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Who is Dr. Pradeep Natarajan? Indian American cardiovascular geneticist to receive 2026 Population Research Prize
Dr. Pradeep Natarajan of Massachusetts General Hospital will receive the 2026 Population Research Prize from the American Heart Association.
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Dr. Pradeep Natarajan, a cardiovascular geneticist and physician-scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, will receive the American Heart Association’s 2026 Population Research Prize for his work using human genetics and large population studies to understand and prevent cardiovascular disease.
The American Heart Association said Natarajan will receive the award during its Scientific Sessions in Chicago on November 8. The meeting runs from November 6 to 9.
Who is Pradeep Natarajan?
Natarajan is the Director of Preventive Cardiology at Massachusetts General Hospital and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. His Mass General profile identifies him as a preventive cardiologist who researches the genetic drivers of human atherosclerosis.
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His work focuses on using naturally occurring genetic variation, large-scale sequencing and biomedical data to better understand cardiovascular disease and improve prevention. The Mass General Cardiovascular Research Center says his research examines genetic factors that influence disease, cardiovascular risk prediction and potential therapeutic targets.
Natarajan has particularly studied lipid disorders, coronary artery disease and clonal hematopoiesis. The AHA said his research has also advanced polygenic risk scores and precision-medicine approaches that could help identify people at elevated cardiovascular risk earlier.
The AHA said Natarajan joined Amgen in August 2026 as vice president of global research, head of human genetics and head of the Cardiometabolic Therapeutic Area. He continues to serve as a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and as a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Education and research career
Natarajan earned his bachelor's degree from the University of California, Berkeley, followed by his medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco. He later received a Master of Medical Sciences degree in biomedical informatics from Harvard Medical School, according to the AHA and his Mass General profile.
He completed his internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and his cardiovascular medicine fellowship and postdoctoral training in human genetics at Massachusetts General Hospital.
His research has involved large population cohorts and biobanks, genetic epidemiology and genomic studies. Mass General says his work aims to use human genetic variation to understand disease mechanisms and translate those findings into improved preventive cardiovascular care.
The AHA said Natarajan has authored or co-authored more than 330 peer-reviewed publications and has led several NIH-funded investigations, including an $11.2 million NIH Common Fund project studying somatic mosaicism across human tissues.
Why is he receiving the AHA award?
The AHA said Natarajan's research has helped advance the interpretation of whole-genome sequencing for cardiovascular disease, identify genetic pathways involved in lipid metabolism and coronary artery disease, and develop polygenic risk prediction tools.
He has also been involved with the AHA for more than a decade. According to the association's announcement, he has served on its Data Science and Precision Medicine Committee since 2020 and has chaired the committee since 2024.
Natarajan previously received the AHA's Joseph A. Vita Award in 2023 and its Genomic and Precision Medicine Mid-Career Award in 2025.
