Vasan Ramachandran | Profiles RNS

Vasan S. Ramachandran, MD

Adjunct Professor

Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

Medicine

Preventive Medicine & Epidemiology

MD, All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS)
MBBS, All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS)
DM, All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS)

Websites

	Inaugural Dean of The University of Texas School of Public Health San Antonio
	Vasan Ramachandran Named Coffman Professor in Vascular Medicine
	ResearchGate

ORCID : 0000-0001-7357-5970

Vasan S. Ramachandran, M.D., Principal Investigator and Director of the Framingham Heart Study (FHS), and Principal Investigator of the Risk Underlying Rural Areas Longitudinal Study (RURAL).

Dr. Ramachandran is an Adjunct Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at BUSM/BUSPH, and Dean of the University of Texas School of Public Health San Antonio. He is a trained cardiologist with subspecialty training in echocardiography. He is a fellow of the AHA Councils on Epidemiology and Prevention and Functional Genomics and Translational Biology, and a fellow of the American College of Cardiology (ACC). Dr. Ramachandran has extensive experience in supervising trainees at many levels and has taught the foundational core course on Cardiovascular Epidemiology at BUSPH (EP751). He has several active R01 grants from the NHLBI/NIDDK/NIA, received two K24 Mid-Career Investigator mentoring grants from the NHLBI, and has mentored several K23 awardees. Overall, he has supervised over 75 trainees during the past 20 years (~40% women, 25% non-White); most are in key positions in academia. He received the Outstanding Mentor awards from the Department of Medicine, BUSM, and the AHA Council on Epidemiology and Prevention, the prestigious AHA Population Science Award in 2014 and the AHA Distinguished Scientist Award in 2021.

Importantly, Dr. Ramachandran’s own peer-reviewed funding spans thematic areas of genetics and genomics, cardiac and vascular remodeling, novel biomarkers, systems biology including proteomics and metabolomics, microbiome, and stem cell biology. He has a 25-year history in research in cardiovascular epidemiology, including the two years he trained as a FHS fellow (1993-1995). He established the first School of Public Health in Kerala, India, between 1996-1998, serving as its inaugural director and the coordinator of its MPH program. He is the founding member and leader of the international EchoGen consortium, and chairs the Steering Committee of the Chronic Kidney Disease Biomarker Consortium funded by the NIDDK (U01DK085689). He is recognized internationally for translational research in cardiovascular epidemiology and lectures regularly at the AHA early career session on “how to develop a career in translational research and epidemiology/genetics.” He is a Trained Mentor and has been been a past member of the NIH Cardiovascular and Sleep (CASE) SRG, and an active reviewer of grants for national and international funding agencies. He served for many years on the NHLBI panel for reviewing K23-K24-K25 career development grants. He served as an Associate Editor for Circulation, and the founding Editor-in-Chief of Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics. He directs the Center for Integrative Transdisciplinary Epidemiology within BUSM, that hosts multiple epidemiological datasets, including from multiple cohort studies, national surveys (NHANES), administrative databases and electronic health records; this center will be a valuable data source for trainees.

For the last 25 years, Dr. Ramachandran has focused his research on A) the genetic and non-genetic epidemiology of congestive heart failure, including identifying risk factors for the disease, characterizing the subgroups with diastolic heart failure, asymptomatic LV systolic and diastolic dysfunction, and evaluating the role of LV remodeling; B) population-based vascular testing and echocardiography, including identifying biological, environmental, and genetic determinants (correlates) of cardiac structure and function; normative standards; detailed assessment of biomarkers of the process of LV remodeling, including but not limited to role of natriuretic peptides, insulin resistance, cardiac extracellular matrix markers, oxidative stress, inflammation, growth factors; genetics of LV remodeling, LA and aortic structure and gene-environment interactions; brachial artery endothelial function, its correlates and tonometric assessment of large artery function; C) genetic and non-genetic epidemiology of high blood pressure, including characterizing the lifetime risk, rates of progression and risks associated with various degrees of elevation; large artery stiffness and function and role in systolic hypertension in the elderly; genetics of high blood pressure and large artery function; D) CVD risk estimation in the short, medium- and long-term, with novel biomarkers including genomic biomarkers; and E) rural health disparities via the RURAL cohort study.

