Olli Raitakari profile picture
Olli
Raitakari
Professor, Cardiovascular Medicine (CAPC)
InFLAMES Flagship
MD/PhD

Contact

+358 29 450 2304
Kiinamyllynkatu 10
20520
Turku

Areas of expertise

cardiovascular and metabolic diseases
risk factors
vascular epidemiology
genetic epidemiology
epidemiology
dietary intervention
cohort studies
follow-up studies

Biography

EDUCATION AND DEGREES
 
2001   Docent in Clinical Physiology
1997-1999  Postdoc training, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, Australia
1997   Docent in Epidemiology
1996   Specialist in Clinical Physiology 
1995   Doctorate, PhD
1989   Licentiate in Medicine, MD

CURRENT POSITIONS

2017-                 Professor in Cardiovascular Medicine, Director of the Research Centre of Applied and 
                          Preventive Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Turku, Finland                         

 

PAST POSITIONS

2012-2016                          Academy Professor, University of Turku

2007-2016                          Professor in Cardiovascular Medicine (part time), University of Turku

2007-2008                          Senior Scientist Grant, Academy of Finland

2004-2016                          Chief Physician, Department of Clinical Physiology and Nuclear Medicine, Turku
                                           University Hospital (leave of absence 2012-2016)

2002-2004                          Consultant in Clinical Physiology and Nuclear Medicine, Turku University Hospital

2002 (1 mo)                        Head of Nuclear Medicine Department, Turku University Hospital

2000-2003 (3 mo)               Head of Clinical Physiology Department, Turku University Hospital

2000-2005                          Senior Fellow Post, Academy of Finland

1998-2000                          Postdoctoral Research Post, Academy of Finland

1996-1997                          Consultant in Clinical Physiology, Turku University Hospital

1991-1996                          Positions as Resident in Clinical Chemistry, Nuclear Medicine, and Clinical 
                                           Physiology, Turku University Hospital

1988-1990                          Positions as General Practioner and Resident in Internal Medicine or Surgery


Research

Evidence suggest that many non-communicable disease outcomes have roots in childhood and may even stem of adverse ancestral exposures. Improved knowledge how various ancestral and early-life exposures lead to adult disease outcomes is essential in developing better preventive practices and policies that lead to improved public health. My mission has been to contribute to this knowledge-base by working in epidemiologic cohort studies with follow-up from childhood to adulthood. I am the Principal Investigator of the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study (YFS), the largest study in Europe with a follow-up of cardiovascular risk factors from childhood to adulthood. I am also the Director of the STRIP Study, which is a leading long-term pediatric dietary intervention study testing the hypothesis that modifying the fat quality diet will have beneficial effects on cardiovascular risk early in life. During the past years, I have organized several field studies in these cohorts, and introduced novel technologies, such as imaging studies, genetic epidemiology methods and metabolomics approaches in these unique population resources. Our research has contributed to the understanding of pre-clinical development of atherosclerosis in children and young adults, including the effects of diet, life-style, metabolic risk factors, psychological traits and psychosocial factors, inflammation, hormones and genetic markers. For example, by applying non-invasive imaging methods in the Young Finns Study, we have demonstrated that exposure to adverse lipids, elevated blood pressure and obesity in childhood is related to atherosclerosis development in adulthood (JAMA 2003). Subsequent work stemmed from this initial observation has led to numerous original publications that have shown in detail how exposure to a large range of aetiogenic factors early in life contribute to the development of cardio-metabolic outcomes in adulthood. For example, by pooling international i3C Consortium data, we have demonstrated that overweight or obese children who became non-obese by adulthood had similar risks of many cardio-metabolic adult outcomes as individuals who were never obese (NEJM 2011). Thus, the results of our studies have clearly demonstrated that individual’s exposure to various stressors in early life is contributing to his/her adult phenotype and disease risk. The results have had significant impact on preventive practices. As a concrete demonstration of the international recognition and impact of my team’s work, many of our studies are widely cited in all updated paediatric guidelines on cardiovascular prevention both in Europe and in US.

