genetic factors that may influence the likelihood of developing hypertension. Also, a large replication sample will be examined from West Africa, and from population samples from Brazil, the Caribbean and the US.
Lead Institution: Loyola University Chicago, Maywood, Illinois, USA
Partner Organization: University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil; University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica; University of Warwick, Coventry, UK; Montreal Heart Institute, Montreal, Canada; University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria
International Sites: Brazil, Jamaica, UK, Canada, and Nigeria
Genome-Wide Association Studies of Adiposity in Samoans
Description: Examines the genetic variation that may influence obesity and obesity-related traits among adult Samoans using genome-wide association methods.
Lead Institution: Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
Partner Organization: Government of Samoa, Ministry of Health, Samoa
International Site: Samoa
Oxidative Response Networks in Chagasic Cardiomyopathy
Description: A study of the pathogenic mechanisms that lead to heart failure in people with Chagas disease. The cross-sectional study is being conducted in 770 persons who have different clinical stages of Chagas disease living in an endemic area of northern Argentina.
Lead Institution: University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, USA
Partner Organizations: Catholic University of Santiago del Estero, Santiago del Estero, Argentina; National University of Cordoba, Cordoba, Argentina
Site: Argentina
Phytoestrogen and Endogenous Estrogen Exposure and Risk of Stroke
Description: Examining the role of phytoestrogen and endogenous estrogen exposure in the etiology of stroke in women.
Lead Institute: Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN
Partner Organization: Shanghai Cancer Institute, Shanghai, China
International Site: China
Retrovirus Epidemiology Donor Study-II (REDS-II)
Description: The international component of the REDS-II is conducting epidemiological, laboratory, and survey research on blood donors in China and Brazil, countries that have been seriously impacted by the AIDS epidemic. Blood centers in those countries are addressing critical scientific issues related to transmission of HIV and other established and emerging transfusion-transmitted agents.
Lead Institution: Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Partner Organizations: Institute of Blood Transfusion, Chengu, Sichuan, China; Blood Systems Research Institute, San Francisco, California, USA; Fundacao Faculdade de Medicina, San Paulo, Brazil
Sites: China; Brazil
The Genetic Epidemiology of Asthma in Costa Rica
Description: Identify asthma-susceptibility genes in a genetically isolated Hispanic population with high prevalence of asthma in the Central Valley of Costa Rica.
Lead Institution: Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Partner Organization: Hospital Nacional de Niños, San José, Costa Rica
Site: Costa Rica
The Genetic Epidemiology of COPD in Costa Rica
Description: Identify genetic determinants of COPD-related phenotypes in 30 large Hispanic families with a high prevalence of COPD living in the Central Valley of Costa Rica.
Lead Institution: Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Partner Organization: Hospital Nacional de Niños, San José, Costa Rica
Site: Costa Rica
Clinical Studies
FREEDOM Trial: Future Revascularization Evaluation in Patients With Diabetes Mellitus: Optimal Management of Multivessel Disease
Purpose: Address the critically important problem of how to best revascularize diabetic individuals with multivessel coronary artery disease. The main objective is to evaluate whether percutaneous coronary intervention with drug-eluting stenting is more or less effective than the existing standard of care, coronary artery bypass graft.
Foreign Sites: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom
International HIV-associated Opportunistic Pneumonias (IHOP) Study
Purpose: Create an international, multi-center, longitudinal cohort that reflects the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa, Europe, and North America to study pneumocystis carinii pneumonia and opportunistic pneumonias.
Sites: Uganda, United Kingdom
Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy (TACT)
Purpose: Determine the safety and effectiveness of ethylene diamine tetra-acetic (EDTA) chelation therapy in individuals with coronary artery disease in people age 50 and older. Co-funded with the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.
Foreign Sites: Canada
Thalassemia (Cooley’s Anemia) Clinical Research Network
Purpose: Accelerate research in the management of thalassemia, standardize existing treatments, and evaluate new ones in a network of clinical centers.
Foreign Sites: Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Italy, Lebanon, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom
Last Updated: August 27, 2012