Multidisciplinary Training Program in Cardiovascular Epidemiology
04/01/2021 - 03/31/2026 (PI of Sub-Project / SP)
PI: Vanessa Xanthakis, PhD
NIH/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
5T32HL125232-09

Myocardial Radiomics and Mechanics in the Pathology and Prognosis of Cardiovascular Disease
03/15/2021 - 02/28/2026 (PI of Sub-Project / SP)
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Inc. NIH NHLBI
5R01HL155717-03

Framingham Heart Study
04/01/2019 - 06/30/2025 (PI of Sub-Project / SP)
PI: Joanne M. Murabito, MD
NIH/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Multidimensional Assessment of Brain Health as A Marker of Dementia Risk and Resilience in the Framingham Study
09/15/2020 - 05/31/2025 (PI of Sub-Project / SP)
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio NIH NIA
5R01AG066524-05

Return of Genomic Results and Estimating Penetrance in Population-Based Cohorts
08/01/2019 - 06/30/2024 (PI of Sub-Project / SP)
Broad Institute, Inc., The NIH NHLBI
1R01HL143295-04

Mediators of Systemic Inflammation and Heart Failure Risk in the Community
04/01/2019 - 03/31/2024 (PI of Sub-Project / SP)
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center NIH NHLBI
5R01HL143227-04

Cardio-metabolic risk in Multi-ethnic Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior Study
12/15/2016 - 11/30/2023 (Multi-PI)
PI: Vasan S. Ramachandran, MD
Albert Einstein College of Medicine NIH NHLBI
5R01HL136266-05

Neighborhoods and Cardiovascular Risk and Resilience in Rural Communities
04/01/2022 - 10/31/2022 (Subcontract PI)
The Regents of the University of California (University of California, Berkeley) NIH NHLBI
1R01HL157820-01A1

Epidemiologic Determinants of Cardiac Structure and Function in Rural Residents: RURAL ECHO
02/21/2022 - 10/31/2022 (Subcontract PI)
Duke University NIH NHLBI
1R01HL157531-01A1

RURAL: Risk Underlying Rural Areas Longitudinal Cohort Study
04/01/2019 - 10/31/2022 (Multi-PI)
PI: Vasan S. Ramachandran, MD
NIH/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
5U01HL146382-04

Showing 10 of 57 results. Show All Results

Population-Based Reference Ranges for Estradiol and Estrone in Men
04/07/2012 - 07/31/2012 (Activity-level PI)
PI: Shalender Bhasin, MBBS
NIH-NIDDK
1R01 DK092938-01A1

Title

Yr	Title	Project-Sub Proj
2025	Epidemiology of blood pressure responses to perturbations: Correlates and prognosis for vascular risk, end-organ damage, cognitive aging and preclinical Alzheimer's disease	5R01AG075703-04
2024	Genetic Architecture of Cardiac Structure and Function and Its Impact on Heart Failure	5R01HL160793-03
2024	Epidemiology of blood pressure responses to perturbations: Correlates and prognosis for vascular risk, end-organ damage, cognitive aging and preclinical Alzheimer's disease	5R01AG075703-03
2024	Multidimensional Assessment of Brain Health as A Marker of Dementia Risk and Resilience	5R01AG066524-05
2024	RURAL: Risk Underlying Rural Areas Longitudinal Cohort Study	5U01HL146382-07
2024	RURAL: Risk Underlying Rural Areas Longitudinal Cohort Study	3U01HL146382-07S1
2023	Aortic stiffness, wave reflection, and cerebrovascular flow pulsatility: relations with brain small vessel disease and cognitive function in a middle-aged cohort	1RF1AG079390-01A1
2023	Genetic Architecture of Cardiac Structure and Function and Its Impact on Heart Failure	5R01HL160793-02
2023	Development of a cloud-based analytical tool for polygenic risk score and its implication in heart failure research.	3R01HL160793-02S1
2023	Epidemiology of blood pressure responses to perturbations: Correlates and prognosis for vascular risk, end-organ damage, cognitive aging and preclinical Alzheimer's disease	7R01AG075703-02

