Michael G. Levin, MD

Research

From discovery to the bedside.

Drug target identification & validation

Large-scale genetic discovery across common and rare variants — built on bioinformatics and deep phenotyping — paired with fine-mapping, colocalization, and Mendelian randomization to nominate candidate genes and evaluate their putative causal roles.

Cardiovascular risk prediction

We build, benchmark, and clinically evaluate polygenic risk scores against deeply phenotyped biobank and clinical cohorts for cardiovascular risk stratification.

Clinical translation

Genetically-informed clinical trials and mechanistic clinical studies that test what genetic discoveries imply about human biology.

We work with biobanks including the Million Veteran Program, Penn Medicine BioBank, UK Biobank, and All of Us — across cardiovascular phenotypes including atherosclerosis, lipoproteins including lipoprotein(a), and heart failure and cardiomyopathy.

Highlights

100+ publications in journals including JAMA, Nature Genetics, and Circulation.

From gene to trial

A missense variant in IL6R protects against peripheral artery disease (Circulation Research, 2021) — a genetics-nominated target now being tested in our ongoing clinical trial of colchicine in PAD.

Toward the clinic

Widely-used coronary heart disease polygenic risk scores give discordant individual-level risk estimates (JAMA, 2025) — defining a clinical-implementation gap that must close before PRS reach the bedside.

Selected Publications

Clark MG, Levin MG. Polygenic Risk Scores for Cardiovascular Disease: Closing the Gap Between Prediction and Practice. JACC. 2026;88(10):1090-1092. doi:10.1016/j.jacc.2026.03.089

Hartmann K, Gannon M, Natarajan P, Greenland P, Biobank PM, Levin M. Association of a polygenic risk score with coronary atherosclerotic burden in clinical CT angiograms. 2026. doi:10.64898/2026.05.26.26353801

Sharma P, Judy R, Yuan S, Gellatly C, Saxby KL, Rader DJ, Bown MJ, Levin MG, Damrauer SM. Lipoprotein(a) Is Associated With Increased Risk of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm. JACC: Basic to Translational Science. 2026;11(2):101457. doi:10.1016/j.jacbts.2025.101457. Authorship Note: MGL and SMD contributed equally

Sierra-Pagan JE, Levin MG. Cardiovascular Risk Prediction in Breast Cancer Survivors: Are Polygenic Scores Ready for Prime Time? JACC: CardioOncology. 2026;8(1):77-79. doi:10.1016/j.jaccao.2025.12.001

Sharma P, Levin M. MRI-Derived Fat Depots and Cardiometabolic Pathways Underlying Heart Failure Risk: A Mendelian Randomization Study. 2026. doi:10.64898/2026.07.06.26357230

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Michael G. Levin, MD — Levin Lab

Human genetics, translated into medicine.

From discovery to the bedside.