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 Low-Frequency Inactivating AKT2 Variant Enriched in the Finnish Population Is Associated With Fasting Insulin Levels and Type 2 Diabetes Risk (2017)

Diabetes
Manning A, Highland HM, Gasser J, Sim X, Tukiainen T, Fontanillas P, Grarup N, Rivas MA, Mahajan A, Locke AE, Cingolani P, Pers TH, Vinuela A, Brown AA, Wu Y, Flannick J, Fuchsberger C, Gamazon ER, Gaulton KJ, Im HK, Teslovich TM, Blackwell TW, Bork-Jensen J, Burtt NP, Chen YH, Green T, Hartl C, Kang HM, Kumar A, Ladenvall C, Ma C, Moutsianas L, Pearson RD, Perry JRB, Rayner NW, Robertson NR, Scott LJ, van de Bunt M, Eriksson JG, Jula A, Koskinen S, Lehtimaki T, Palotie A, Raitakari OT, Jacobs SBR, Wessel J, Chu AY, Scott RA, Goodarzi MO, Blancher C, Buck G, Buck D, Chines PS, Gabriel S, Gjesing AP, Groves CJ, Hollensted M, Huyghe JR, Jackson AU, Jun G, Justesen JM, Mangino M, Murphy J, Neville M, Onofrio R, Small KS, Stringham HM, Trakalo J, Banks E, Carey J, Carneiro MO, DePristo M, Farjoun Y, Fennell T, Goldstein JI, Grant G, de Angelis MH, Maguire J, Neale BM, Poplin R, Purcell S, Schwarzmayr T, Shakir K, Smith JD, Strom TM, Wieland T, Lindstrom J, Brandslund I, Christensen C, Surdulescu GL, Lakka TA, Doney ASF, Nilsson P, Wareham NJ, Langenberg C, Varga TV, Franks PW, Rolandsson O, Rosengren AH, Farook VS, Thameem F, Puppala S, Kumar S, Lehman DM, Jenkinson CP, Curran JE, Hale DE, Fowler SP, Arya R, DeFronzo RA, Abboud HE, Syvanen AC, Hicks PJ, Palmer ND, Ng MCY, Bowden DW, Freedman BI, Esko T, Magi R, Milani L, Mihailov E, Metspalu A, Narisu N, Kinnunen L, Bonnycastle LL, Swift A, Pasko D, Wood AR, Fadista J, Pollin TI, Barzilai N, Atzmon G, Glaser B, Thorand B, Strauch K, Peters A, Roden M, Muller-Nurasyid M, Liang L, Kriebel J, Illig T, Grallert H, Gieger C, Meisinger C, Lannfelt L, Musani SK, Griswold M, Taylor HA, Wilson G, Correa A, Oksa H, Scott WR, Afzal U, Tan ST, Loh M, Chambers JC, Sehmi J, Kooner JS, Lehne B, Cho YS, Lee JY, Han BG, Karajamaki A, Qi QB, Qi L, Huang JY, Hu FB, Melander O, Orho-Melander M, Below JE, Aguilar D, Wong TY, Liu JJ, Khor CC, Chia KS, Lim WY, Cheng CY, Chan E, Tai ES, Aung T, Linneberg A, Isomaa B, Meitinger T, Tuomi T, Hakaste L, Kravic J, Jorgensen ME, Lauritzen T, Deloukas P, Stirrups KE, Owen KR, Farmer AJ, Frayling TM, O'Rahilly SP, Walker M, Levy JC, Hodgkiss D, Hattersley AT, Kuulasmaa T, Stancakova A, Barroso I, Bharadwaj D, Chan J, Chandak GR, Daly MJ, Donnelly PJ, Ebrahim SB, Elliott P, Fingerlin T, Froguel P, Hu C, Jia WP, Ma RCW, McVean G, Park T, Prabhakaran D, Sandhu M, Scott J, Sladek R, Tandon N, Teo YY, Zeggini E, Watanabe RM, Koistinen HA, Kesaniemi YA, Uusitupa M, Spector TD, Salomaa V, Rauramaa R, Palmer CNA, Prokopenko I, Morris AD, Bergman RN, Collins FS, Lind L, Ingelsson E, Tuomilehto J, Karpe F, Groop L, Jorgensen T, Hansen T, Pedersen O, Kuusisto J, Abecasis G, Bell GI, Blangero J, Cox NJ, Duggirala R, Seielstad M, Wilson JG, Dupuis J, Ripatti S, Hanis CL, Florez JC, Mohlke KL, Meigs JB, Laakso M, Morris AP, Boehnke M, Altshuler D, McCarthy MI, Gloyn AL, Lindgren CM, Gloyn AL, Lindgren CM
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

Plasma Concentrations of Afamin Are Associated With Prevalent and Incident Type 2 Diabetes: A Pooled Analysis in More Than 20,000 Individuals (2017)

Diabetes Care
Kollerits B, Lamina C, Huth C, Marques-Vidal P, Kiechl S, Seppala I, Cooper J, Hunt SC, Meisinger C, Herder C, Kedenko L, Willeit J, Thorand B, Dahnhardt D, Stockl D, Willeit K, Roden M, Rathmann W, Paulweber B, Peters A, Kahonen M, Lehtimaki T, Raitakari OT, Humphries SE, Vollenweider P, Dieplinger H, Kronenberg F, Kronenberg F
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

