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Gudmar Thorleifsson

Gudmar Thorleifsson

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Best Scientists
2025
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Genetics
Iceland
2026

D-Index & Metrics

Best Scientists

D-Index
166
Citations
138820
World Ranking
994
National Ranking
4

Genetics

D-Index
172
Citations
139684
World Ranking
66
National Ranking
4

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2026 - Research.com Genetics in Iceland Leader Award
  • 2025 - Research.com Best Scientists Award

Overview

Gudmar Thorleifsson is affiliated with deCODE Genetics in Iceland, focusing on research at the intersection of medicine, biochemistry, genetics, and molecular biology. Their scholarly output includes a significant number of publications in genetics and molecular biology, with additional contributions relating to surgery, immunology, and pediatrics, perinatology, and child health.

Their research covers multiple key topics including genetic associations and epidemiology, birth and developmental health, RNA modifications and cancer, epigenetics and DNA methylation, pregnancy and preeclampsia studies, osteoarthritis treatment and mechanisms, and lipoproteins and cardiovascular health.

Thorleifsson frequently publishes in the following venues:

  • UNC Libraries
  • University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology)
  • Nature Genetics
  • bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
  • Nature Communications

Collaboration is a notable feature of their work, with frequent co-authors including Daníel F. Guðbjartsson, Kāri Stefánsson, Hilma Hólm, Unnur Þorsteinsdóttir, and Anna Helgadóttir.

Among their recent publications are:

  • Discovery and systematic characterization of risk variants and genes for coronary artery disease in over a million participants, 2022, Nature Genetics
  • The sequences of 150,119 genomes in the UK Biobank, 2022, Nature
  • Deciphering osteoarthritis genetics across 826,690 individuals from 9 populations, 2021, Cell
  • Genetic drivers of heterogeneity in type 2 diabetes pathophysiology, 2024, Nature
  • Large-scale plasma proteomics comparisons through genetics and disease associations, 2023, Nature

Best Publications

  • Biological, clinical and population relevance of 95 loci for blood lipids

    Tanya M. Teslovich;Kiran Musunuru;Albert V. Smith;Andrew C. Edmondson

  • Association analyses of 249,796 individuals reveal 18 new loci associated with body mass index

    Elizabeth K. Speliotes;Elizabeth K. Speliotes;Cristen J. Willer;Sonja I. Berndt;Keri L. Monda

  • Discovery and refinement of loci associated with lipid levels

    Cristen J. Willer;Ellen M. Schmidt;Sebanti Sengupta;Gina M. Peloso;Gina M. Peloso;Gina M. Peloso

  • Gene discovery and polygenic prediction from a genome-wide association study of educational attainment in 1.1 million individuals

    James J. Lee;Robbee Wedow;Aysu Okbay;Edward Kong

  • Variant of transcription factor 7-like 2 (TCF7L2) gene confers risk of type 2 diabetes.

    Struan F. A. Grant;Gudmar Thorleifsson;Inga Reynisdottir;Rafil Benediktsson

  • Plasma HDL cholesterol and risk of myocardial infarction: A mendelian randomisation study

    Benjamin F. Voight;Benjamin F. Voight;Benjamin F. Voight;Gina M. Peloso;Gina M. Peloso;Marju Orho-Melander;Ruth Frikke-Schmidt

  • Rate of de novo mutations and the importance of father’s age to disease risk

    Augustine Kong;Michael L. Frigge;Gisli Masson;Soren Besenbacher;Soren Besenbacher

  • Hundreds of variants clustered in genomic loci and biological pathways affect human height

    Hana Lango Allen;Karol Estrada;Guillaume Lettre;Sonja I. Berndt

  • Meta-analysis of genome-wide association data and large-scale replication identifies additional susceptibility loci for type 2 diabetes

    E Zeggini;L J Scott;R Saxena;B F Voight

  • Defining the role of common variation in the genomic and biological architecture of adult human height

    Andrew R. Wood;Tonu Esko;Jian Yang;Sailaja Vedantam

  • New genetic loci implicated in fasting glucose homeostasis and their impact on type 2 diabetes risk (vol 42, pg 105, 2010)

    J Dupuis;C Langenberg;I Prokopenko;R Saxena

  • Twelve type 2 diabetes susceptibility loci identified through large-scale association analysis

    Benjamin F. Voight;Benjamin F. Voight;Laura J. Scott;Valgerdur Steinthorsdottir;Andrew P. Morris

  • Large-scale association analysis identifies 13 new susceptibility loci for coronary artery disease

    Heribert Schunkert;Inke R. König;Sekar Kathiresan;Muredach P. Reilly

  • Large-scale association analysis provides insights into the genetic architecture and pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes

    Andrew P Morris;Benjamin F Voight;Benjamin F Voight;Tanya M Teslovich;Teresa Ferreira

  • A common variant on chromosome 9p21 affects the risk of myocardial infarction

    Anna Helgadottir;Gudmar Thorleifsson;Andrei Manolescu;Solveig Gretarsdottir

  • Large-scale association analysis identifies new risk loci for coronary artery disease

    Panos Deloukas;Stavroula Kanoni;Christina Willenborg;Martin Farrall

  • A variant associated with nicotine dependence, lung cancer and peripheral arterial disease.

    Thorgeir E Thorgeirsson;Frank Geller;Patrick Sulem;Thorunn Rafnar

  • Genome-wide association yields new sequence variants at seven loci that associate with measures of obesity

    Gudmar Thorleifsson;G Bragi Walters;Daniel F Gudbjartsson;Valgerdur Steinthorsdottir

  • Erratum: New genetic loci implicated in fasting glucose homeostasis and their impact on type 2 diabetes risk (Nature Genetics (2010) 42 (105-116))

    Josée Dupuis;Claudia Langenberg;Inga Prokopenko;Richa Saxena

  • Hundreds of variants clustered in genomic loci and biological pathways affect human height

    H. Lango Allen;K. Estrada;G. Lettre;S. I. Berndt

Frequent Co-Authors

Kari Stefansson
Kari Stefansson deCODE Genetics (Iceland)
Unnur Thorsteinsdottir
Unnur Thorsteinsdottir deCODE Genetics (Iceland)
Daniel F. Gudbjartsson
Daniel F. Gudbjartsson deCODE Genetics (Iceland)
Augustine Kong
Augustine Kong University of Oxford
Patrick Sulem
Patrick Sulem deCODE Genetics (Iceland)
André G. Uitterlinden
André G. Uitterlinden Erasmus University Rotterdam
Tim D. Spector
Tim D. Spector King's College London
Markus Perola
Markus Perola Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare
Albert Hofman
Albert Hofman Harvard University

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