
Tibor V. Varga
Assistant researcher

Key interests
- Lipidomics, systems biology
- Machine learning, neural networks, clustering
- Missing data
- Cardiovascular genetics
Background/biography
Tibor obtained his BSc in Biology (2009, ELTE, Hungary), MSc in Nutrition and Food Sciences (2013, Semmelweis University, Hungary) and PhD in Genetic Epidemiology (2016, Lund University, Sweden) and is currently working as a joint Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Copenhagen (Prof. Søren Brunak) and Lund University (Prof. Paul Franks & Assoc. Prof. Åsa Tornberg). His fellowship is generously supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation. During his PhD, Tibor worked primarily with cardiovascular genetics, undertaking genetic association studies with blood lipid level changes, researching gene x environment interactions and analyzing genetic data for various international consortia (GIANT, GLGC, MAGIC, etc.) seeking to understand the genetic architecture of complex metabolic disease. Tibor currently utilizes various machine learning techniques to study lipidomics, the systematic understanding of thousands of lipid molecules in human tissues. Specifically, he investigates the acute and long-term changes in the human lipidome in people undergoing metabolic stress. His further interests include missing data imputation, prediction using various machine learning algorithms and neural networks.
Publications
Displaying of publications. Sorted by year, then title.
Predictive utilities of lipid traits, lipoprotein subfractions and other risk factors for incident diabetes : A machine learning approach in the Diabetes Prevention Program
Tibor V. Varga, Jinxi Liu, Ronald B. Goldberg, Guannan Chen, Samuel Dagogo-Jack, et al.
(2021) BMJ Open Diabetes Research and Care, 9
Journal articleA prospective study of the relationships between movement and glycemic control during day and night in pregnancy
Masoud Behravesh, Juan Fernandez-Tajes, Angela C. Estampador, Tibor V. Varga, Ómar S. Gunnarsson, et al.
(2021) Scientific Reports, 11
Journal articleAssociation is not prediction : A landscape of confused reporting in diabetes – A systematic review
Tibor V. Varga, Kristoffer Niss, Angela C. Estampador, Catherine B. Collin, Pope L. Moseley
(2020) Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, 170
Journal articleMeta-analysis of up to 622,409 individuals identifies 40 novel smoking behaviour associated genetic loci
A.M. Erzurumluoglu, Frida Renström, Tibor V. Varga, Paul Franks, D.J. Liu, et al.
(2020) Molecular Psychiatry, 25 p.2392-2409
Journal articleMendelian randomization analysis does not support causal associations of birth weight with hypertension risk and blood pressure in adulthood
Yan Zheng, Angela Estampador, Tibor V. Varga, Marju Orho-Melander, Christina-Alexandra Schulz, et al.
(2020) European Journal of Epidemiology, 35 p.685-697
Journal articleLipidomic profiles, lipid trajectories and clinical biomarkers in female elite endurance athletes
Tibor V Varga, Ashfaq Ali, Jose A R Herrera, Linda L Ahonen, Ismo M Mattila, et al.
(2020) Scientific Reports, 10 p.1-9
Journal articleDiscovery of rare variants associated with blood pressure regulation through meta-analysis of 1.3 million individuals
Praveen Surendran, Cristiano Fava, Olle Melander, Marju Orho-Melander, Alaitz Poveda, et al.
(2020) Nature Genetics, 52 p.1314-1332
Journal articleThe combined effects of FADS gene variation and dietary fats in obesity-related traits in a population from the far north of Sweden : the GLACIER Study
Yan Chen, Angela C. Estampador, Maria Keller, Alaitz Poveda, Jonathan Dalla-Riva, et al.
(2019) International Journal of Obesity, 43 p.808-820
Journal articleMulti-ancestry study of blood lipid levels identifies four loci interacting with physical activity
Tuomas O Kilpeläinen, Tibor V. Varga, Alaitz Poveda, Paul Franks, Dabeeru C. Rao, et al.
(2019) Nature Communications, 10
Journal articleMultiancestry Genome-Wide Association Study of Lipid Levels Incorporating Gene-Alcohol Interactions
Paul S de Vries, Tibor V. Varga, Paul Franks, Alanna C Morrison
(2019) American Journal of Epidemiology, 188 p.1033-1054
Journal articleMulti-ancestry genome-wide gene–smoking interaction study of 387,272 individuals identifies new loci associated with serum lipids
Amy R. Bentley, Tibor V. Varga, Frida Renström, Paul Franks, Charles Rotimi, et al.
