My research focuses on leveraging genetic and multi-omic data to understand cardiovascular diseases. Engrained within the Experimental Cardiology Department and the extended group of prof. Connie Bezzina, I study the genetics of various diseases with a focus on cardiomyopathies and atrial fibrillation.

One major research direction is experimental/translational, where we leverage large-scale genomic and multi-omic data to better understand and predict cardiovascular diseases. To this end, my group creates and applies advanced statistical approaches to (i) perform genetic association analyses to discover risk variants and genes, (ii) to create risk prediction models, and (iii) to dissect the biological mechanisms underlying cardiovascular disorders. 

For instance, we generated novel polygenic risk scores for atrial fibrillation, which improved prediction across diverse ancestries (Haydarlou et al.; Multi-trait polygenic risk scores improve genomic prediction of atrial fibrillation across diverse ancestries | Nature Communications). In another example, we integrated genetic data from different cardiomyopathy subtypes (dilated and hypertrophic cardiomyopathies) to identify novel genes for heart failure, with potential implications for therapeutics development and mechanistic understanding (Kramarenko et al.; Leveraging the shared and opposing genetic mechanisms in the heritable cardiomyopathies | Research Square; in press at Nature Genetics).

Another major direction focuses on direct clinical applications of genetics in cardiovascular care. For instance, I study individuals who develop atrial fibrillation at young age, a patient population not typically considered for genetic testing; yet my work indicates that clinical genetic testing might confer prognostic implications in select early-onset patients (Wijdeveld et al.; Cardiomyopathy-Associated Gene Variants in Atrial Fibrillation | Atrial Fibrillation | JAMA Cardiology | JAMA Network; Jurgens et al.; Pathogenic Cardiomyopathy-Associated Gene Variants and Prognosis in Atrial Fibrillation: Results in 18,000 Clinical Trial Participants | JACC).

Interested to know more about this work? I have given several interviews on how genetics impacts our understanding and care of cardiovascular diseases: GENE Amsterdam Interview – Sean Jurgens - Genetics Network Amsterdam;  JAMA Cardiology Author Interviews; De Cardioloog | Vooruitgang in de cardiogenetica. Or feel free to contact me directly!