Publications

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A catalog of genetic loci associated with kidney function from analyses of a million individuals (2019)

Nature Genetics
Matthias Wuttke, Yong Li, Man Li, Karsten B. Sieber, Mary F. Feitosa, Mathias Gorski, Adrienne Tin, Lihua Wang, Audrey Y. Chu, Anselm Hoppmann, Holger Kirsten, Ayush Giri, Jin-Fang Chai, Gardar Sveinbjornsson, Bamidele O. Tayo, Teresa Nutile, Christian Fuchsberger, Jonathan Marten, Massimiliano Cocca, Sahar Ghasemi, Yizhe Xu, Katrin Horn, Damia Noce, Peter J. van der Most, Sanaz Sedaghat, Zhi Yu, Masato Akiyama, Saima Afaq, Tarunveer S. Ahluwalia, Peter Almgren, Najaf Amin, Johan Ärnlöv, Stephan J. L. Bakker, Nisha Bansal, Daniela Baptista, Sven Bergmann, Mary L. Biggs, Ginevra Biino, Michael Boehnke, Eric Boerwinkle, Mathilde Boissel, Erwin P. Bottinger, Thibaud S. Boutin, Hermann Brenner, Marco Brumat, Ralph Burkhardt, Adam S. Butterworth, Eric Campana, Archie Campbell, Harry Campbell, Mickaël Canouil, Robert J. Carroll, Eulalia Catamo, John C. Chambers, Miao-Ling Chee, Miao-Li Chee, Xu Chen, Ching-Yu Cheng, Yurong Cheng, Kaare Christensen, Renata Cifkova, Marina Ciullo, Maria Pina Concas, James P. Cook, Josef Coresh, Tanguy Corre, Cinzia Felicita Sala, Daniele Cusi, John Danesh, E. Warwick Daw, Martin H. de Borst, Alessandro De Grandi, Renée de Mutsert, Aiko P. J. de Vries, Frauke Degenhardt, Graciela Delgado, Ayse Demirkan, Emanuele Di Angelantonio, Katalin Dittrich, Jasmin Divers, Rajkumar Dorajoo, Kai-Uwe Eckardt, Georg Ehret, Paul Elliott, Karlhans Endlich, Michele K. Evans, Janine F. Felix, Valencia Hui Xian Foo, Oscar H. Franco, Andre Franke, Barry I. Freedman, Sandra Freitag-Wolf, Yechiel Friedlander, Philippe Froguel, Ron T. Gansevoort, He Gao, Paolo Gasparini, J. Michael Gaziano, Vilmantas Giedraitis, Christian Gieger, Giorgia Girotto, Franco Giulianini, Martin Gögele, Scott D. Gordon, Daniel F. Gudbjartsson, Vilmundur Gudnason, Toomas Haller, Pavel Hamet, Tamara B. Harris, Catharina A. Hartman, Caroline Hayward, Jacklyn N. Hellwege, Chew-Kiat Heng, Andrew A. Hicks, Edith Hofer, Wei Huang, Nina Hutri-Kähönen, Shih-Jen Hwang, M. Arfan Ikram, Olafur S. Indridason, Erik Ingelsson, Marcus Ising, Vincent W. V. Jaddoe, Johanna Jakobsdottir, Jost B. Jonas, Peter K. Joshi, Navya Shilpa Josyula, Bettina Jung, Mika Kähönen, Yoichiro Kamatani, Candace M. Kammerer, Masahiro Kanai, Mika Kastarinen, Shona M. Kerr, Chiea-Chuen Khor, Wieland Kiess, Marcus E. Kleber, Wolfgang Koenig, Jaspal S. Kooner, Antje Körner, Peter Kovacs, Aldi T. Kraja, Alena Krajcoviechova, Holly Kramer, Bernhard K. Krämer, Florian Kronenberg, Michiaki Kubo, Brigitte Kühnel, Mikko Kuokkanen, Johanna Kuusisto, Martina La Bianca, Markku Laakso, Leslie A. Lange, Carl D. Langefeld, Jeannette Jen-Mai Lee, Benjamin Lehne, Terho Lehtimäki, Wolfgang Lieb, Lifelines Cohort Study, Su-Chi Lim, Lars Lind, Cecilia M. Lindgren, Jun Liu, Jianjun