1000 Genomes-based meta-analysis identifies 10 novel loci for kidney function (2017)

Scientific Reports
Mathias Gorski, Peter J. Van der Most, Alexander Teumer, Audrey Y. Chu, Man Li, Vladan Mijatovic, Ilja M. Nolte, Massimiliano Cocca, Daniel Taliun, Felicia Gomez, Yong Li, Bamidele Tayo, Adrienne Tin, Mary F. Feitosa, Thor Aspelund, John Attia, Reiner Biffar, Murielle Bochud, Eric Boerwinkle, Ingrid Borecki, Erwin P. Bottinger, Ming-Huei Chen, Vincent Chouraki, Marina Ciullo, Josef Coresh, Marilyn C. Cornelis, Gary C. Curhan, Adamo Pio d'Adamo, Abbas Dehghan, Laura Dengler, Jingzhong Ding, Gudny Eiriksdottir, Karlhans Endlich, Stefan Enroth, Tõnu Esko, Oscar H. Franco, Paolo Gasparini, Christian Gieger, Giorgia Girotto, Omri Gottesman, Vilmundur Gudnason, Ulf Gyllensten, Stephen J. Hancock, Tamara B. Harris, Catherine Helmer, Simon Höllerer, Edith Hofer, Albert Hofman, Elizabeth G. Holliday, Georg Homuth, Frank B. Hu, Cornelia Huth, Nina Hutri-Kähönen, Shih-Jen Hwang, Medea Imboden, Åsa Johansson, Mika Kähönen, Wolfgang König, Holly Kramer, Bernhard K. Krämer, Ashish Kumar, Zoltan Kutalik, Jean-Charles Lambert, Lenore J. Launer, Terho Lehtimäki, Martin H. de Borst, Gerjan Navis, Morris Swertz, Yongmei Liu, Kurt Lohman, Ruth J. F. Loos, Yingchang Lu, Leo-Pekka Lyytikäinen, Mark A. McEvoy, Christa Meisinger, Thomas Meitinger, Andres Metspalu, Marie Metzger, Evelin Mihailov, Paul Mitchell, Matthias Nauck, Albertine J. Oldehinkel, Matthias Olden, Brenda WJH Penninx, Giorgio Pistis, Peter P. Pramstaller, Nicole Probst-Hensch, Olli T. Raitakari, Rainer Rettig, Paul M. Ridker, Fernando Rivadeneira, Antonietta Robino, Sylvia E. Rosas, Douglas Ruderfer, Daniela Ruggiero, Yasaman Saba, Cinzia Sala, Helena Schmidt, Reinhold Schmidt, Rodney J. Scott, Sanaz Sedaghat, Albert V. Smith, Rossella Sorice, Benedicte Stengel, Sylvia Stracke, Konstantin Strauch, Daniela Toniolo, Andre G. Uitterlinden, Sheila Ulivi, Jorma S. Viikari, Uwe Völker, Peter Vollenweider, Henry Völzke, Dragana Vuckovic, Melanie Waldenberger, Jie Jin Wang, Qiong Yang, Daniel I. Chasman, Gerard Tromp, Harold Snieder, Iris M. Heid, Caroline S. Fox, Anna Köttgen, Christian Pattaro, Carsten A. Böger, Christian Fuchsberger
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Risk of Fatty Liver: The Young Finns Study (2017)

Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise
Palve KS, Pahkala K, Suomela E, Aatola H, Hulkkonen J, Juonala M, Lehtimaki T, Ronnemaa T, Viikari JSA, Kahonen M, Hutri-Kahonen N, Telama R, Tammelin T, Raitakari OT
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

Vitamin D and cognitive function: A Mendelian randomisation study (2017)

Scientific Reports
Maddock J, Zhou A, Cavadino A, Kuzma E, Bao YC, Smart MC, Saum KU, Schottker B, Engmann J, Kjaergaard M, Karhunen V, Zhan YQ, Lehtimaki T, Rovio SP, Byberg L, Lahti J, Marques-Vidal P, Sen A, Perna L, Schirmer H, Singh-Manoux A, Auvinen J, Hutri-Kahonen N, Kahonen M, Kilander L, Raikkonen K, Melhus H, Ingelsson E, Guessous I, Petrovic KE, Schmidt H, Schmidt R, Vollenweider P, Lind L, Eriksson JG, Michaelsson K, Raitakari OT, Hagg S, Pedersen NL, Herzig KH, Jarvelin MR, Veijola J, Kivimaki M, Jorde R, Brenner H, Kumari M, Power C, Llewellyn DJ, Hypponen E, Hypponen E
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

Keski-ikäinen tarvitsee lisää askeleita arkeensa (2017)

Liikunta ja tiede
Kasper Salin, Mirja Hirvensalo, Costan Magnussen, Xiaolin Yang, Risto Telama, Nina Hutri-Kähönen, Jorma Viikari, Olli Raitakari, Tuija Tammelin
(Artikkeli ammattilehdessä tai kirjoitus ammatillisessa blogissa (D1))