(2019) Nature Genetics, 51 p.636-648
Journal articleNovel genetic associations for blood pressure identified via gene-alcohol interaction in up to 570K individuals across multiple ancestries
Mary F. Feitosa, Aldi T. Kraja, Daniel I. Chasman, Yun J. Sung, Thomas W. Winkler, et al.
(2018) PLoS ONE, 13
Journal articleA Large-Scale Multi-ancestry Genome-wide Study Accounting for Smoking Behavior Identifies Multiple Significant Loci for Blood Pressure
Yun J. Sung, Thomas W. Winkler, Lisa de las Fuentes, Amy R. Bentley, Michael R. Brown, et al.
(2018) American Journal of Human Genetics, 102 p.375-400
Journal articleRefining the accuracy of validated target identification through coding variant fine-mapping in type 2 diabetes article
Anubha Mahajan, Jennifer Wessel, Sara M Willems, Wei Zhao, Neil R Robertson, et al.
(2018) Nature Genetics, 50 p.559-571
Journal articleProtein-altering variants associated with body mass index implicate pathways that control energy intake and expenditure in obesity
Valérie Turcot, Yingchang Lu, Heather M Highland, Claudia Schurmann, Anne E. Justice, et al.
(2018) Nature Genetics, 50 p.26-35
Journal articleNew Blood Pressure-Associated Loci Identified in Meta-Analyses of 475 000 Individuals
Aldi T. Kraja, James P. Cook, Helen R. Warren, Praveen Surendran, Chunyu Liu, et al.
(2017) Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics, 10
Journal articleSystematic Evaluation of Pleiotropy Identifies 6 Further Loci Associated With Coronary Artery Disease
Thomas R. Webb, Jeanette Erdmann, Kathleen E. Stirrups, Nathan O. Stitziel, Nicholas G D Masca, et al.
(2017) Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 69 p.823-836
Journal articleRare and low-frequency coding variants alter human adult height
Eirini Marouli, Mariaelisa Graff, Carolina Medina-Gomez, Ken Sin Lo, Andrew R Wood, et al.
(2017) Nature, 542 p.186-190
Journal articleRanking and characterization of established BMI and lipid associated loci as candidates for gene-environment interactions
Dmitry Shungin, Wei Q. Deng, Tibor V. Varga, Jian'an Luan, Evelin Mihailov, et al.
(2017) PLoS Genetics, 13
Journal articleData Descriptor: Sequence data and association statistics from 12,940 type 2 diabetes cases and controls
Jason Flannick, Christian Fuchsberger, Anubha Mahajan, Tanya M Teslovich, Vineeta Agarwala, et al.
(2017) Scientific Data, 4
Journal articleExome-wide association study of plasma lipids in >300,000 individuals
Dajiang J Liu, Gina M. Peloso, Haojie Yu, Adam S. Butterworth, Anubha Mahajan, et al.
(2017) Nature Genetics, 49 p.1758-1766
Journal articleNovel genetic loci associated with long-term deterioration in blood lipid concentrations and coronary artery disease in European adults
Tibor V. Varga, Azra Kurbasic, Mattias Aine, Pontus Eriksson, Ashfaq Ali, et al.
(2017) International Journal of Epidemiology, 46 p.1211-1222
Journal articleA low-frequency inactivating AKT2 variant enriched in the finnish population is associated with fasting insulin levels and type 2 diabetes risk
Alisa Manning, Claes Ladenvall, Peter Nilsson, Tibor V. Varga, Paul Franks, et al.
(2017) Diabetes, 66 p.2019-2032
Journal articleComprehensive Analysis of Established Dyslipidemia-Associated Loci in the Diabetes Prevention Program
Tibor V. Varga, Alexandra H. Winters, Kathleen A. Jablonski, Edward S. Horton, Prajakta Khare-Ranade, et al.
(2016) Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics, 9 p.495-503
Journal articleTrans-ancestry meta-analyses identify rare and common variants associated with blood pressure and hypertension
Praveen Surendran, Fotios Drenos, Robin Young, Helen Warren, James P. Cook, et al.
