Nora Franceschini, MD, MPH

About

Nora Franceschini is a nephrology-trained physician and a cardiovascular disease epidemiologist. Her research focuses on environmental and genetic determinants of hypertension, kidney and cardiovascular diseases in diverse and underrepresented U.S. minority populations who carry a high burden of chronic health conditions. This work includes gene discovery in American Indians, African Americans and Hispanics/Latinos, trans-ethnic genetic studies, and studies to characterize the social/environmental context in which genetic variants contribute to health conditions.  She is also leading research in chronic kidney disease of unknown cause in Central America.  

Nora Franceschini in the Gillings News

Honors and Awards

CHARGE Tiger Leadership Award
2019

The Trudy Bush Fellowship for Cardiovascular Disease Research in Women’s Health
2018, American Heart Association

UNC Postdoctoral Award for Research Excellence
2006, UNC-CH

GSK Center for Excellence in Pharmacoepidemiology Fellowship Award
2005, UNC-CH

Representative Courses

EPID 799A: Epidemiology of Kidney Disease

Research Activities

Epidemiology of Kidney and Cardiovascular Disease
Genetics of Hypertension and Kidney Traits in Diverse Populations
Genetics of Subclinical Atherosclerosis and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors
Gene-Environment Interaction on Cardiovascular Disease Outcomes
Genetics of Reproductive Traits

Service Activities

Dr. Franceschini volunteers on the National Kidney Foundation Kidney Health Risk Assessment and Early Evaluation Programs in North Carolina.

Key Publications

Genome-wide association analysis of blood-pressure traits in african-ancestry individuals reveals common associated genes in african and non-african populations. Franceschini N, Fox E, Zhang Z, Edwards TL, Nalls MA, Sung YJ, Tayo BO, Sun YV, Gottesman O, Adeyemo A, Johnson AD, Young JH, Rice K, Duan Q, Chen F, Li Y, Tang H, Fornage M, Keene KL, Andrews JS, Smith JA, Faul JD, Guangfa Z, Guo W, Liu Y, Murray SS, Musani SK, Srinivasan S, Velez Edwards DR, Wang H, Becker LC, Bovet P, Bochud M, Broeckel U, Burnier M, Carty C, Chasman DI, Ehret G, Chen WM, Chen G, Chen W, Ding J, Dreisbach AW, Evans MK, Guo X, Garcia ME, Jensen R, Keller MF, Lettre G, Lotay V, Martin LW, Moore JH, Morrison AC, Mosley TH, Ogunniyi A, Palmas W, Papanicolaou G, Penman A, Polak JF, Ridker PM, Salako B, Singleton AB, Shriner D, Taylor KD, Vasan R, Wiggins K, Williams SM, Yanek LR, Zhao W, Zonderman AB, Becker DM, Berenson G, Boerwinkle E, Bottinger E, Cushman M, Eaton C, Nyberg F, Heiss G, Hirschhron JN, Howard VJ, Karczewsk KJ, Lanktree MB, Liu K, Loos R, Margolis K, Snyder M, Psaty BM, Schork NJ, Weir DR, Rotimi CN, Sale MM, Harris T, Kardia SL, Hunt SC, Arnett D, Redline S, Cooper RS, Risch NJ, Rao DC, Rotter JI, Chakravarti A, Reiner AP, Levy D, Keating BJ, Zhu X.  (2013). American Journal of Human Genetics.

Association of adiposity genetic variants with menarche timing in 92,105 women of european descent. Fernandez-Rhodes L, Demerath EW, Cousminer DL, Tao R, Dreyfus JG, Esko T, Smith AV, Gudnason V, Harris TB, Launer L, McArdle PF, Yerges-Armstrong LM, Elks CE, Strachan DP, Kutalik Z, Vollenweider P, Feenstra B, Boyd HA, Metspalu A, Mihailov E, Broer L, Zillikens MC, Oostra B, van Duijn CM, Lunetta KL, Perry JR, Murray A, Koller DL, Lai D, Corre T, Toniolo D, Albrecht E, Stockl D, Grallert H, Gieger C, Hayward C, Polasek O, Rudan I, Wilson JF, He C, Kraft P, Hu FB, Hunter DJ, Hottenga JJ, Willemsen G, Boomsma DI, Byrne EM, Martin NG, Montgomery GW, Warrington NM, Pennell CE, Stolk L, Visser JA, Hofman A, Uitterlinden AG, Rivadeneira F, Lin P, Fisher SL, Bierut LJ, Crisponi L, Porcu E, Mangino M, Zhai G, Spector TD, Buring JE, Rose LM, Ridker PM, Poole C, Hirschhorn JN, Murabito JM, Chasman DI, Widen E, North KE, Ong KK, Franceschini N. (2013). American Journal of Epidemiology, 178(3), 451-460.

Epigenome-wide association study of kidney function identifies trans-ethnic and ethnic-specific loci. Breeze CE, Batorsky A, Lee MK, Szeto MD, Xu X, McCartney DL, Jiang R, Patki A, Kramer HJ, Eales JM, Raffield L, Lange L, Lange E, Durda P, Liu Y, Tracy RP, Van Den Berg D; NHLBI Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Consortium, TOPMed MESA Multi-Omics Working Group, Evans KL, Kraus WE, Shah S, Tiwari HK, Hou L, Whitsel EA, Jiang X, Charchar FJ, Baccarelli AA, Rich SS, Morris AP, Irvin MR, Arnett DK, Hauser ER, Rotter JI, Correa A, Hayward C, Horvath S, Marioni RE, Tomaszewski M, Beck S, Berndt SI, London SJ, Mychaleckyj JC, Franceschini N.  (2021). Genome Med, 13(1), 74.

Whole genome sequence analyses of eGFR in 23,732 people representing multiple ancestries in the NHLBI trans-omics for precision medicine (TOPMed) consortium. Lin BM, Grinde KE, Brody JA, Breeze CE, Raffield LM, Mychaleckyj JC, Thornton TA, Perry JA, Baier LJ, de Las Fuentes L, Guo X, Heavner BD, Hanson RL, Hung YJ, Qian H, Hsiung CA, Hwang SJ, Irvin MR, Jain D, Kelly TN, Kobes S, Lange L, Lash JP, Li Y, Liu X, Mi X, Musani SK, Papanicolaou GJ, Parsa A, Reiner AP, Salimi S, Sheu WH, Shuldiner AR, Taylor KD, Smith AV, Smith JA, Tin A, Vaidya D, Wallace RB, Yamamoto K, Sakaue S, Matsuda K, Kamatani Y, Momozawa Y, Yanek LR, Young BA, Zhao W, Okada Y, Abecasis G, Psaty BM, Arnett DK, Boerwinkle E, Cai J, Yii-Der Chen I, Correa A, Cupples LA, He J, Kardia SL, Kooperberg C, Mathias RA, Mitchell BD, Nickerson DA, Turner ST, Vasan RS, Rotter JI, Levy D, Kramer HJ, Köttgen A, Nhlbi Trans-Omics For Precision Medicine TOPMed Consortium, TOPMed Kidney Working Group, Rich SS, Lin DY, Browning SR, Franceschini N.  (2021). EBioMedicine, 63.

Genetics of kidney traits in worldwide populations: the Continental Origins and Genetic Epidemiology Network (COGENT) Kidney Consortium. Franceschini N, Morris AP.  (2020). Kidney Int., 98(1), 35-41.

Education