Balewgizie Tegegne

Balewgizie Tegegne was born in Gojam, Ethiopia. He graduated in 2008 for his BSc in Public Health at Haramaya University and did a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology at Addis Ababa University after which he started working as lecturer and researcher. He also completed a Research Master in Clinical and Psychosocial Epidemiology in July 2017. At the end of this Master he was awarded a PhD position by the Graduate School of Medical Science and started his PhD in September 2017. His PhD project is entitled “Genetic and environmental influences on heart rate variability and its association with hypertension”

In the proposed project, he investigates the relative influence of genetic and environmental factors on individual differences in heart rate variability (HRV) and tries to identify novel genetic variants (loci) associated with HRV. He will also examine the links between HRV and hypertension by assessing whether low HRV is causing hypertension (i) cross-sectionally using Mendelian randomization, and; (ii) longitudinally through exploring the prospective association of low HRV with new onset hypertension. He is analyzing data from big cohorts like the Lifelines cohort study and biobank in the northern Netherlands and the UK biobank.