Showing 10 of 126 results. Show All Results

Publications listed below are automatically derived from MEDLINE/PubMed and other sources, which might result in incorrect or missing publications. Faculty can login to make corrections and additions.

iCite Analysis Copy PMIDs To Clipboard

Hameed P S, Kotakonda H, Sharma S, Nandishaiah R, Katagihallimath N, Rao R, Sadler C, Slater I, Morton M, Chandrasekaran A, Griffen E, Pillai D, Reddy S, Bharatham N, Venkatesan S, Jonnalagadda V, Jayaraman R, Nanjundappa M, Sharma M, Raveendran S, Rajagopal S, Tumma H, Watters A, Becker H, Lindley J, Flamm R, Huband M, Sahm D, Hackel M, Mathur T, Kolamunnage-Dona R, Unsworth J, Mcentee L, Farrington N, Manickam D, Chandrashekara N, Jayachandiran S, Reddy H, Shanker S, Richard V, Thomas T, Nagaraj S, Datta S, Sambandamurthy V, Ramachandran V, Clay R, Tomayko J, Das S, V B. Author Correction: BWC0977, a broad-spectrum antibacterial clinical candidate to treat multidrug resistant infections. Nat Commun. 2025 Jan 13; 16(1):625. PMID: 39805821; PMCID: PMC11730995; DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-56043-1;

Tasdighi E, Yao Z, Jha KK, Dardari ZA, Osuji N, Rajan T, Boakye E, Rodriguez CJ, Matsushita K, Simonsick EM, Lima JAC, Widome R, Cohen D, Appel LJ, Khera A, Hall ME, Judd S, Cole SA, Ramachandran VS, Benjamin EJ, Bhatnagar A, DeFilippis AP, Blaha MJ. Cigar, Pipe, and Smokeless Tobacco Use and Cardiovascular Outcomes From Cross Cohort Collaboration. JAMA Netw Open. 2025 Jan 02; 8(1):e2453987.View Related Profiles.

Benjamin, Emelia
Ramachandran, Vasan

PMID: 39804647; PMCID: PMC11731180; DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.53987;

Yu Z, Vromman A, Nguyen NQH, Schuermans A, Rentz T, Vellarikkal SK, Uddin MM, Niroula A, Griffin G, Honigberg MC, Lin AE, Gibson CJ, Katz DH, Tahir U, Fang S, Haidermota S, Ganesh S, Antoine T, Weinstock J, Austin TR, Ramachandran VS, Peloso GM, Hornsby W, Ganz P, Manson JE, Haring B, Kooperberg CL, Reiner AP, Bis JC, Psaty BM, Min YI, Correa A, Lange LA, Post WS, Rotter JI, Rich SS, Wilson JG, Ebert BL, Yu B, Ballantyne CM, Coresh J, Sankaran VG, Bick AG, Jaiswal S, Gerszten RE, Libby P, Gupta RM, Natarajan P. Human Plasma Proteomic Profile of Clonal Hematopoiesis. bioRxiv. 2024 Oct 31. PMID: 39554199; PMCID: PMC11565774; DOI: 10.1101/2023.07.25.550557;

Yao Z, Tasdighi E, Dardari ZA, Erhabor J, Jha KK, Osuji N, Rajan T, Boakye E, Rodriguez CJ, Lima JAC, Judd SE, Feldman T, Fialkow JA, Vasan RS, El Shahawy O, Benjamin EJ, Bhatnagar A, DeFilippis AP, Nasir K, Blaha MJ. Use of e-cigarettes, traditional combustible cigarettes, and high sensitivity C-reactive protein: The Cross Cohort Collaboration. Am Heart J. 2025 Feb; 280:1-6.View Related Profiles.

