Dr. Robert Kaplanis an epidemiologist with expertise in cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity and other metabolic conditions. His major projects and roles include Steering Committee chair and PI of the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS-SOL) cohort of 16,425 Hispanic/Latino adults. As PI of HCHS-SOL, he has primary responsibility for leading the team at the Bronx Field Center, which has over 4,000 study participants in active follow-up, as well as leading the overall oversight and scientific direction for this long-term multicenter cohort study. This project, sponsored by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and six other NIH Institutes and Centers including NIDDK, is the largest long-term study of Hispanics ever conducted in the U.S.
In addition to HCHS-SOL, Dr. Kaplan has extensive experience with longitudinal cohort studies on cardiometabolic disease funded by NHLBI and NIDDK, including the NIH Cardiovascular Health Study, CHS, on which he has collaborated since 1995 and Steering Committee member. He also has considerable experience in genomic epidemiology (genetics, transcriptomics, etc) that will be brought to bear in this program of research. (e.g., Genetic Investigation of ANthropometric Traits (GIANT) consortium Steering Committee Member, GUARDIAN collaboration on the genetics of type 2 diabetes in Hispanics (sub-PI), and the CHARGE consortium on the genetics of cardiovascular, metabolic and aging traits Steering Committee member and Working Group Chair). Finally, Dr. Kaplan has played a leading role in clarifying the risks of cardiovascular complications of long-term HIV infection and its treatments. This has involved longitudinal cohort studies within large US based cohorts including the Women's Interagency HIV Study (WIHS) and Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS). Investigations have focused on immune, inflammatory, medication-related, and genetic determinants of cardiovascular disease and related risk factors (e.g., diabetes).