The contractor will take advantage of the existing large and unique Women's Health Initiative biological resource, which includes bio-banked blood from a large number of postmenopausal women who have been extensively phenotyped over a follow up period of up to 19 years. The contractor will carefully profile the DNA and plasma of coronary heart disease (CHD) cases (n ~ 1070), as well as an appropriate set of controls (n =~1070), using two complementary, but well-validated, genomic technologies at baseline. These high throughput genomic technologies are expected to generate high quality and high-resolution genome wide DNA methylation profiles as well as a comprehensive assessment of circulating microRNA levels in plasma. The contractor will then comprehensively analyze and integrate this genomic data with existing clinical, genetic, and biomarker data using state of the art statistical methodologies developed by members of the investigative team to identify genomic signatures and pathways relevant to CHD and its risk factors.
