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
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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 Areas

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)

Rare coding variant architecture and gene discovery from 130,000 sequenced cases of atrial fibrillation.
(2026 May 4)
Res Sq
Jurgens SJ, Enzan N, Dinsmore IR, Choi SH, Luo J, Lipov A, Hartle C, Wang X, Marston NA, Weng LC, Melloni GE, Chalazan B, Gray MP, Pirruccello JP, Diaz A, Chaffin MD, Ornelas-Loredo A, Tang O, Darbar FA, Kany S, Chen Y, von Falkenhausen AS, Morrison AC, Natale A, Tveit A, Geelhoed B, Cade B, Van Wagoner DR, Haase D, Soliman EZ, Davogustto GE, Calkins H, Anderson JL, Brody JA, Barnard J, Hokanson JE, Smith JD, Bis JC, Young K, Johnson LS, Long L, Risch L, Gula LJ, Kwee LC, Kühne M, Preuss M, Gupta N, Nafissi NA, Smith NL, Nilsson PM, van der Harst P, Wells QS, Judy RL, Schnabel RB, Johnson R, Smit RA, Gabriel S, Knight S, Furukawa T, Min YI, Yoneda ZT, Laksman ZW, Alonso A, Psaty BM, Albert CM, Arking DE, Roden DM, Chasman DI, Rader DJ, Conen D, McManus DD, Fatkin D, Boerwinkle E, Marcus GM, Christophersen IE, Smith JG, Roberts JD, Raffield LM, Shoemaker MB, Cho MH, Cutler MJ, Chung MK, Olesen MS, Sinner MF, Sotoodehnia N, Kirchhof P, Loos RJ, Nazarian S, Mohanty S, Damrauer SM, Kaab S, Heckbert SR, Redline S, Shah SH, Tanaka T, Ebana Y, Regeneron Genetics Center, NHLBI Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Consortium, Lubitz SA, Lunetta KL, Benjamin EJ, Rienstra M, Figtree GA, Darbar D, Bezzina CR, Ruff CT, Sabatine MS, Mirshahi T, Ellinor PT
Admixture-informed polygenic risk reporting using the ePRS framework.
(2026 Apr 30)
Nat Commun
Huang YJ, Kurniansyah N, Goodman MO, Spitzer BW, Wang J, Stilp A, Laurie C, de Vries PS, Chen H, Min YI, Sims M, Peloso GM, Guo X, Bis JC, Brody JA, Raffield LM, Smith JA, Zhao W, Rotter JI, Rich SS, Redline S, Fornage M, Kaplan R, Franceschini N, Levy D, Morrison AC, Boerwinkle E, Smith NL, Kooperberg C, Psaty BM, Zöllner S, Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine Consortium, Sofer T
Civilian Occupational Exposure to Vapors, Gas, Dust, or Fumes and Respiratory Health Among United States Military Veterans.
(2026 Jul)
Am J Ind Med 69(7): 503-511
Mohazzab-Hosseinian S, Redlich CA, Korpak AM, Timmons AKI, Smith NL, Nakayama KS, Kheradmand F, Fan VS, Jerrett M, Montgrain PR, Wendt CH, Kuschner WG, Wan ES, Garshick E, Blanc PD
Receipt of Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor Agonists Among Rural Patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Excess Weight.
(2026 Mar 3)
Ann Am Thorac Soc
Leonhard AG, Josey K, Castaneda JM, Chee M, Duan KI, Nadeem H, Plumley R, Triplette M, Smith NL, Au DH, Feemster LC, Donovan LM
DNA methylation is associated with von Willebrand factor and coagulation factor VIII plasma levels: the atherosclerosis risk in communities study.
(2026 Mar 2)
Clin Epigenetics 18(1):
Hahn J, Bressler J, Fornage M, Boerwinkle E, Smith NL, Morrison AC, de Vries PS
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