Liu, Markus Loeffler, Ruth J. F. Loos, Susanne Lucae, Mary Ann Lukas, Leo-Pekka Lyytikäinen, Reedik Mägi, Patrik K. E. Magnusson, Anubha Mahajan, Nicholas G. Martin, Jade Martins, Winfried März, Deborah Mascalzoni, Koichi Matsuda, Christa Meisinger, Thomas Meitinger, Olle Melander, Andres Metspalu, Evgenia K. Mikaelsdottir, Yuri Milaneschi, Kozeta Miliku, Pashupati P. Mishra, V. A. Million Veteran Program, Karen L. Mohlke, Nina Mononen, Grant W. Montgomery, Dennis O. Mook-Kanamori, Josyf C. Mychaleckyj, Girish N. Nadkarni, Mike A. Nalls, Matthias Nauck, Kjell Nikus, Boting Ning, Ilja M. Nolte, Raymond Noordam, Jeffrey O’Connell, Michelle L. O’Donoghue, Isleifur Olafsson, Albertine J. Oldehinkel, Marju Orho-Melander, Willem H. Ouwehand, Sandosh Padmanabhan, Nicholette D. Palmer, Runolfur Palsson, Brenda W. J. H. Penninx, Thomas Perls, Markus Perola, Mario Pirastu, Nicola Pirastu, Giorgio Pistis, Anna I. Podgornaia, Ozren Polasek, Belen Ponte, David J. Porteous, Tanja Poulain, Peter P. Pramstaller, Michael H. Preuss, Bram P. Prins, Michael A. Province, Ton J. Rabelink, Laura M. Raffield, Olli T. Raitakari, Dermot F. Reilly, Rainer Rettig, Myriam Rheinberger, Kenneth M. Rice, Paul M. Ridker, Fernando Rivadeneira, Federica Rizzi, David J. Roberts, Antonietta Robino, Peter Rossing, Igor Rudan, Rico Rueedi, Daniela Ruggiero, Kathleen A. Ryan, Yasaman Saba, Charumathi Sabanayagam, Veikko Salomaa, Erika Salvi, Kai-Uwe Saum, Helena Schmidt, Reinhold Schmidt, Ben Schöttker, Christina-Alexandra Schulz, Nicole Schupf, Christian M. Shaffer, Yuan Shi, Albert V. Smith, Blair H. Smith, Nicole Soranzo, Cassandra N. Spracklen, Konstantin Strauch, Heather M. Stringham, Michael Stumvoll, Per O. Svensson, Silke Szymczak, E-Shyong Tai, Salman M. Tajuddin, Nicholas Y. Q. Tan, Kent D. Taylor, Andrej Teren, Yih-Chung Tham, Joachim Thiery, Chris H. L. Thio, Hauke Thomsen, Gudmar Thorleifsson, Daniela Toniolo, Anke Tönjes, Johanne Tremblay, Ioanna Tzoulaki, André G. Uitterlinden, Simona Vaccargiu, Rob M. van Dam, Pim van der Harst, Cornelia M. van Duijn, Digna R. Velez Edward, Niek Verweij, Suzanne Vogelezang, Uwe Völker, Peter Vollenweider, Gerard Waeber, Melanie Waldenberger, Lars Wallentin, Ya Xing Wang, Chaolong Wang, Dawn M. Waterworth, Wen Bin Wei, Harvey White, John B. Whitfield, Sarah H. Wild, James F. Wilson, Mary K. Wojczynski, Charlene Wong, Tien-Yin Wong, Liang Xu, Qiong Yang, Masayuki Yasuda, Laura M. Yerges-Armstrong, Weihua Zhang, Alan B. Zonderman, Jerome I. Rotter, Murielle Bochud, Bruce M. Psaty, Veronique Vitart, James G. Wilson, Abbas Dehghan, Afshin Parsa, Daniel I. Chasman, Kevin Ho, Andrew P. Morris, Olivier Devuyst, Shreeram Akilesh, Sarah A. Pendergrass, Xueling Sim, Carsten A. Böger, Yukinori Okada, Todd L. Edwards, Harold Snieder, Kari Stefansson, Adriana M. Hung, Iris M. Heid, Markus Scholz, Alexander Teumer, Anna Köttgen, Cristian Pattaro
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

