About the Authors

Conall M. O'Seaghdha

Writing group.

Affiliations National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Framingham Heart Study and Center for Population Studies, Framingham, Massachusetts, United States of America, Renal Division, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Hongsheng Wu

Affiliations National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Framingham Heart Study and Center for Population Studies, Framingham, Massachusetts, United States of America, Department of Biostatistics, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, Department of Medical Biology, University of Split, School of Medicine, Split, Croatia

Qiong Yang

Affiliations National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Framingham Heart Study and Center for Population Studies, Framingham, Massachusetts, United States of America, Department of Biostatistics, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Karen Kapur

Affiliation Department of Medical Genetics, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

Idris Guessous

Writing group.

Affiliations Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (IUMSP), Lausanne University Hospital, Lausanne, Switzerland, Unit of Population Epidemiology, Division of Primary Care Medicine, Department of Community Medicine and Primary Care and Emergency Medicine, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland, Geriatric Unit, Azienda Sanitaria Firenze (ASF), Florence, Italy

Annie Mercier Zuber

Affiliation Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

Anna Köttgen

Writing group.

Affiliations Renal Division, Freiburg University Hospital, Freiburg, Germany, Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America

Candice Stoudmann

Affiliation Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

Alexander Teumer

Affiliation Interfaculty Institute for Genetics and Functional Genomics, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

Zoltán Kutalik

Affiliations Department of Medical Genetics, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland, Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland

Massimo Mangino

Affiliation King's College London, St. Thomas' Hospital Campus, London, United Kingdom

Abbas Dehghan

Affiliation Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Weihua Zhang

Affiliations Catheter Lab, Cardiology, Ealing Hospital, Southall, Middlesex, United Kingdom, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom

Gudny Eiriksdottir

Affiliation Icelandic Heart Association Research Institute, Kopavogur, Iceland

Guo Li

Affiliation Cardiovascular Health Research Unit, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America

Toshiko Tanaka

Affiliation Clinical Research Branch, National Institute on Aging, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America

Laura Portas

Affiliation Institute of Population Genetics, CNR-Traversa La Crucca, Reg. Baldinca Li Punti, Sassari, Italy

Lorna M. Lopez

Affiliation Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Caroline Hayward

Affiliation MRC Human Genetics Unit, MRC IGMM, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Kurt Lohman

Affiliation Cardiology Group, ClinPhenomics GmbH&Co KG, Frankfurt-Sachsenhausen, Germany

Koichi Matsuda

Affiliation Laboratory of Molecular Medicine, Human Genome Center, Institute of Medical Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

Sandosh Padmanabhan

Affiliation BHF Glasgow Cardiovascular Research Centre, Division of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland

Dmitri Firsov

Affiliation Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

Rossella Sorice

Affiliation Institute of Genetics and Biophysics ‘Adriano-Buzzati Traverso’, CNR, Napoli, Italy

Sheila Ulivi

Affiliation Institute for Maternal and Child Health - IRCCS “Burlo Garofolo”, Trieste, Italy

A. Catharina Brockhaus

Affiliations Institute of Genetic Epidemiology, Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany, Department of Medicine I, University Hospital Grosshadern, Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich, Munich, Germany

Marcus E. Kleber

Affiliations Department of Internal Medicine II – Cardiology, University of Ulm Medical Centre, Ulm, Germany, Mannheim Institute of Public Health, Social and Preventive Medicine, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany

Anubha Mahajan

Affiliation Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, Roosevelt Drive, Oxford, United Kingdom

Florian D. Ernst

Affiliation Interfaculty Institute for Genetics and Functional Genomics, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

Vilmundur Gudnason

Affiliations Icelandic Heart Association Research Institute, Kopavogur, Iceland, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland

Lenore J. Launer

Affiliation Laboratory of Epidemiology, Demography and Biometry, National Institute on Aging, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America

Aurelien Mace

Affiliations Department of Medical Genetics, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland, Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland

Eric Boerwinckle

Affiliation University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, Texas, United States of America

Dan E. Arking

Affiliation McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America

Chizu Tanikawa

Affiliation Laboratory of Molecular Medicine, Human Genome Center, Institute of Medical Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

Yusuke Nakamura

Affiliation Laboratory of Molecular Medicine, Human Genome Center, Institute of Medical Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

Morris J. Brown

Affiliation Cambridge Institute of Medical Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Jean-Michel Gaspoz

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Jean-Marc Theler

Affiliation Unit of Population Epidemiology, Division of Primary Care Medicine, Department of Community Medicine and Primary Care and Emergency Medicine, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland

David S. Siscovick

Affiliations Cardiovascular Health Research Unit, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America, Departments of Medicine and Epidemiology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America

Bruce M. Psaty

Affiliations Cardiovascular Health Research Unit, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America, Group Health Research Institute, Group Health Cooperative, Seattle, Washington, United States of America, Departments of Medicine, Epidemiology and Health Services, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America

