Scholars@Duke
Qingwen Chen

Selected Publications

A genome-wide association study of mass spectrometry proteomics using a nanoparticle enrichment platform.

Journal Article Nature genetics · December 2025 Most studies to date of protein quantitative trait loci (pQTLs) have relied on affinity proteomics platforms, which provide only limited information about the targeted protein isoforms and may be affected by genetic variation in their epitope binding. Here ... Full text Cite

Variations in Innate Immune Cell Subtypes Correlate with Epigenetic Clocks, Inflammaging and Health Outcomes.

Journal Article Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · November 2025 Epigenetic clocks in blood have shown promise as tools to quantify biological age, displaying robust associations with morbidity and all-cause mortality. Whilst the effect of cell-type heterogeneity on epigenetic clock estimates has been explored, such stu ... Full text Cite

Multi-Trait Polygenic Scores for COPD and COPD Exacerbations Implicate Druggable Proteins.

Journal Article medRxiv · August 26, 2025 OBJECTIVES: To construct multi-trait polygenic scores (PRS) predicting chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and exacerbations, validate their performance in diverse cohorts, and identify PRS-related proteins for potential therapeutic targeting. DES ... Full text Link to item Cite

A calcium-sensing receptor allelic series and underdiagnosis of genetically driven hypocalcemia.

Journal Article American journal of human genetics · August 2025 The availability of genomic sequencing has revealed that variants in genes that cause rare monogenic disorders are relatively common, which raises the question of variant pathogenicity. Autosomal-dominant hypocalcemia type 1 (ADH1) is a rare genetic form o ... Full text Cite

Serum microRNA expression quantitative trait loci in children with asthma colocalize with asthma-related GWAS results.

Journal Article NPJ genomic medicine · July 2025 Asthma poses a significant public health burden. Despite identifying more than a hundred genetic risk loci in genome-wide association studies (GWAS), the underlying functional mechanisms remain poorly understood. Studying omics, especially microRNAs (miRNA ... Full text Cite

Association between buprenorphine dose and outcomes among pregnant persons with opioid use disorder.

Journal Article American journal of obstetrics and gynecology · July 2025 BackgroundOpioid use disorder contributes to maternal morbidity and mortality in the United States. Little is known about how the patterns of buprenorphine dose and duration throughout pregnancy may affect neonatal and postpartum outcomes.Obje ... Full text Cite

Network analysis reveals protein modules associated with childhood respiratory diseases.

Journal Article The Journal of allergy and clinical immunology · July 2025 BackgroundThe first year of life represents a dynamic immune development period that impacts the risk of developing respiratory-related diseases, including asthma, recurrent infections, and eczema. However, the role of immune-mediating proteins in ... Full text Cite

Associations of APOE variants with sphingomyelin and cholesterol metabolites across the life-course in diverse populations.

Journal Article Metabolomics : Official journal of the Metabolomic Society · May 2025 IntroductionTwo alleles (ε2 and ε4) in the APOE gene are known to be strongly associated with lipid metabolism disorders, such as dyslipidemia, which are important risk factors for the development of cardiovascular diseases. While prior research h ... Full text Cite

A roadmap to precision medicine through post-genomic electronic medical records.

Journal Article Nature communications · February 2025 The promise of integrating Electronic Medical Records (EMR) and genetic data for precision medicine has largely fallen short due to its omission of environmental context over time. Post-genomic data can bridge this gap by capturing the real-time dynamic re ... Full text Cite

miRNAome-metabolome wide association study reveals effects of miRNA regulation in eosinophilia and airflow obstruction in childhood asthma.

Journal Article EBioMedicine · February 2025 BackgroundThere are important inter-relationships between miRNAs and metabolites: alterations in miRNA expression can be induced by various metabolic stimuli, and miRNAs play a regulatory role in numerous cellular processes, impacting metabolism. ... Full text Cite

Leveraging DNA methylation to create Epigenetic Biomarker Proxies that inform clinical care: A new framework for Precision Medicine.

Journal Article medRxiv · December 8, 2024 The lack of accurate, cost-effective, and clinically relevant biomarkers remains a major barrier to incorporating omic data into clinical practice. Previous studies have shown that DNA methylation algorithms have utility as surrogate measures for selected ... Full text Link to item Cite

High-dimensional Ageome Representations of Biological Aging across Functional Modules.

Journal Article bioRxiv · September 21, 2024 The aging process involves numerous molecular changes that lead to functional decline and increased disease and mortality risk. While epigenetic aging clocks have shown accuracy in predicting biological age, they typically provide single estimates for the ... Full text Link to item Cite

Untargeted metabolomic analysis reveals different metabolites associated with response to mepolizumab and omalizumab in asthma.

Journal Article ERJ open research · July 2024 BackgroundThere is limited evidence on biomarkers associated with response to the monoclonal antibodies currently approved for asthma treatment. We sought to identify circulatory metabolites associated with response to treatment with mepolizumab o ... Full text Cite

Quantifying the stochastic component of epigenetic aging.