Benjamin, Emelia
Ramachandran, Vasan

PMID: 39461654

Hameed P S, Kotakonda H, Sharma S, Nandishaiah R, Katagihallimath N, Rao R, Sadler C, Slater I, Morton M, Chandrasekaran A, Griffen E, Pillai D, Reddy S, Bharatham N, Venkatesan S, Jonnalagadda V, Jayaraman R, Nanjundappa M, Sharma M, Raveendran S, Rajagopal S, Tumma H, Watters A, Becker H, Lindley J, Flamm R, Huband M, Sahm D, Hackel M, Mathur T, Kolamunnage-Dona R, Unsworth J, Mcentee L, Farrington N, Manickam D, Chandrashekara N, Jayachandiran S, Reddy H, Shanker S, Richard V, Thomas T, Nagaraj S, Datta S, Sambandamurthy V, Ramachandran V, Clay R, Tomayko J, Das S, V B. BWC0977, a broad-spectrum antibacterial clinical candidate to treat multidrug resistant infections. Nat Commun. 2024 Sep 18; 15(1):8202. PMID: 39294149; PMCID: PMC11410943; DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-52557-2;

Gaye B, Valentin E, Xanthakis V, Perier MC, Celermajer DS, Shipley M, Marijon E, Song RJ, Empana JP, Ramachandran VS, Jouven X. Author Correction: Association between change in heart rate over years and life span in the Paris Prospective 1, the Whitehall 1, and Framingham studies. Sci Rep. 2024 Sep 06; 14(1):20868.View Related Profiles.

Xanthakis, Vanessa
Ramachandran, Vasan

PMID: 39242738; PMCID: PMC11379920; DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-72000-2;

Gaye B, Valentin E, Xanthakis V, Perier MC, Celermajer DS, Shipley M, Marijon E, Song RJ, Empana JP, Ramachandran VS, Jouven X. Association between change in heart rate over years and life span in the Paris Prospective 1, the Whitehall 1, and Framingham studies. Sci Rep. 2024 Aug 29; 14(1):20052.View Related Profiles.

Xanthakis, Vanessa
Ramachandran, Vasan

PMID: 39209972; PMCID: PMC11362490; DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-70806-8;

Wang N, Ockerman FP, Zhou LY, Grove ML, Alkis T, Barnard J, Bowler RP, Clish CB, Chung S, Drzymalla E, Evans AM, Franceschini N, Gerszten RE, Gillman MG, Hutton SR, Kelly RS, Kooperberg C, Larson MG, Lasky-Su J, Meyers DA, Woodruff PG, Reiner AP, Rich SS, Rotter JI, Silverman EK, Ramachandran VS, Weiss ST, Wong KE, Wood AC, Wu L, Yarden R, Blackwell TW, Smith AV, Chen H, Raffield LM, Yu B. Genetic Architecture and Analysis Practices of Circulating Metabolites in the NHLBI Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Program. bioRxiv. 2024 Aug 26. PMID: 39211135; PMCID: PMC11361093; DOI: 10.1101/2024.07.23.604849;

Charisis S, Short MI, Bernal R, Kautz TF, Treviño HA, Mathews J, Dediós AGV, Muhammad JAS, Luckey AM, Aslam A, Himali JJ, Shipp EL, Habes M, Beiser AS, DeCarli C, Scarmeas N, Ramachandran VS, Seshadri S, Maillard P, Satizabal CL. Leptin bioavailability and markers of brain atrophy and vascular injury in the middle age. Alzheimers Dement. 2024 Sep; 20(9):5849-5860.View Related Profiles.

Beiser, Alexa
Satizabal, Claudia
Himali, Jayandra
Seshadri, Sudha
Ramachandran, Vasan

PMID: 39132759; PMCID: PMC11497668; DOI: 10.1002/alz.13879;

Dubin RF, Deo R, Ren Y, Wang J, Pico AR, Mychaleckyj JC, Kozlitina J, Arthur V, Lee H, Shah A, Feldman H, Bansal N, Zelnick L, Rao P, Sukul N, Raj DS, Mehta R, Rosas SE, Bhat Z, Weir MR, He J, Chen J, Kansal M, Kimmel PL, Ramachandran VS, Waikar SS, Segal MR, Ganz P. Incident heart failure in chronic kidney disease: proteomics informs biology and risk stratification. Eur Heart J. 2024 Aug 09; 45(30):2752-2767.View Related Profiles.