Sven Bergmann

Affiliations Department of Medical Genetics, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland, Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland

Peter Vollenweider

Affiliation Department of Medicine, Internal Medicine, Lausanne University Hospital, Lausanne, Switzerland

Veronique Vitart

Affiliation MRC Human Genetics Unit, MRC IGMM, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Alan F. Wright

Affiliation MRC Human Genetics Unit, MRC IGMM, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Tatijana Zemunik

Affiliation Faculty of Medicine, University of Split, Split, Croatia

Mladen Boban

Affiliation Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Split, Split, Croatia

Ivana Kolcic

Affiliation Faculty of Medicine, University of Split, Split, Croatia

Pau Navarro

Affiliation MRC Human Genetics Unit, MRC IGMM, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Edward M. Brown

Affiliation Division of Laboratory Medicine, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland

Karol Estrada

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States of America

Jingzhong Ding

Affiliation Division of Laboratory Medicine, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland

Tamara B. Harris

Affiliation Laboratory of Epidemiology, Demography and Biometry, National Institute on Aging, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America

Stefania Bandinelli

Affiliation Department of Human Genetics, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Dena Hernandez

Affiliation Molecular Genetics Section, Laboratory of Neurogenetics, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America

Andrew B. Singleton

Affiliation Molecular Genetics Section, Laboratory of Neurogenetics, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America

Giorgia Girotto

Affiliation Institute for Maternal and Child Health - IRCCS “Burlo Garofolo”, Trieste, Italy

Daniela Ruggiero

Affiliation Institute of Genetics and Biophysics ‘Adriano-Buzzati Traverso’, CNR, Napoli, Italy

Adamo Pio d'Adamo

Affiliation Institute for Maternal and Child Health - IRCCS “Burlo Garofolo”, Trieste, Italy

Antonietta Robino

Affiliation Institute for Maternal and Child Health - IRCCS “Burlo Garofolo”, Trieste, Italy

Thomas Meitinger

Affiliations Institute of Human Genetics, Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany, Department of Computer Science and Networking, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Christa Meisinger

Affiliation Institute of Epidemiology II, Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany

Gail Davies

Affiliation Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

John M. Starr

Affiliation Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

John C. Chambers

Affiliations Catheter Lab, Cardiology, Ealing Hospital, Southall, Middlesex, United Kingdom, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Imperial College London, Norfolk Place, London, United Kingdom

Bernhard O. Boehm

Affiliations Ulm University Medical Centre, Department of Internal Medicine I, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany, LKC School of Medicine, Imperial College London and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

Bernhard R. Winkelmann

Affiliation Department of Epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America

Jie Huang

Affiliation Division of Primary Care Medicine, Department of Community Medicine and Primary Care and Emergency Medicine , Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland

Federico Murgia

Affiliation Institute of Population Genetics, CNR-Traversa La Crucca, Reg. Baldinca Li Punti, Sassari, Italy

Sarah H. Wild

Affiliation Centre for Population Health Sciences, The University of Edinburgh Medical School, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom

Harry Campbell

Affiliation Centre for Population Health Sciences, The University of Edinburgh Medical School, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom

Andrew P. Morris

Affiliation Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, Roosevelt Drive, Oxford, United Kingdom

Oscar H. Franco

Affiliation Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Albert Hofman

Affiliation Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Andre G. Uitterlinden

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States of America

Fernando Rivadeneira

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States of America

Uwe Völker

Affiliation Interfaculty Institute for Genetics and Functional Genomics, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

Anke Hannemann

Affiliation Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, University Medicine Greifswald, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

Reiner Biffar

Affiliation Department of Prosthetic Dentistry, Gerostomatology and Dental Materials, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

Wolfgang Hoffmann

Affiliation Institute for Community Medicine, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

So–Youn Shin

Affiliation Human Genetics, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, United Kingdom

Pierre Lescuyer

Affiliation Department of Biostatistical Sciences, Division of Public Health Sciences, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States of America

Hughes Henry

Affiliation Clinical Chemistry Laboratory, Lausanne University Hospital, Lausanne, Switzerland

Claudia Schurmann

Affiliation Interfaculty Institute for Genetics and Functional Genomics, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

The SUNLIGHT consortium
The GEFOS consortium
Patricia B. Munroe

Affiliation William Harvey Research Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom

Paolo Gasparini

Affiliation Institute for Maternal and Child Health - IRCCS “Burlo Garofolo”, Trieste, Italy

Nicola Pirastu

Affiliation Institute for Maternal and Child Health - IRCCS “Burlo Garofolo”, Trieste, Italy

Marina Ciullo

Affiliation Institute of Genetics and Biophysics ‘Adriano-Buzzati Traverso’, CNR, Napoli, Italy

