Brooke N. Wolford
Research
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a major cause of death globally. CVD includes stroke and coronary artery disease (CAD), also known as atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), which is often referred to as heart disease. With an aging population in Europe, the median age of the 27 EU member states is projected to increase by 4.5 years between 2019 and 2050 to 48.2 years. The projected burden of CVD on the health care system is high, and health care systems must act now to create sustainable systems of preventive medicine. Precision public health seeks to meet these time-sensitive goals by implementing precision medicine at population scale via risk prediction and screening programs.
Large biobanks such as the Trøndelag Health (HUNT) Study integrate health records, biomarkers, proteomics, and genetic data. Current clinical risk prediction models for primary prevention of heart disease, like SCORE2 and NORRISK3, account for age, sex, smoking, diastolic blood pressure, and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, among other risk factors.The identification and implementation of CVD risk factors beyond those in the established clinical risk prediction models is an area of active research. Brooke's research aims to use conventional risk factors, novel biomarkers, and polygenic scores (PGS)—a measure of an individuals’ genetic variants for CVD risk—to improve CVD risk prediction accuracy, especially in women and young adults. Using HUNT and other biobanks such as UK Biobank and FinnGen, Brooke works to identify and understand these risk predictors and ultimately prevent human disease through precision medicine approaches enabled by artificial intelligence (AI).
ProtectHearts
HUNT AI for Heart Health
INTERVENE
Publications
A unified framework for estimating country-specific cumulative incidence for 18 diseases stratified by polygenic risk
Discovery and systematic characterization of risk variants for coronary artery disease in over a million participants.
Selected Publications
* indicates equal contributions
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Aragam K*, Jiang T*, Goel A*, Kanoi S*, Wolford BN*, [60 authors], Willer CJ, Eloukas P, Kathiresan S, Butterworth A, on behalf of the CARDIoGRAMplusC4D Consortium. Discovery and systematic characterization of risk variants for coronary artery disease in over a million participants. Nature Genetics. PMID: 36474045. (06/12/2022)
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Duda M*, Sovacool, KL*, [14 authors], Lapp Z*, Wolford BN*. Teaching Python for Data Science: Collaborative development of a modular and interactive curriculum. Journal of Open Source Education, 4(46), 138. PMID: 35187422. (17/12/2021)
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Fan Y*, Wolford BN*, Lu H*, [20 authors], Willer CJ, Chen YE. Type 2 diabetes sex-specific effects associated with E167K coding variant in TM6SF2. iScience. PMID: 34746691. (19/11/2021)
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COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative (banner authorship). Mapping the human genetic architecture of COVID-19 by worldwide meta-analysis. Nature. PMID: 34237774. (08/07/2021)
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Wolford BN*, Hornsby WE*, [19 authors], Milewicz DM, Willer CJ, Yang B. Clinical implications of identifying pathogenic variants in individuals with thoracic aortic dissection. Circulation Genomic and Precision Medicine 12(6): 273-280. PMID: 31211624. (18/06/2019)
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Wolford BN, Willer CJ, and Surakka I. Electronic health records: the next wave of complex disease genetics. Human Molecular Genetics, 27:R14-R21. PMID: 29547983. (01/05/2018)
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Kycia I, Wolford BN, [16 authors], Collins FS, Parker SCJ, Stitzel ML. A common type 2 diabetes risk variant potentiates activity of an evolutionarily conserved islet stretch enhancer and increases C2CD4A and C2CD4B expression. American Journal of Human Genetics 102(4):620-635. PMID: 29625024. (05/04/2018)
View more publications at Google Scholar, PubMed, or ORCiD.
Outreach
International research study finds new genetic links to heart disease
We're Doomed, We're Saved Podcast
2024
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Poster(2024) Differential gene expression and regulation at single nuclei resolution in muscle of statin users. AtheroNET COST Action CA21153 AtheroNet 3rd Working Group Meeting , Valencia, Spain 2024-02-28 - 2024-03-01
2023
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Academic lecture(2023) Big data integration: Variability of lifetime risk of complex diseases across polygenic score strata in over 1 million individuals . AtheroNET 3rd meeting of the AtheroNET (Network for implementing multiomics approaches in atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease prevention and research) EU COST Action , Vlorë, Albania 2023-09-29 - 2023-09-29
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Academic lecture(2023) Differential gene expression and regulation at single nuclei resolution in muscle of statin users. American Society of Human Genetics American Society of Human Genetics Annual Meeting 2023 , Washington, D.C. 2023-11-01 - 2023-11-05
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Poster(2023) Polygenic risk scores predict blood pressure traits across the lifespan. American Society of Human Genetics 2023 Annual Meeting 2023-11-03 -
2022
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Academic lecture(2022) Variability in lifetime risk of complex diseases across European countries & polygenic score strata in >1 million individuals. American Society of Human Genetics American Society of Human Genetics 2022 , Los Angeles, CA, USA 2022-10-25 - 2022-10-29
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Academic lecture(2022) Effect of sex and age on disease prediction with polygenic scores in INTERVENE. European Society of Human Genetics European Society of Human Genetics Conference , Vienna, Austria 2022-06-11 - 2022-06-14
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Poster(2022) Polygenic predictions and interactions in hypertension. K.G. Jebsen for Genetic Epidemiology Symposium 2022-11-29 - 2022-11-30
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Academic lecture(2022) Polygenic predictions and interactions in hypertension. Cardiac Exercise Research Group (CERG) Exercise in Medicine , Trondheim 2022-12-14 - 2022-12-15