Waikar, Sushrut
Ramachandran, Vasan

PMID: 38757788; PMCID: PMC11313584; DOI: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehae288;

Showing 10 of 823 results. Show More

This graph shows the total number of publications by year, by first, middle/unknown, or last author.

Bar chart showing 823 publications over 38 distinct years, with a maximum of 76 publications in 2016

Bar chart showing 823 publications over 38 distinct years, with a maximum of 76 publications in 2016

Year	Publications
1986	1
1987	1
1989	2
1990	2
1991	8
1992	9
1993	3
1995	3
1996	5
1997	3
1998	1
1999	4
2000	5
2001	5
2002	12
2003	21
2004	30
2005	26
2006	26
2007	54
2008	51
2009	60
2010	62
2011	53
2012	35
2013	55
2014	55
2015	55
2016	76
2017	59
2018	6
2019	1
2020	6
2021	6
2022	7
2023	3
2024	10
2025	2

Media Mentions

AHA News: Decades-Long Heart Study Shows Longer Lives, Lower Cardiovascular Risks

Health Day 4/18/2022

GRACE Score Overestimates Risk in Ethnic Minorities With NSTEMI

Medscape 2/28/2022

Framingham Heart Study to resume in-person examinations next week

Milford Daily News 9/8/2020

What Happens When Hearts Attack

Discover Magazine 6/16/2020

Framingham’s Family Tradition: Generations Help Researchers Unlock Medical Mysteries

WGBH 6/17/2019

Q&A: What’s driving health issues in rural America?

STAT 5/28/2019

Framingham Heart Study Inspires Researchers to Hit the Road

BU Today 5/28/2019

Framingham Heart Study Eyes Fourth Generation, Bolstered By New $38M

Worcester Business Journal 4/29/2019

Movers & Shakers

Daily Herald 4/28/2019

CVD Risk Similar in Men, Women With Diabetes, but Care Differs

Medscape 4/20/2019

Framingham Heart Study awarded $38 million to continue research

WCVB 4/17/2019

Framingham Heart Study awarded $38 million to continue research

MetroWest Daily News 4/17/2019

Framingham Heart Study awarded $38 million to continue research

Worcester Telegram 4/17/2019

For its next phase, the Framingham Heart Study will explore the biology of aging

STAT 4/17/2019

Framingham Heart Study lands $38M federal financing

Worcester Business Journal 4/17/2019

Framingham Heart Study Will Examine Aging with New $38M Funding

BU Today 4/17/2019

New research grant will enable Framingham Heart Study to explore biology of aging

The Boston Globe 4/16/2019

High BP in Young Adults a Harbinger of Premature CVD, Death

Medscape 11/13/2018

High blood pressure before age 40 linked to earlier strokes, heart disease

Reuters 11/8/2018

High BP in Early Adulthood Linked to Increased CVD Risk

MedPage Today 11/6/2018

Up All Night

BBC 10/31/2018

Framingham Heart Study marks 70 years, three generations of participants

The Boston Globe 10/30/2018

FRAMINGHAM HEART STUDY: Pioneering Work Led To Common Advice For Health Living

Milford Daily News 10/28/2018

7 Decades Of Breakthroughs At Framingham Heart Study

WCVB 10/26/2018

Framingham Heart Study: Technological Advances Spurred Deeper Understanding Of Heart Disease, Stroke

MetroWest Daily News 10/21/2018

70 Years Of The Framingham Heart Study

WGBH 10/12/2018

Framingham Heart Study Marks 70th Anniversary

WBUR 10/11/2018

The Study and Town That Changed the Health of a Generation

HealthDay 10/10/2018

2021 Association of American Physicians: Member

2021 McGill University, Canada: Louis and Artur Lucian Award for Research in Circulatory Disease

2021 American Heart Association: Distinguished Scientist Award

2020 Stiftung Charite, Charite Hospital, Berlin, Germany: Berlin Institute of Health Visiting Professor

2019 American Heart Association: William B Kannel MD, Lecturer

2016 Boston University School of Medicine: Jay and Louise Coffman Endowed Chair of Vascular Medicine

2016 Functional Genomics, and Translational Biology Council, AHA: Medal of Honor

2014 American Heart Association: Population Science Award

2012 American Heart Association: Mentoring Award

2010 Boston University School of Medicine: Evan's Scholar Award

2010 Boston University School of Medicine: Outstanding Mentor Award

In addition to these self-described keywords below, a list of MeSH based concepts is available here.

