Jenny Sjaarda

Jenny Sjaarda obtained her bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Sciences and Statistics from the University of Waterloo (Canada) in 2013. She then entered a PhD program at McMaster University (Canada) in Genetic Epidemiology. During her PhD, she focused on investigating the genetics determinants of biomarkers and their connection to cardiovascular disease (CVD). Specially, her PhD involved various genetic approaches including genome-wide association analyses, Mendelian randomization and admixture mapping. The aim of her PhD was to elucidate causal markers of CVD and the impact of ancestry on blood biomarkers and human disease. After completing her PhD in 2018, she started a joint postdoc position with Zoltan Kutalik and Chin Eap in 2019. Jenny’s project will focus on Mendelian randomization and various extensions of causal networks.