USU Partners with Mount Sinai, HJF in Landmark Study to Predict Chronic Disease through 'Big Data'

The Uniformed Services University leverages the Military Health System Data Repository and advanced "omics" to identify preclinical markers for over 25 chronic diseases, enhancing warfighter readiness and long-term health.

March 12, 2026 by Dr. Daniel Adams

The Uniformed Services University (USU) has launched a major research initiative alongside the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine (HJF) to redefine how chronic illness is detected and treated.

The project, titled "ORIGIN: Omics to Characterize Preclinical Stages of Non-Infectious Diseases," aims to identify the biological "tripwires" for cancers, autoimmune disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, and heart disease long before clinical symptoms appear. By pinpointing these early immunologic changes, researchers seek to develop targeted treatments that preserve the health and operational longevity of the joint force.

Leading USU's contribution is the Department of Pediatrics Health System's Research & Clinical Epidemiology Division, a team whose expertise is built on utilizing existing "big data" to address critical knowledge gaps in medicine. The Division has a proven track record in epidemiology, health services, and clinical outcomes research, demonstrating an exceptional ability to reveal novel findings that can only be discovered through the analysis of massive datasets.

"Our Division's role will be to use the Military Health System Data Repository to perform highly refined case selection for each condition of interest," said Daniel J. Adams, MD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics and the USU Principal Investigator for ORIGIN.

The research process follows a sophisticated pipeline of data and biological analysis. Once subjects are identified, USU coordinates with the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Division to aggregate clinical data, deployment records, and banked "pre-illness" serum samples. These materials are then sent to Mount Sinai, where they undergo analysis via advanced molecular "omics" tools.

These technologies allow researchers to look back in time at samples collected years before a diagnosis. The goal is to uncover:

• Early risk factors tied to military-specific environmental exposures.
• Immunologic shifts that precede more than 25 different chronic diseases.
• Biological markers that could lead to immunologically targeted preventative care.

The ORIGIN project dramatically expands upon a decade-long, successful collaboration between the Naval Medical Research Command and Mount Sinai evaluating inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). "I am greatly indebted to my mentor, Dr. Cade M. Nylund, for initiating this Mount Sinai partnership with the PREDICT study on IBD," said Adams, "and I am thrilled to take the baton and expand this work into additional chronic diseases that impact the readiness and retention of our Warfighters."

Dr. Patrick Hickey, chair of the USU Department of Pediatrics, emphasized that this cross-institutional collaboration is central to the university's core objectives. "This collaboration with Mount Sinai and partnerships with chronic disease researchers across USU will directly support our mission to promote the readiness and health of our military community," Hickey said.