Faculty

Nicholas Smith

Professor, Epidemiology

206-221-1279

Education

PhD Epidemiology, University of Washington, 1997
MPH Epidemiology/Biostatistics, University of California (Berkeley), 1993
BA Social Sciences, University of California (Irvine), 1987

Contact

206-221-1279

Box 351619
Department of Epidemiology
Hans Rosling Center for Population Health, 886
Seattle, WA 98195
View Website »

Bio

Dr. Smith is Professor of Epidemiology and Director of the VA Seattle Epidemiologic Research and Information Center (ERIC) at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System

Research Interests

My research interests within cardiovascular epidemiologic research are wide and include investigations of inherited and acquired risk factors for arterial and venous thrombosis, diabetes, and heart failure. A major focus of my research in the past 15 years has been on genetic association studies, first conducted in the local setting and now being orchestrated internationally. Early work was conducted at Group Health Research Institute and involved a series of case-controls studies conducted with colleagues at the University of Washington. These studies addressed primarily pharmaco and pharmaco-genetic epidemiologic questions related to myocardial infarctions, stroke, and venous thrombosis. More recently, I have been involved in 2 large international genetics consortia, the Cohorts of Heart and Aging Genetic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium and the International Network of Venous Thrombosis (INVENT) Consortium. In CHARGE, I co-convene 2 working groups, the CHARGE Hemostasis Working Group and the CHARGE Heart Failure Working Group. I am also a co-convener of the International Network on Venous Thrombosis (INVENT) consortium. For these consortia, I provide leadership in the conduct of intermediate and clinical phenotype association studies using genome-wide and exome-wide markers and exome sequencing. I am also the director of the Seattle Epidemiologic Research and Information Center (ERIC), a program of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Cooperative Studies Program (CSP). The VA CSP is intimately involved in the VA’s Million Veteran Program (MVP), which is collecting DNA, lifestyle questionnaires from over a 1,000,000 Veterans who use the Veterans Health Administration for their care.

Recent Publications (PubMed)

Plasminogen activation and plasmin activity are not required to prevent venous thrombosis/thromboembolism.
(2025 May 22)
Blood
Sang Y, Menegatti M, Brody JA, Wiggins KL, Cooley BC, Kapfer KN, Kangro K, de Laat B, Peyvandi F, Flick MJ, Smith NL, Shapiro AD, Wolberg AS

Genetic study of von Willebrand factor antigen levels ≤ 50 IU/dL identifies variants associated with increased risk of von Willebrand disease and bleeding.
(2025 May 12)
J Thromb Haemost
Friedman RK, Heath AS, Huffman JE, Baker JT, Hasbani NR, Gagliano Taliun SA, Chen MH, Howard TE, Lewis JP, Pankratz N, Patil S, Reiner AP, Thibord F, Yanek LR, Yao J, Chen HH, Curran JE, Faraday N, Guo X, Wheeler MM, Ryan KA, Zhou X, Cho K, Almasy L, Auer PL, Becker LC, Wilson PWF, Boerwinkle E, O'Connell JR, Rich SS, Samuels DC, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Consortium, TOPMed Hematology & Hemostasis Working Group, VA Million Veteran Program, Blangero J, Fornage M, Kooperberg C, Mathias RA, Mitchell BD, Rotter JI, Johnson AD, Smith NL, Coban-Akdemir ZH, Below JE, Morrison AC, Johnsen JM, de Vries PS

Posttraumatic stress disorder and hypertension in older adult Vietnam Era male and female veterans.
(2025 May 12)
J Trauma Stress
Serier KN, Burns HM, Magruder KM, Spiro A, Kaiser AP, Kimerling R, Frayne SM, Kilbourne AM, Stock EM, Forsberg CW, Smith NL, Smith BN

Peripheral blood cytokine profiles predict the severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection: an EPIC(3) study analysis.
(2025 May 8)
BMC Infect Dis 25(1): 677
Li X, Pakanati V, Liu C, Wang T, Morelli D, Korpak A, Baraff A, Isaacs SN, Vittor A, Chang KM, Le E, Smith NL, Lee JS, Ross JM, Shah JA, EPIC3 Investigators

Risk factors for venous thrombosis after discharge from medical hospitalizations: the Medical Inpatient Thrombosis and Hemostasis study.
(2025 Apr 14)
J Thromb Haemost
Thomas RM, Sparks AD, Wilkinson K, Gergi M, Repp AB, Roetker NS, Smith NL, Muthukrishnan P, Martin K, Zakai NA

Show complete publication list