Vanessa Xanthakis, PhD

Dr. Vanessa Xanthakis is a biostatistician with training in applied mathematics and statistics, and have a strong commitment to clinical epidemiological research. Presently, she is an Assistant Professor in the Section of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology in the Department of Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine and in the Biostatistics Department at Boston University School of Public Health. At the Framingham Heart Study, she is a junior investigator and serve as the biostatistician on several investigations. For the last 8 years,  Dr. Vanessa had focused her research on

A) the epidemiology of cardiac remodeling and subclinical disease, including identifying cardiovascular disease risk factors;

B) population-based vascular testing and echocardiography, including identifying biological, environmental, and genetic determinants (correlates) of cardiac structure and function;

C) epidemiology of novel biomarkers including but not limited to natriuretic peptides, adipokines, and vascular growth factors;

D) cardiovascular risk prediction using biomarkers and assessing their incremental prognostic utility (focus of her PhD thesis);

E) epidemiology of heart failure and its precursors; and

F) ideal cardiovascular health and its impact on cardiovascular disease and its precursors.