I am a pulmonologist and genetic epidemiologist working on a variety of respiratory genetic epidemiology studies. For the past eighteen years, I have been the Principal Investigator of an extended pedigree study designed to identify novel genetic determinants of early-onset COPD (Boston Early-Onset COPD Study). I am currently leading two multicenter COPD genetics studies which include genome-wide association analysis. I am the Principal Investigator of the Transcontinental COPD Genetics Study, which is investigating genetic determinants of COPD in diverse ethnic groups, and I am one of two Principal Investigators of the Genetic Epidemiology of COPD Study (COPDGene), which has created a large cohort of COPD cases and controls with comprehensive pulmonary phenotyping (including chest CT scans) for genome-wide association analysis. I was also the Principal Investigator of the Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Genetic Modifiers Study. I am also collaborating on several other studies of COPD genetics, including the International COPD Genetics Network (I am one of the two Principal Investigators) and the ECLIPSE Study (I am on the Steering Committee). I am the Director of the BWH Respiratory Genetics Research Center, which is focused on identifying the functional impact of COPD loci identified by genetic association studies. I have mentored seventeen post-doctoral fellows.

As the Chief of the Channing Division of Network Medicine, I am working to develop and extend our research and educational efforts in the application of systems biology approaches to complex diseases.