About the Authors

Mengling Liu

Affiliation Department of Environmental Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York, United States of America

Linda Rogers

Affiliation Department of Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York, United States of America

Qinyi Cheng

Affiliation Department of Environmental Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York, United States of America

Yongzhao Shao

Affiliation Department of Environmental Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York, United States of America

Maria Elena Fernandez-Beros

Affiliation Department of Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York, United States of America

Joel N. Hirschhorn

Affiliations Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, Divisions of Genetics and Endocrinology, Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America

Helen N. Lyon

Affiliations Divisions of Genetics and Endocrinology, Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America

Zofia K. Z. Gajdos

Affiliations Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, Divisions of Genetics and Endocrinology, Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America

Sailaja Vedantam

Affiliations Divisions of Genetics and Endocrinology, Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America

Peter Gregersen

Affiliation Robert S. Boas Center for Genomics and Human Genetics, Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, Manhasset, New York, United States of America

Michael F. Seldin

Affiliation Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, University of California Davis, Sacramento, California, United States of America

Bertram Bleck

Affiliation Department of Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York, United States of America

Adaikalavan Ramasamy

Affiliation Respiratory Epidemiology and Public Health, Imperial College, London, United Kingdom

Anna-Liisa Hartikainen

Affiliation Department of Clinical Sciences, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

Marjo-Riitta Jarvelin

Affiliation Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Imperial College, London, United Kingdom

Mikko Kuokkanen

Affiliation Department of Chronic Disease Prevention, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Oulu, Finland

Tarja Laitinen

Affiliation Department of Pulmonary Diseases and Clinical Allergology, Turku University Hospital and University of Turku, Turku, Finland

Johan Eriksson

Affiliation National Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care, University of Helsinki, Finland Helsinki University Central Hospital, Unit of General Practice, Helsinki, Finland Folkhalsan Research Centre, Helsinki, Finland Vasa Central Hospital, Vasa, Finland

Terho Lehtimäki

Affiliation Department of Clinical Chemistry, University of Tampere and Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland

Olli T. Raitakari

Affiliation Research Centre of Applied and Preventive Medicine, University of Turku and Department of Clinical Physiology, Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland

Joan Reibman

joan.reibman@nyumc.org

Affiliations Department of Environmental Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York, United States of America, Department of Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: ML LR YS JNH PG MFS JR. Performed the experiments: LR MEFB PG BB AR ALH MRJ MK T.Laitinen JE T.Lehtimäki OTR JR. Analyzed the data: ML LR QC YS MEFB JNH HNL ZKZG JR. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: ML YS JNH PG MFS SV. Wrote the paper: ML LR QC YS JNH PG JR.