Harvard Catalyst Profiles

This project uses biobank data to derive unique insights into how health behaviors, environmental factors, and psychosocial factors impact brain and heart health. We leverage data on over 140,000 MGB subjects followed over decades. The dataset includes data on environment, lifestyle, and genetics, as well as detailed biomarkers and imaging data. Students would be mentored to develop unique and exciting hypotheses that they could test using statistical approaches. A key opportunity is to use the imaging and biomarker data to identify biological pathways that may mediate the connections that are uncovered, such as in the following examples: a) Tawakol A, et al. Lancet. 2017 Jan 12. pii: S0140-6736(16)31714-7 PMID: 28088338; PMCID: PMC7864285. b) Mezue K, et al. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2023 Jun 20;81(24):2315-2325. doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2023.04.015. PMID: 37316112; PMCID: PMC10333800. c) Zureigat H, et al.. Effect of Stress-Related Neural Pathways on the Cardiovascular Benefit of Physical Activity. J Am Coll Cardiol 2024 (83) 1543–1553. DOI: 10.1016/j.jacc.2024.02.029 PMID: 38631773;