Goal: To help provide context-specific solutions to control the epidemic of chronic diseases in low- and middle-income countries, and to advance understanding of disease by leveraging the striking heterogeneity of environmental, lifestyle and genetic exposures in these populations.
Achievements: We have established a portfolio of studies in various emerging economies, with a particular focus on settings with rapidly increasing rates of cardiometabolic conditions (eg, heart disease and diabetes). They include BELIEVE (a 25,000-participant household survey in Bangladesh), MAVERIK (a 5000-participant case-control study of myocardial infarction in Malaysia), and PROMIS (a 40,000-participant case-control study of myocardial infarction in Pakistan). Initial findings have highlighted the important interplay of universal risk factors (eg, blood lipids) and local factors (eg, consanguinity, toxic metal exposure).