Nearly 30% Americans have cardiovascular disease. High blood LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol is the major risk factor for this disease. GWAS (genome-wide association studies) found that certain traits in a noncoding region in chromosome 1, the 1p13 region, were associated with high LDL and high risk of heart disease. A protein, SORT1, was found near the diseased region. SORT1 reduced LDL cholesterol in mice. It is possible that upregulation of SORT1 expression might reduce the risk of heart disease through reduction of LDL cholesterol.