Samia Mora, MD, MHS
Photo: Samia Mora

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Elected 2019

Dr. Mora is a cardiologist and molecular epidemiologist conducting translational research in the prevention of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, with a focus on lipid and inflammatory mechanisms of cardiovascular disease. She is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and directs the Center for Lipid Metabolomics (CLM) and the Biorepository Laboratory (Division of Preventive Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital). The CLM is a multidisciplinary translational center with national and international collaborations leveraging high-throughput omic profiling applications towards improved understanding of risk of cardiometabolic diseases and risk reduction strategies. Specific contributions to the field of lipids and lipoproteins resulted from a succession of in-depth studies examining interactions between size and number of lipoprotein subclasses measured by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Her group also first reported that GlycA, a novel inflammatory NMR biomarker that identifies primarily circulating N-acetyl glycan groups attached to acute phase proteins, predicted risk of cardiometabolic disease and colorectal cancer. Another theme of her group’s research has been examining innovative practical approaches for preventing cardiometabolic disease. She co-developed a free mobile app and clinical decision-support tool (Aspirin Guide) to facilitate personalized clinical decision-making about the use of aspirin in primary prevention, weighing the cardiovascular benefits against the bleeding risks. Her group’s research has advanced the clinical utility of nonfasting lipids for routine cardiovascular assessment, and this work has contributed to changing clinical practice guidelines in Europe, Canada, and the US towards wider acceptance of nonfasting lipids for cardiovascular risk assessment and treatment.