Christian Gieger

Affiliation Institute of Genetic Epidemiology, Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany

Winfried März

Affiliations Mannheim Institute of Public Health, Social and Preventive Medicine, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany, Synlab Centre of Laboratory Diagnostics, Heidelberg, Germany

Lars Lind

Affiliation Institute of Medical Sciences, Uppsala University Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden

Tim D. Spector

Affiliation King's College London, St. Thomas' Hospital Campus, London, United Kingdom

Albert V. Smith

Affiliations Icelandic Heart Association Research Institute, Kopavogur, Iceland, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland

Igor Rudan

Affiliation Centre for Population Health Sciences, The University of Edinburgh Medical School, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom

James F. Wilson

Affiliation Centre for Population Health Sciences, The University of Edinburgh Medical School, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom

Ozren Polasek

Affiliation Faculty of Medicine, University of Split, Split, Croatia

Ian J. Deary

Affiliation Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Mario Pirastu

Affiliation Institute of Population Genetics, CNR-Traversa La Crucca, Reg. Baldinca Li Punti, Sassari, Italy

Luigi Ferrucci

Affiliation Laboratory of Epidemiology, Demography and Biometry, National Institute on Aging, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America

Yongmei Liu

Affiliation Department of Epidemiology and Prevention, Division of Public Health Sciences, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States of America

Bryan Kestenbaum

Affiliation Department of Medicine, Division of Nephrology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America

Jaspal S. Kooner

Affiliations Catheter Lab, Cardiology, Ealing Hospital, Southall, Middlesex, United Kingdom, Faculty of Medicine, National Heart & Lung Institute, Cardiovascular Science, Hammersmith Hospital, Hammersmith Campus, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London, United Kingdom

Jacqueline C. M. Witteman

Affiliation Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Matthias Nauck

Affiliation Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, University Medicine Greifswald, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

W. H. Linda Kao

Affiliations Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America, Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research, John Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America

Henri Wallaschofski

Writing group.

Affiliation Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, University Medicine Greifswald, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

Olivier Bonny

Contributed equally to this work with: Olivier Bonny, Caroline S. Fox, Murielle Bochud

Writing group.

Affiliations Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland, Service of Nephrology, Lausanne University Hospital, Lausanne, Switzerland

Caroline S. Fox

Contributed equally to this work with: Olivier Bonny, Caroline S. Fox, Murielle Bochud

foxca@nhlbi.nih.gov (CF); Murielle.Bochud@chuv.ch (MB)

Writing group.

Affiliations National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Framingham Heart Study and Center for Population Studies, Framingham, Massachusetts, United States of America, Division of Endocrinology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Murielle Bochud

Contributed equally to this work with: Olivier Bonny, Caroline S. Fox, Murielle Bochud

foxca@nhlbi.nih.gov (CF); Murielle.Bochud@chuv.ch (MB)

Writing group.

Affiliation Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (IUMSP), Lausanne University Hospital, Lausanne, Switzerland

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: CMOS HWu QY KK WHLK HWa OB CSF MBoc. Performed the experiments: CMOS HWu QY KK IG AMZ AK CSt ZK TH GE LJL VG DEA LF DSS BMP OHF AHo AGU JCMW IJD JMS MP EMB PV SBe CH VV SBa IR OP JW HC JSK JCC AHa CSc MN RB UV PBM MJB JMT JMG TDS WH APM LL WM BOB BRW CG CM WHLK HWa OB CSF MBoc. Analyzed the data: CMOS HWu QY KK IG AMZ AK AT ZK YL TH JD KL AVS GE LJL VG TT GL AD FR LML LP FM JH AMac SBe CH VV JFW WZ AHo AGU FR KE SP MM FDE AMah WH APM MEK ACB CG WHLK HWa OB CSF MBoc. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: IG YL VG EB DH AS DSS BMP AGU FR IJD JMS MP PV GD VV CH JSK JCC PBM MM SYS APM MEK TM WHLK HWa CSF MBoc. Wrote the paper: CMOS IG AK HWa OB CSF MBoc. Revising and reviewing the manuscript for important intellectual content: CMOS HWu QY KK IG AMZ AK CSto AT ZK MM AD WZ GE GL TT LP LML CH KL KM SP DF RS SU ACB MEK AMah FDE VG LJL AMac EB DEA CT YN MJB JMG JMT DSS BMP SBe PV VV AFW TZ MBob IK PN EMB KE JD TBH SBa DH ABS GG DR APA AR TM CM GD JMS JCC BOB BRW JH FM SHW HC APM OHF AHo AGU FR UV AHa RB WH SYS PL HH CSc PBM PG NP MC CG WM LL TDS AVS IR JFW OP IJD MP LF YL BK JSK JCMW MN WHLK HWa OB CSF MBoc.