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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Large-scale genome-wide analysis identifies genetic variants associated with cardiac structure and function (2017)

Journal of Clinical Investigation
Wild PS, Felix JF, Schillert A, Teumer A, Chen MH, Leening MJG, Volker U, Grossmann V, Brody JA, Irvin MR, Shah SJ, Pramana S, Lieb W, Schmidt R, Stanton AV, Malzahn D, Smith AV, Sundstrom J, Minelli C, Ruggiero D, Lyytikainen LP, Tiller D, Smith JG, Monnereau C, Di Tullio MR, Musani SK, Morrison AC, Pers TH, Morley M, Kleber ME, Aragam J, Benjamin EJ, Bis JC, Bisping E, Broeckel U, Cheng S, Deckers JW, Del Greco MF, Edelmann F, Fornage M, Franke L, Friedrich N, Harris TB, Hofer E, Hofman A, Huang J, Hughes AD, Kahonen M, Kruppa J, Lackner KJ, Lannfelt L, Laskowski R, Launer LJ, Leosdottir M, Lin HH, Lindgren CM, Loley C, MacRae CA, Mascalzoni D, Mayet J, Medenwald D, Morris AP, Muller C, Muller-Nurasyid M, Nappo S, Nilsson PM, Nuding S, Nutile T, Peters A, Pfeufer A, Pietzner D, Pramstaller PP, Raitakari OT, Rice KM, Rivadeneira F, Rotter JI, Ruohonen ST, Sacco RL, Samdarshi TE, Schmidt H, Sharp ASP, Shields DC, Sorice R, Sotoodehnia N, Stricker BH, Surendran P, Thom S, Toglhofer AM, Uitterlinden AG, Wachter R, Volzke H, Ziegler A, Munzel T, Marz W, Cappola TP, Hirschhorn JN, Mitchell GF, Smith NL, Fox ER, Dueker ND, Jaddoe VWV, Melander O, Russ M, Lehtimaki T, Ciullo M, Hicks AA, Lind L, Gudnason V, Pieske B, Barron AJ, Zweiker R, Schunkert H, Ingelsson E, Liu K, Arnett DK, Psaty BM, Blankenberg S, Larson MG, Felix SB, Franco OH, Zeller T, Vasan RS, Dorr M, Dorr M, Vasan RS, Zeller T
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

Ideal cardiovascular health in childhood-Longitudinal associations with cardiac structure and function: The Special Turku Coronary Risk Factor Intervention Project (STRIP) and the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study (YFS) (2017)

International Journal of Cardiology
Laitinen TT, Ruohonen S, Juonala M, Magnussen CG, Mikkila V, Mikola H, Hutri-Kahonen N, Laitinen T, Tossavainen P, Jokinen E, Niinikoski H, Jula A, Viikari JSA, Ronnemaa T, Raitakari OT, Pahkala K
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

Experimental and Human Evidence for Lipocalin-2 (Neutrophil Gelatinase-Associated Lipocalin [NGAL]) in the Development of Cardiac Hypertrophy and heart failure (2017)

Journal of the American Heart Association
Marques FZ, Prestes PR, Byars SG, Ritchie SC, Wurtz P, Patel SK, Booth SA, Rana I, Minoda Y, Berzins SP, Curl CL, Bell JR, Wai B, Srivastava PM, Kangas AJ, Soininen P, Ruohonen S, Kahonen M, Lehtimaki T, Raitoharju E, Havulinna A, Perola M, Raitakari O, Salomaa V, Ala-Korpela M, Kettunen J, McGlynn M, Kelly J, Wlodek ME, Lewandowski PA, Delbridge LM, Burrell LM, Inouye M, Harrap SB, Charchar FJ, Harrap SB, Charchar FJ
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

Genome-wide Association Study Identifies 27 Loci Influencing Concentrations of Circulating Cytokines and Growth Factors (2017)

American Journal of Human Genetics
Ahola-Olli AV, Wurtz P, Havulinna AS, Aalto K, Pitkanen N, Lehtimaki T, Kahonen M, Lyytikainen LP, Raitoharju E, Seppala I, Sarin AP, Ripatti S, Palotie A, Perola M, Viikari JS, Jalkanen S, Maksimow M, Salomaa V, Salmi M, Kettunen J, Raitakari OT
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

Rare and low-frequency coding variants alter human adult height (2017)