(2016) Nature Genetics, 48 p.1151-1161
Journal articleRare Functional Variant in TM2D3 is Associated with Late-Onset Alzheimer's Disease
Johanna Jakobsdottir, Sven J. van der Lee, Joshua C. Bis, Vincent Chouraki, David Li-Kroeger, et al.
(2016) PLoS Genetics, 12
Journal articleAssociation of Exome Sequences with Cardiovascular Traits among Blacks in the Jackson Heart Study
Gina M. Peloso, Leslie A. Lange, Tibor V. Varga, Deborah A. Nickerson, Joshua D. Smith, et al.
(2016) Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics, 9 p.368-374
Journal articleA genomic approach to therapeutic target validation identifies a glucose-lowering GLP1R variant protective for coronary heart disease
Robert A. Scott, Daniel F. Freitag, Li Li, Audrey Y. Chu, Praveen Surendran, et al.
(2016) Science Translational Medicine, 8
Journal articleCoding variation in ANGPTL4, LPL, and SVEP1 and the risk of coronary disease
Nathan O. Stitziel, Kathleen E. Stirrups, Nicholas G D Masca, Jeanette Erdmann, Paola G. Ferrario, et al.
(2016) New England Journal of Medicine, 374 p.1134-1144
Journal articleDo Genetic Factors Modify the Relationship Between Obesity and Hypertriglyceridemia? : Findings From the GLACIER and the MDC Studies
Ashfaq Ali, Tibor V Varga, Ivana Stojkovic, Christina-Alexandra Schulz, Göran Hallmans, et al.
(2016) Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics, 9 p.162-171
Journal articleAnalysis with the exome array identifies multiple new independent variants in lipid loci
Stavroula Kanoni, Nicholas G D Masca, Kathleen E. Stirrups, Tibor V. Varga, Helen R Warren, et al.
(2016) Human Molecular Genetics, 25 p.4094-4106
Journal articleThe genetic architecture of type 2 diabetes
Christian Fuchsberger, Tibor V. Varga, Claes Ladenvall, Jasmina Kravic, Paul Franks, et al.
(2016) Nature, 536 p.41-47
Journal articleLow-frequency and rare exome chip variants associate with fasting glucose and type 2 diabetes susceptibility.
Jennifer Wessel, Audrey Y Chu, Sara M Willems, Shuai Wang, Hanieh Yaghootkar, et al.
(2015) Nature Communications, 6
Journal articleSeason-dependent associations of circadian rhythm-regulating loci (CRY1, CRY2 and MTNR1B) and glucose homeostasis: the GLACIER Study.
Frida Renström, Robert Koivula, Tibor V Varga, Göran Hallmans, Hindrik Mulder, et al.
(2015) Diabetologia, 58 p.997-1005
Journal articleGenetic Determinants of Long-Term Changes in Blood Lipid Concentrations: 10-Year Follow-Up of the GLACIER Study.
Tibor V Varga, Emily Sonestedt, Dmitry Shungin, Robert Koivula, Göran Hallmans, et al.
(2014) PLoS Genetics, 10
Journal articleSmoking Status, Snus Use, and Variation at the CHRNA5-CHRNA3-CHRNB4 Locus in Relation to Obesity: The GLACIER Study
Tibor V Varga, Goran Hallmans, Frank B. Hu, Frida Renström, Paul Franks
(2013) American Journal of Epidemiology, 178 p.31-37
Journal articleGene × environment interactions in obesity: the state of the evidence.
Shafqat Ahmad, Tibor V Varga, Paul Franks
(2013) Human Heredity, 75 p.106-115
Journal articleGene × physical activity interactions in obesity: combined analysis of 111,421 individuals of European ancestry. : combined analysis of 111,421 individuals of European ancestry
Shafqat Ahmad, Gull Rukh, Tibor V Varga, Ashfaq Ali, Azra Kurbasic, et al.
(2013) PLoS Genetics, 9 p.1003607-1003607
Journal articleLarge-scale association analyses identify new loci influencing glycemic traits and provide insight into the underlying biological pathways
Robert A. Scott, Vasiliki Lagou, Ryan P. Welch, Eleanor Wheeler, May E. Montasser, et al.
(2012) Nature Genetics, 44 p.991-991
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