John W. Cole, MD

Dr. Cole is an Associate Professor of Neurology with the Neurology Departments at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the Baltimore Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Dr. Cole is an ABPN certified vascular neurologist whose research focuses on understanding stroke etiology through epidemiologic and genetic approaches, leading to  the development of new preventive strategies. Such strategies may include the development of new drugs for stroke prevention, as well as using genetic testing to identify high-risk individuals for personalized stroke risk factor modification. His current research focuses upon stroke risk as mediated through genetic predisposition and environmental factors, including cigarette smoking and infectious etiologies, among others. His trainees are directly involved in patient- and database-oriented research under his guidance and learn to conduct clinical and epidemiological research regarding stroke risk factors and prevention. Trainees also learn about genetic and molecular methodologies to study mechanisms of stroke as associated with the inflammatory and coagulation pathways. He regularly speaks at both international and national conferences regarding these topics, with a primary emphasis on stroke prevention.

Stroke Prevention, Stroke Genetics, Genetic Epidemiology of Complex Disease, Vascular Biology

Traylor M, Malik R, Nalls MA, Cotlarciuc I, Radmanesh F, Thorleifsson G, Hanscombe KB, Langefeld C, Saleheen D, Rost NS, Yet I, Spector TD, Bell JT, Hannon E, Mill J, Chauhan G, Debette S, Bis JC, Longstreth WT Jr, Ikram MA, Launer LJ, Seshadri S; METASTROKE, UK Young Lacunar DNA Study, NINDS Stroke Genetics Network, Neurology Working Group of the CHARGE Consortium., Hamilton-Bruce MA, Jimenez-Conde J, Cole JW, Schmidt R, Słowik A, Lemmens R, Lindgren A, Melander O, Grewal RP, Sacco RL, Rundek T, Rexrode K, Arnett DK, Johnson JA, Benavente OR, Wasssertheil-Smoller S, Lee JM, Pulit SL, Wong Q, Rich SS, de Bakker PI, McArdle PF, Woo D, Anderson CD, Xu H, Heitsch L, Fornage M, Jern C, Stefansson K, Thorsteinsdottir U, Gretarsdottir S, Lewis CM, Sharma P, Sudlow CL, Rothwell PM, Boncoraglio GB, Thijs V, Levi C, Meschia JF, Rosand J, Kittner SJ, Mitchell BD, Dichgans M, Worrall BB, Markus HS; International Stroke Genetics Consortium. Genetic variation at 16q24.2 is associated with small vessel stroke. Ann Neurol. 2017 Mar;81(3):383-394. doi: 10.1002/ana.24840.

Loci associated with ischaemic stroke and its subtypes (SiGN): a genome-wide association study. NINDS Stroke Genetics Network (SiGN); International Stroke Genetics Consortium (ISGC). Lancet Neurology. 2015 December. PMID: 26708676.

Cole JW, Stine OC, Liu X, Pratap A, Cheng Y, Tallon LJ, Sadzewicz LK, Dueker N, Wozniak MA, Stern BJ, Meschia JF, Mitchell BD, Kittner SJ, O'Connell JR. Rare variants in ischemic stroke: an exome pilot study. PLoS One. 2012;7(4):e35591. PMID: 22536414.

Debette S, Kamatani Y, Metso TM, Kloss M, Chauhan G, Engelter ST, Pezzini A, Thijs V, Markus HS, Dichgans M, Wolf C, Dittrich R, Touzé E, Southerland AM, Samson Y, Abboud S, Béjot Y, Caso V, Bersano A, Gschwendtner A, Sessa M, Cole J, et al.; International Stroke Genetics Consortium; CADISP group. Common variation in PHACTR1 is associated with susceptibility to cervical artery dissection. Nat Genet. 2015 Jan;47(1):78-83. PMID: 25420145.

Cheng YC, Stanne TM, Giese AK, Ho WK, Traylor M, Amouyel P, Holliday EG, Malik R, Xu H, Kittner SJ, Cole JW, et al. Genome-Wide Association Analysis of Young-Onset Stroke Identifies a Locus on Chromosome 10q25 Near HABP2. Stroke. 2016 Feb;47(2):307-16. PMID: 26732560.