Dr. Austin has been the PI on several NIH-funded grants from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and the National Cancer Institute, and has been a co-investigator on numerous other research grants. Her research continues to focus on the genetic epidemiology of lipoproteins, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and pancreatic cancer. She has published 118 peer-reviewed articles. She was a member of the NIH EDC-1 study section, served on the NHLBI Institute Advisory Board, and was an Established Investigator Award of the American Heart Association. With funding from the International Atherosclerosis Society, she was a Visiting Professor at University College London and an Honorary Visiting Fellow attached to the Public Health Genetics Unit at the University of Cambridge, England in 2000. She continues as a co-investigator on the Pharmacogenomics Research Network.