Valborg Guðmundsdóttir

2018-current Postdoc, University of Iceland

2015-2018    Postdoc, Technical University of Denmark

2015               Ph.D. Systems Biology, Technical University of Denmark

2012               M.Sc. Biomedical Sciences, University of Iceland,

2009               B.Sc. Biochemistry, University of Iceland

Valborg received her B.Sc. degre in biochemistry and MS.c. degree in biomedical sciences at the University of Iceland. For the latter, she studied the effects of type 2 diabetes-associated genetic variants on complications of the disease, under the supervision of professor Vilmundur Guðnason at the Icelandic Heart Association. She then went on to do a PhD in Systems Biology in professor Søren Brunak’s lab at the Technical University of Denmark. The PhD work was performed within two EU consortia; IMI-DIRECT and MetaHIT, focusing on multi-omics network analyses related to type 2 diabetes, and the interplay between the gut microbiota, serum metabolomics and insulin resistance. Valborg has been a postdoctoral researcher in Vilmundur Gudnason’s research group at the University of Iceland and the Icelandic Heart Association since 2018.

The research group works on diverse projects related to common diseases, ranging from epidemiology to genetics and systems medicine. Valborg’s work in particular is focused on multi-omics data integration, systems biology and type 2 diabetes. We are currently studying how disease-associated genetic variants affect molecular traits, such as serum protein levels, and how they relate to molecular networks. We have many possible research projects for interested students, please be in touch for more information.

Gudmundsdottir V*,  Zaghlool SB*, Emilsson V*, Aspelund R, Ilkov M, Gudmundsson EF, Jonsson SM, Zilhão NR, Lamb JR, Suhre K, Jennings LL, Gudnason V. Circulating Protein Signatures and Causal Candidates for Type 2 Diabetes.  Diabetes. 2020 [online ahead of print, https://doi.org/10.2337/db19-1070].

Emilsson V, Ilkov M, Lamb JR, Finkel N, Gudmundsson EF, Pitts R, Hoover H, Gudmundsdottir V, Horman SR, Aspelund T, Shu L, Trifonov V, Sigurdsson S, Manolescu A, Zhu J, Olafsson Ö, Jakobsdottir J, Lesley SA, To J, Zhang J, Harris TB, Launer LJ, Zhang B, Eiriksdottir G, Yang X, Orth AP, Jennings LL, Gudnason V. Co-regulatory networks of human serum proteins link genetics to disease. Science. 2018 Aug 24;361(6404):769-773.

Pedersen HK*, Gudmundsdottir V*, Brunak S. Pancreatic islet protein complexes and their dysregulation in type 2 diabetes. Frontiers in Genetics 2017; doi: 10.3389/fgene.2017.00043.

Pedersen HK*, Gudmundsdottir V*, Nielsen HB*, Hyotylainen T*, Nielsen T*, Jensen BAH, Forslund K, Hildebrand F, Prifti E, Falony G, Le Chatelier E, Levenez F, Doré J, Mattila I, Plichta DR, Poho P, Hellgren LI, Arumugam M, Sunagawa S, Vieira-Silva S, Jørgensen T, Holm JB, Trošt K, MetaHIT Consortium, Kristiansen K, Brix S, Raes J, Wang J, Hansen T, Bork P,  Brunak S, Oresic M, Ehrlich SD, Pedersen O. Human gut microbes impact host serum metabolome and insulin sensitivity. Nature 2016; 535(7612):376-81.

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