Lipoprotein signatures of cholesteryl ester transfer protein and HMG-CoA reductase inhibition (2019)

PLoS Biology
Kettunen J, Holmes MV, Allara E, Anufrieva O, Ohukainen P, Oliver-Williams C, Wang Q, Tillin T, Hughes AD, Kähönen M, Lehtimäki T, Viikari J, Raitakari OT, Salomaa V, Järvelin MR, Perola M, Davey Smith G, Chaturvedi N, Danesh J, Di Angelantonio E, Butterworth AS, Ala-Korpela M
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä )

Youth and Long-Term Dietary Calcium Intake With Risk of Impaired Glucose Metabolism and Type 2 Diabetes in Adulthood (2019)

Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism
Feitong Wu, Markus Juonala, Katja Pahkala, Marie-Jeanne Buscot, Matthew A Sabin, Niina Pitkänen, Tapani Rönnemaa, Antti Jula, Terho Lehtimäki, Nina Hutri-Kähönen, Mika Kähönen, Tomi Laitinen,Jorma S A Viikari, Olli T Raitakari, Costan G Magnussen
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

Long-term and recent trends in hypertension awareness, treatment, and control in 12 high-income countries: an analysis of 123 nationally representative surveys (2019)

Lancet
Zhou B, Danaei G, Stevens GA, Bixby H, Taddei C, Carrillo-Larco RM, Solomon B, Riley LM, Di Cesare M, Iurilli MLC, Rodriguez-Martinez A, Zhu A, Hajifathalian K, Amuzu A, Banegas JR, Bennett JE, Cameron C, Cho Y, Clarke J, Craig CL, Cruz JJ, Gates L, Giampaoli S, Gregg EW, Hardy R, Hayes AJ, Ikeda N, Jackson RT, Jennings G, Joffres M, Khang YH, Koskinen S, Kuh D, Kujala UM, Laatikainen T, Lehtimaki T, Lopez-Garcia E, Lundqvist A, Maggi S, Magliano DJ, Mann JI, McLean RM, McLean SB, Miller JC, Morgan K, Neuhauser HK, Niiranen TJ, Noale M, Oh K, Palmieri L, Panza F, Parnell WR, Peltonen M, Raitakari O, Rodriguez-Artalejo F, Roy JGR, Salomaa V, Sarganas G, Servais J, Shaw JE, Shibuya K, Solfrizzi V, Stavreski B, Tan EJ, Turley ML, Vanuzzo D, Viikari-Juntura E, Weerasekera D, Ezzati M, Weerasekera D, Ezzati M
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

Smoking and physical activity trajectories from childhood to midlife (2019)

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Salin K, Hirvensalo M, Kankaanpaa A, Lounassalo I, Yang XL, Magnussen C, Hutri-Kahonen N, Raitakari O, Tammelin T
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

Protein-coding variants implicate novel genes related to lipid homeostasis contributing to body-fat distribution (2019)