Nature
Marouli E, Graff M, Medina-Gomez C, Lo KS, Wood AR, Kjaer TR, Fine RS, Lu YC, Schurmann C, Highland HM, Rueger S, Thorleifsson G, Justice AE, Lamparter D, Stirrups KE, Turcot V, Young KL, Winkler TW, Esko T, Karaderi T, Locke AE, Masca NGD, Ng MCY, Mudgal P, Rivas MA, Vedantam S, Mahajan A, Guo XQ, Abecasis G, Aben KK, Adair LS, Alam DS, Albrecht E, Allin KH, Allison M, Amouyel P, Appel EV, Arveiler D, Asselbergs FW, Auer PL, Balkau B, Banas B, Bang LE, Benn M, Bergmann S, Bielak LF, Bluher M, Boeing H, Boerwinkle E, Boger CA, Bonnycastle LL, Bork-Jensen J, Bots ML, Bottinger EP, Bowden DW, Brandslund I, Breen G, Brilliant MH, Broer L, Burt AA, Butterworth AS, Carey DJ, Caulfield MJ, Chambers JC, Chasman DI, Chen YDI, Chowdhury R, Christensen C, Chu AY, Cocca M, Collins FS, Cook JP, Corley J, Galbany JC, Cox AJ, Cuellar-Partida G, Danesh J, Davies G, de Bakker PIW, de Borst GJ, de Denus S, de Groot MCH, de Mutsert R, Deary IJ, Dedoussis G, Demerath EW, den Hollander AI, Dennis JG, Di Angelantonio E, Drenos F, Du MM, Dunning AM, Easton DF, Ebeling T, Edwards TL, Ellinor PT, Elliott P, Evangelou E, Farmaki AE, Faul JD, Feitosa MF, Feng S, Ferrannini E, Ferrario MM, Ferrieres J, Florez JC, Ford I, Fornage M, Franks PW, Frikke-Schmidt R, Galesloot TE, Gan W, Gandin I, Gasparini P, Giedraitis V, Giri A, Girotto G, Gordon SD, Gordon-Larsen P, Gorski M, Grarup N, Grove ML, Gudnason V, Gustafsson S, Hansen T, Harris KM, Harris TB, Hattersley AT, Hayward C, He L, Heid IM, Heikkila K, Helgeland O, Hernesniemi J, Hewitt AW, Hocking LJ, Hollensted M, Holmen OL, Hovingh GK, Howson JMM, Hoyng CB, Huang PL, Hveem K, Ikram MA, Ingelsson E, Jackson AU, Jansson JH, Jarvik GP, Jensen GB, Jhun MA, Jia YC, Jiang XJ, Johansson S, Jorgensen ME, Jorgensen T, Jousilahti P, Jukema JW, Kahali B, Kahn RS, Kahonen M, Kamstrup PR, Kanoni S, Kaprio J, Karaleftheri M, Kardia SLR, Karpe F, Kee F, Keeman R, Kiemeney LA, Kitajima H, Kluivers KB, Kocher T, Komulainen P, Kontto J, Kooner JS, Kooperberg C, Kovacs P, Kriebel J, Kuivaniemi H, Kury S, Kuusisto J, La Bianca M, Laakso M, Lakka TA, Lange EM, Lange LA, Langefeld CD, Langenberg C, Larson EB, Lee IT, Lehtimaki T, Lewis CE, Li HX, Li J, Li-Gao R, Lin HH, Lin LA, Lin X, Lind L, Lindstrom J, Linneberg A, Liu YH, Liu YM, Lophatananon A, Luan J, Lubitz SA, Lyytikainen LP, Mackey DA, Madden PAF, Manning AK, Mannisto S, Marenne G, Marten J, Martin NG, Mazul AL, Meidtner K, Metspalu A, Mitchell P, Mohlke KL, Mook-Kanamori DO, Morgan A, Morris AD, Morris AP, Muller-Nurasyid M, Munroe PB, Nalls MA, Nauck M, Nelson CP, Nelson CP, Neville M, Nielsen SF, Nikus K, Njolstad PR, Nordestgaard BG, Ntalla I, O'Connel JR, Oksa H, Loohuis LMO, Ophoff RA, Owen KR, Packard CJ, Padmanabhan S, Palmer CNA, Pasterkamp G, Patel AP, Pattie A, Pedersen O, Peissig PL, Peloso GM, Pennell CE, Perola M, Perry JA, Perry JRB, Person TN, Pirie A, Polasek O, Posthuma D, Raitakari OT, Rasheed A, Rauramaa R, Reilly DF, Reiner AP, Renstrom F, Ridker PM, Rioux JD, Robertson N, Robino A, Rolandsson O, Rudan I, Ruth KS, Saleheen D, Salomaa V, Samani NJ, Sandow K, Sapkota Y, Sattar N, Schmidt MK, Schreiner PJ, Schulze MB, Scott RA, Segura-Lepe MP, Shah S, Sim XL, Sivapalaratnam S, Small KS, Smith AV, Smith JA, Southam L, Spector TD, Speliotes EK, Starr JM, Steinthorsdottir V, Stringham HM, Stumvoll M, Surendran P, 't Hart LM, Tansey KE, Tardif JC, Taylor KD, Teumer A, Thompson DJ, Thorsteinsdottir U, Thuesen BH, Tonjes A, Tromp G, Trompet S, Tsafantakis E, Tuomilehto J, Tybjaerg-Hansen A, Tyrer JP, Uher R, Uitterlinden AG, Ulivi S, van der Laan SW, Van Der Leij AR, van Duijn CM, van Schoor NM, van Setten J, Varbo A, Varga TV, Varma R, Edwards DRV, Vermeulen SH, Vestergaard H, Vitart V, Vogt TF, Vozzi D, Walker M, Wang FJ, Wang CA, Wang S, Wang YQ, Wareham NJ, Warren HR, Wessel J, Willems SM, Wilson JG, Witte DR, Woods MO, Wu Y, Yaghootkar H, Yao J, Yao P, Yerges-Armstrong LM, Young R, Zeggini E, Zhan XW, Zhang WH, Zhao JH, Zhao W, Zhao W, Zheng H, Zhou W, Rotter JI, Boehnke M, Kathiresan S, McCarthy MI, Willer CJ, Stefansson K, Borecki IB, Liu DJ, North KE, Heard-Costa NL, Pers TH, Lindgren CM, Oxvig C, Kutalik Z, Rivadeneira F, Loos RJF, Frayling TM, Hirschhorn JN, Deloukas P, Lettre G, Lettre G, Deloukas P, Loos RJF, Rivadeneira F, Hirschhorn JN, Frayling TM, Pers TH, Lindgren CM, Oxvig C, Kutalik Z
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))