Journal Article Nature aging · June 2024 DNA methylation clocks can accurately estimate chronological age and, to some extent, also biological age, yet the process by which age-associated DNA methylation (DNAm) changes are acquired appears to be quasi-stochastic, raising a fundamental question: h ... Full text Cite

A genome-wide association study of mass spectrometry proteomics using the Seer Proteograph platform.

Journal Article bioRxiv · June 1, 2024 Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) with proteomics are essential tools for drug discovery. To date, most studies have used affinity proteomics platforms, which have limited discovery to protein panels covered by the available affinity binders. Furtherm ... Full text Link to item Cite

OMICmAge: An integrative multi-omics approach to quantify biological age with electronic medical records

Conference Physiology · May 2024 Biological aging is a multifactorial process involving complex interactions of cellular and biochemical processes that is reflected in omic profiles. Using common clinical laboratory measures in ~30,000 individuals from the MGB-Biobank with balanc ... Full text Cite

Metabolite signatures associated with microRNA miR-143-3p serve as drivers of poor lung function trajectories in childhood asthma.

Journal Article EBioMedicine · April 2024 BackgroundLung function trajectories (LFTs) have been shown to be an important measure of long-term health in asthma. While there is a growing body of metabolomic studies on asthma status and other phenotypes, there are no prospective studies of t ... Full text Cite

Contraceptive Use Among Traditional Medicare And Medicare Advantage Enrollees.

Journal Article Health affairs (Project Hope) · January 2024 Medicare is the primary source of health insurance coverage for reproductive-age people with Social Security Disability Insurance. However, Medicare does not require contraceptive coverage for pregnancy prevention, and little is known about contraceptive u ... Full text Cite

Nucleotide, Phospholipid, and Kynurenine Metabolites Are Robustly Associated with COVID-19 Severity and Time of Plasma Sample Collection in a Prospective Cohort Study.

Journal Article International journal of molecular sciences · December 2023 Understanding the molecular underpinnings of disease severity and progression in human studies is necessary to develop metabolism-related preventative strategies for severe COVID-19. Metabolites and metabolic pathways that predispose individuals to severe ... Full text Cite

OMICmAge: An integrative multi-omics approach to quantify biological age with electronic medical records.

Journal Article bioRxiv · October 24, 2023 Biological aging is a multifactorial process involving complex interactions of cellular and biochemical processes that is reflected in omic profiles. Using common clinical laboratory measures in ~30,000 individuals from the MGB-Biobank, we developed a robu ... Full text Link to item Cite

The value of prospective metabolomic susceptibility endotypes: broad applicability for infectious diseases.

Journal Article EBioMedicine · October 2023 BackgroundAs new infectious diseases (ID) emerge and others continue to mutate, there remains an imminent threat, especially for vulnerable individuals. Yet no generalizable framework exists to identify the at-risk group prior to infection. Metabo ... Full text Cite

A meta-analysis of immune-cell fractions at high resolution reveals novel associations with common phenotypes and health outcomes.

Journal Article Genome medicine · July 2023 BackgroundChanges in cell-type composition of tissues are associated with a wide range of diseases and environmental risk factors and may be causally implicated in disease development and progression. However, these shifts in cell-type fractions a ... Full text Cite

Sex-related differences in the prevalence of substance use disorders, treatment, and overdose among parents with young children.

Journal Article Addictive behaviors reports · June 2023 IntroductionRisk factors and treatment rates for substance use disorders (SUDs) differ by sex. Females often have greater childcare and household responsibilities than males, which may inhibit SUD treatment. We examined how SUD, medication for opi ... Full text Cite

Duration of medication for opioid use disorder during pregnancy and postpartum by race/ethnicity: Results from 6 state Medicaid programs.

Journal Article Drug and alcohol dependence · June 2023 BackgroundMedication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) is evidence-based treatment during pregnancy and postpartum. Prior studies show racial/ethnic differences in receipt of MOUD during pregnancy. Fewer studies have examined racial/ethnic difference ... Full text Cite

Explaining Racial-ethnic Disparities in the Receipt of Medication for Opioid Use Disorder during Pregnancy.

Journal Article Journal of addiction medicine · November 2022 ObjectiveFactors contributing to racial and ethnic disparities in medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) receipt during pregnancy are largely unknown. We quantified the contribution of individual, healthcare access and quality, and community fa ... Full text Cite

Disparities in geographic access to medical oncologists.

Journal Article Health services research · October 2022 ObjectiveThe objective of this study is to identify disparities in geographic access to medical oncologists at the time of diagnosis.Data sources/study setting2014-2016 Pennsylvania Cancer Registry (PCR), 2019 CMS Base Provider Enrollment ... Full text Cite

Outcomes associated with the use of medications for opioid use disorder during pregnancy.

Journal Article Addiction (Abingdon, England) · December 2021 AimTo test the effect of the duration of medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) use during pregnancy on maternal, perinatal and neonatal outcomes.DesignRetrospective cohort analysis of claims, encounter and pharmacy data.Setting Full text Cite

Substance use disorders and risk of severe maternal morbidity in the United States.

Journal Article Drug and alcohol dependence · November 2020 BackgroundThe contribution of substance use disorders to the burden of severe maternal morbidity in the United States is poorly understood. The objective was to estimate the independent association between substance use disorders during pregnancy ... Full text Cite