Nature Genetics
Justice AE, Karaderi T, Highland HM, Young KL, Graff M, Lu YC, Turcot V, Auer PL, Fine RS, Guo XQ, Schurmann C, Lempradl A, Marouli E, Mahajan A, Winkler TW, Locke AE, Medina-Gomez C, Esko T, Vedantam S, Giri A, Lo KS, Alfred T, Mudgal P, Ng MCY, Heard-Costa NL, Feitosa MF, Manning AK, Willems SM, Sivapalaratnam S, Abecasis G, Alam DS, Allison M, Amouyel P, Arzumanyanm Z, Balkau B, Bastarache L, Bergmann S, Bielak LF, Blueher M, Boehnke M, Boeing H, Boerwinkle E, Boger CA, Bork-Jensen J, Bottinger EP, Bowden DW, Brandslund I, Broer L, Burt AA, Butterworth AS, Caulfield M, Cesana G, Chambers JC, Chasman DI, Chen YDI, Chowdhury R, Christensen C, Chu A, Collins FS, Cook JP, Cox AJ, Crosslin DS, Danesh J, de Bakker PIW, de Denus S, de Mutsert R, Dedoussis G, Demerath EW, Dennis JG, Denny JC, Di Angelantonio E, Dorr M, Drenos F, Dube MP, Dunning AM, Easton DF, Elliott P, Evangelou E, Farmaki AE, Feng S, Ferrannini E, Ferrieres J, Florez JC, Fornage M, Fox CS, Franks PW, Friedrich N, Gan W, Gandin I, Gasparini P, Giedraitis V, Girotto G, Gorski M, Grallert H, Grarup N, Groves ML, Gustafsson S, Haessler J, Hansen T, Hattersley AT, Hayward C, Heid IM, Holmen OL, Hovingh GK, Howson JMM, Hu Y, Hung YJ, Hveem K, Ikram MA, Ingelsson E, Jackson AU, Jarvik GP, Jia YC, Jorgensen T, Jousilahti P, Justesen JM, Kahali B, Karaleftheri M, Kardia SLR, Karpe F, Kee F, Kitajima H, Komulainen P, Kooner JS, Kovacs P, Kramer BK, Kuulasmaa K, Kuusisto J, Laakso M, Lakka TA, Lamparter D, La Nge LA, Langenberg C, Larson EB, Lee NR, Lee WJ, Lehtimaki T, Lewis CE, Li HX, Li J, RuifangLi-Gao, Lin LA, Lin X, Lind L, Lindstrom J, Linneberg A, Liu CT, Liu DJJ, Luan J, Lyytikainen LP, MacGregor S, Magi R, Mannisto S, Marenne G, Marten J, Mascal NGD, McCarthy MI, Meidtner K, Mihailov E, Moilanen L, Moitry M, Mook-Kanamori DO, Morgan A, Morris AP, Muller-Nurasyid M, Munroe PB, Narisu N, Nelson CP, Neville M, Ntalla I, Owen KR, Pedersen O, Peloso GM, Pennell CE, Perola M, James A, Perry JRB, Pers TH, Ewing A, Polasek O, Rasheed A, Raulerson CK, Rauramaa R, Reilly DF, Reiner AP, Ridker PM, Rivas MA, Robertson NR, Robino A, Rudan I, Ruth KS, Saleheen D, Salomaa V, Samani NJ, Schreiner PJ, Schulze MB, Scott RA, Segura-Lepe M, Sim XL, Slater AJ, Small KS, Smith BH, Smith JA, Southam L, Spector TD, Speliotes EK, Stefansson K, Steinthorsdottir V, Stirrups KE, Strauch K, Stringham HM, Stumvoll M, Sun L, Surendran P, Swart KMA, Tardif JC, Taylor KD, Teumer A, Thompson DJ, Thorleifsson G, Thorsteinsdottir U, Thuesen BH, Tonjes A, Torres M, Tsafantakis E, Tuomilehto J, Uitterlinden AG, Uusitupa M, van Duijn CM, Vanhala M, Varma R, Vermeulen SH, Vestergaard H, Vitart V, Vogt TF, Vuckovic D, Wagenknecht LE, Walker M, Wallentin L, Wang FJ, Wang CA, Wang S, Wareham NIJ, Warren HR, Waterworth DM, Wessel J, White HD, Willer CJ, Wilson JG, Wood AR, Wu Y, Yaghootkar H, Yao J, Verges-Armstrong LM, Young R, Zeggini E, Zhan XW, Zhang WH, Zhao JH, Zhao W, Zheng H, Zhou W, Zillikens MC, Rivadeneira F, Borecki IB, Pospisilik JA, Deloukas P, Frayling TM, Lettre G, Mohlke KL, Rotter JI, Kutalik Z, Hirschhorn JN, Cupples LA, Loos RJF, North KE, Lindgren CM, O'Connell JR, Raitakari OT, Danesh J, Surendran P, Young R, Liu CT, Borecki IB, Cupples LA, North KE, Boerwinkle E, Fornage M, Wilson JG, Lange LA, Ikram MA, Uitterlinden AG, Justice AE, Highland HM, Young KL, Graff M, Grove ML, Heard-Costa NL, Zillikens MC, Danesh J, Surendran P, Young R, Cook JP, Warren HR, Yaghootkar H, Masca NGD, Mihailov E, Marten J, Stirrups KE, Neville M, Robertson NR, Zhang WH, Evangelou E, Nelson CP, Luan JA, Scott RA, Farmaki AE, Polasek O, Rudan I, Franks PW, Spector TD, Wareham NJ, Esko T, Ingelsson E, De Bakker PI, Chambers JC, Kooner JS, Karpe F, Tuomilehto J, Morris AP, Hveem K, Willer CJ, Salomaa V, McCarthy MI, Elliott P, Zeggini E, Hayward C, Caulfield MJ, Mahajan A, Morris AP, Samani NJ, Lindgren CM, Munroe PB, Willer CJ, Manning AK, Sim XL, Locke AE, Jackson AU, Stringham HM, Boehnke M, Tuomilehto J, Collins FS, Mohlke KL, Abecasis G, Muller-Nurasyid M, Rivas MA, Mahajan A, Small KS, Lindgren CM, Robertson NR, Morris AP, Hattersley AT, Spector TD, Frayling TM, McCarthy MI, Willems SM, Manning AK, Frayling TM, Florez JC, Chambers JC, Kooner JS, Zhang WH, McCarthy MI, Lindgren CM, Mahajan A, Morris AP, Rivas MA, Willems SM, Laakso M, Boehnke M, Sim XL, Locke AE, Abecasis G, Wilson JG, Highland HM, Bowden DW, Zeggini E, Boehnke M, Florez JC, McCarthy MI, McCarthy MI, Florez JC
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))