About the Authors

Mengmeng Du

mdu@fhcrc.org

Affiliations Department of Epidemiology, University of Washington School of Public Health, Seattle, Washington, United States of America, Public Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington, United States of America, Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Jennifer Prescott

Affiliations Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, Program in Molecular and Genetic Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Marilyn C. Cornelis

Affiliation Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Susan E. Hankinson

Affiliations Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, University of Massachusetts School of Public Health and Health Sciences, Amherst, Massachusetts, United States of America

Edward Giovannucci

Affiliations Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Peter Kraft

Affiliations Program in Molecular and Genetic Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Immaculata De Vivo

Affiliations Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, Program in Molecular and Genetic Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Competing Interests

The genome-wide association study of cardiovascular disease was supported in part by Merck/Rosetta Research Laboratories. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: MD JP MC SEH EG PK ID. Data interpretation: MD JP MC SEH EG PK ID. Analyzed the data: MD JP. Wrote the paper: MD JP MC SEH EG PK ID. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: MD JP MC SEH EG PK ID. Performed the experiments: MD JP.