About the Authors

Jenna N. McNeill

Contributed equally to this work with: Jenna N. McNeill, Dong Heon Lee

Roles Conceptualization, Methodology, Visualization, Writing – original draft

Affiliation Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Dong Heon Lee

Contributed equally to this work with: Jenna N. McNeill, Dong Heon Lee

Roles Methodology, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation The Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, Massachusetts, and the Population Sciences Branch, Division of Intramural Research, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America

Shih-Jen Hwang

Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Methodology, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation The Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, Massachusetts, and the Population Sciences Branch, Division of Intramural Research, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America

Paul Courchesne

Roles Data curation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation The Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, Massachusetts, and the Population Sciences Branch, Division of Intramural Research, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America

Chen Yao

Roles Writing – review & editing

Affiliation The Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, Massachusetts, and the Population Sciences Branch, Division of Intramural Research, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America

Tianxiao Huan

Roles Writing – review & editing

Affiliation The Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, Massachusetts, and the Population Sciences Branch, Division of Intramural Research, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America

Roby Joehanes

Roles Writing – review & editing

Affiliation The Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, Massachusetts, and the Population Sciences Branch, Division of Intramural Research, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America

George T. O’Connor

Roles Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Pulmonary Center, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Jennifer E. Ho

Roles Conceptualization, Project administration, Supervision, Visualization, Writing – original draft

Affiliation Division of Cardiology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Daniel Levy

Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Project administration, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Levyd@nih.gov

Affiliation The Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, Massachusetts, and the Population Sciences Branch, Division of Intramural Research, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have read the journal’s policy and have the following competing interests: Jennifer Ho received research support from Gilead Sciences and Bayer AG, and research supplies from EcoNugenics. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and Ionis Pharmaceuticals entered into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) to conduct research targeting the AGER gene in relation to lung disease. Daniel Levy is the NHLBI principal investigator on the CRADA. Neither Daniel Levy nor the NHLBI is receiving any funding from Ionis Pharmaceuticals in conjunction with the CRADA. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products associated with this research to declare. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.