GEORGE EHRET
Research Associate
My interest in cardiovascular risk prevention as a clinical cardiologist attracted me to human genetics, concentrating on common complex traits rather than rare inherited conditions. It still intrigues me (and others) that the heritable component of the major cardiovascular risk factors is large, much underestimated by most clinicians (e.g. 30-50% for hypertension).
Since 2005, my main projects are concentrated on the genomics of cardiovascular risk factors and blood pressure / hypertension is currently my main field of interest. Over the years the loci known to be associated with blood pressure in the general population has grown from a dozen into the hundreds and I was able to contribute using genotyping and sequencing technologies. I am co-chair of the CHARGE-BP and ICBP consortia and contribute to a large sequencing and genotyping effort in the RPGEH study, led by Drs. Aravinda Chakravarti and Neil Risch.
Resources: www.bloodpressuregenetics.org
Selected publications:
Ehret, Ferreira et al., The genetics of blood pressure regulation and its target organs from association studies in 342,415 individuals, Nature Genetics. In Press.
Liu, Kraja et al., Novel Common and Rare Blood Pressure Loci Enriched for Metabolic Traits, Nature Genetics. In Press.
Blood Pressure Genetics. In: Hypertension, A Companion to Braunwald’s Heart Disease, Third edition. G. Bakris, ed. Elsevier. In Press.
