Morten Steen Salling Olesen
Geneticist
Molecular Cardiology and Membrane Proteins, University of Copenhagen
Biography
Olesen Group has a strong track record in genetic studies of arrhythmia disorders and is a leading group in a large consortium that conducted the largest genome-wide association study (GWAS) on atrial fibrillation (AF), contributing to the identification of over 100 loci associated with increased AF risk (Roselli et al., Nature Genetics). They also studied rare coding variants in AF patients through whole exome sequencing, demonstrating that combining human genetics with zebrafish models can deepen our understanding of disease mechanisms. Their study revealed that rare truncating mutations (TTNtv) in the large sarcomere gene are associated with an odds ratio of 30 for AF, with zebrafish models showing that TTNtv causes conduction delay, atrial sarcomere defects, increased fibrosis, and cardiomyopathy. Recent evidence links atrial cardiomyopathy to stroke risk, leading Olesen Group to conduct a GWAS on 50,000 cMRI from Biobank, identifying 18 genes associated with atrial cardiomyopathy.