Biomarkers
Cardiovascular Epidemiology
Echocardiography
Genetics Studies
High Blood Pressure
Risk Prediction
Disparities, Health Status
Rural Communities
Proteomics
Metabolomics
Microbiome, Gut
Social Determinants of Health
Risk Assessment
Vascular Function
Arterial Stiffness
Mentor

I am a trained mentor who values mentoring and mentorship as foundational aspects of careers. I have mentored over 75 scholars over the last 25 years (approximately 2-3 fellows every year). Of note, these mentees have differed in terms of their background as well as their research interest. They include medical students, interns, physician scientists, fellows post-internal medicine residency, cardiology fellows, and senior physicians. Roughly, 40% of my mentees have been women and a quarter are non-White. I directed the Framingham Heart Study fellowship program for nearly two decades. Recently, I am the Principal Investigator of a post-doctoral training program in cardiovascular epidemiology and an R38 (StARR) program for training medical residents at BUMC. I have received mentoring awards from the Department of Medicine and the AHA.
For each of these mentees, I modified my supervision according to their level of prior training and helped them select projects consistent and commensurate with their interest.
During the ‘exploratory’ stage of the mentorship, I meet with potential mentees (2-3 meetings over a 2-week period) to discuss my research areas, prior and ongoing research. I look for a commitment to research and professional growth, ambition, confidence, and a ‘matching’ of research interests when I evaluate potential mentees. If there is mutual interest in entering into a mentoring relation, I hold additional meetings (3-4 meetings over 3 weeks) with mentees to ‘initiate’ the mentoring process.
During this ‘initiation’ phase, I establish mutual goals and objectives of the mentoring relation, define mutual responsibilities, discuss preferred communication patterns (including frequency and methods) and forms of periodic evaluations, and formulate a ‘timeline’ for achievement of established goals. I discuss authorship rights, coauthorships, journal citations, plagiarism, responsible conduct of research, rigor and reproducibility in research, ethical issues, IRB clearance and formalize a written memorandum of understanding (mentoring map) regarding guidelines followed when projects are not completed within a year after fellowship. My mentees complete a needs identification grid and an individualized development plan (IDP) that we jointly review every quarter. I assist them in finding peer mentors, additional career mentors, and build a ‘mentor map.’ We discuss building foundational skills, professional skills and superordinate skills during their training period.
Thereafter, in the early phase of mentoring, I establish priorities and delineate tasks and discuss issues of authorship. I identify co-mentors to ensure complementary guidance in areas where my expertise is limited.
The ‘working’ phase of mentorship for fellows is aimed at helping mentees choose research areas and topics commensurate with their prior level of training, areas of interest and future career goals. I try my best to give fellows the opportunity of working on at least one project that uses a cross-sectional design and another that uses longitudinal data so that they gain instruction in both regression and survival analyses.
Besides serving as a research guide, I try my best to serve as an advisor and a sponsor for mentees. I strive to be readily available to trainees for discussions, for ventilating their complaints, and for sharing their frustrations and joys alike; to maintain a learning atmosphere that fosters open, honest and empathic communication; to provide constant feedback and encouragement to mentees; to promote efficient time management, and to enable mentees to establish a research focus/niche; and above all, to emphasize the professional values of integrity, honesty and accountability. I also guide mentees in career planning, career progression, striking a professional and personal (work-life) balance, time management, and working towards an appropriate combination of research, teaching and clinical care.

Available to Mentor as: (Review Mentor Role Definitions):