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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Genetic associations at 53 loci highlight cell types and biological pathways relevant for kidney function (2016)

Nature Communications
Pattaro C, Teumer A, Gorski M, Chu AY, Li M, Mijatovic V, Garnaas M, Tin A, Sorice R, Li Y, Taliun D, Olden M, Foster M, Yang Q, Chen MH, Pers TH, Johnson AD, Ko YA, Fuchsberger C, Tayo B, Nalls M, Feitosa MF, Isaacs A, Dehghan A, d'Adamo P, Adeyemo A, Dieffenbach AK, Zonderman AB, Nolte IM, van der Most PJ, Wright AF, Shuldiner AR, Morrison AC, Hofman A, Smith AV, Dreisbach AW, Franke A, Uitterlinden AG, Metspalu A, Tonjes A, Lupo A, Robino A, Johansson A, Demirkan A, Kollerits B, Freedman BI, Ponte B, Oostra BA, Paulweber B, Kramer BK, Mitchell BD, Buckley BM, Peralta CA, Hayward C, Helmer C, Rotimi CN, Shaffer CM, Muller C, Sala C, van Duijn CM, Saint-Pierre A, Ackermann D, Shriner D, Ruggiero D, Toniolo D, Lu YC, Cusi D, Czamara D, Ellinghaus D, Siscovick DS, Ruderfer D, Gieger C, Grallert H, Rochtchina E, Atkinson EJ, Holliday EG, Boerwinkle E, Salvi E, Bottinger EP, Murgia F, Rivadeneira F, Ernst F, Kronenberg F, Hu FB, Navis GJ, Curhan GC, Ehret GB, Homuth G, Coassin S, Thun GA, Pistis G, Gambaro G, Malerba G, Montgomery GW, Eiriksdottir G, Jacobs G, Li G, Wichmann HE, Campbell H, Schmidt H, Wallaschofski H, Volzke H, Brenner H, Kroemer HK, Kramer H, Lin HH, Leach IM, Ford I, Guessous I, Rudan I, Prokopenko I, Borecki I, Heid IM, Kolcic I, Persico I, Jukema JW, Wilson JF, Felix JF, Divers J, Lambert JC, Stafford JM, Gaspoz JM, Smith JA, Faul JD, Wang JJ, Ding JZ, Hirschhorn JN, Attia J, Whitfield JB, Chalmers J, Viikari J, Coresh J, Denny JC, Karjalainen J, Fernandes JK, Endlich K, Butterbach K, Keene KL, Lohman K, Portas L, Launer LJ, Lyytikainen LP, Yengo L, Franke L, Ferrucci L, Rose LM, Kedenko L, Rao M, Struchalin M, Kleber ME, Cavalieri M, Haun M, Cornelis MC, Ciullo M, Pirastu M, de Andrade M, McEvoy MA, Woodward M, Adam M, Cocca M, Nauck M, Imboden M, Waldenberger M, Pruijm M, Metzger M, Stumvoll M, Evans MK, Sale MM, Kahonen M, Boban M, Bochud M, Rheinberger M, Verweij N, Bouatia-Naji N, Martin NG, Hastie N, Probst-Hensch N, Soranzo N, Devuyst O, Raitakari O, Gottesman O, Franco OH, Polasek O, Gasparini P, Munroe PB, Ridker PM, Mitchell P, Muntner P, Meisinger C, Smit JH, Kovacs P, Wild PS, Froguel P, Rettig R, Magi R, Biffar R, Schmidt R, Middelberg RPS, Carroll RJ, Penninx BW, Scott RJ, Katz R, Sedaghat S, Wild SH, Kardia SLR, Ulivi S, Hwang SJ, Enroth S, Kloiber S, Trompet S, Stengel B, Hancock SJ, Turner ST, Rosas SE, Stracke S, Harris TB, Zeller T, Zemunik T, Lehtimaki T, Illig T, Aspelund T, Nikopensius T, Esko T, Tanaka T, Gyllensten U, Volker U, Emilsson V, Vitart V, Aalto V, Gudnason V, Chouraki V, Chen WM, Igl W, Marz W, Koenig W, Lieb W, Loos RJF, Liu YM, Snieder H, Pramstaller PP, Parsa A, O'Connell JR, Susztak K, Hamet P, Tremblay J, de Boer IH, Boger CA, Goessling W, Chasman DI, Kottgen A, Kao WHL, Fox CS
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

52 Genetic Loci Influencing Myocardial Mass (2016)

Journal of the American College of Cardiology
van der Harst P, van Setten J, Verweij N, Vogler G, Franke L, Maurano MT, Wang XC, Leach IM, Eijgelsheim M, Sotoodehnia N, Hayward C, Sorice R, Meirelles O, Lyytikainen LP, Polasek O, Tanaka T, Arking DE, Ulivi S, Trompet S, Muller-Nurasyid M, Smith AV, Dorr M, Kerr KF, Magnani JW, Del Greco F, Zhang WH, Nolte IM, Silva CT, Padmanabhan S, Tragante V, Esko T, Abecasis GR, Adriaens ME, Andersen K, Barnett P, Bis JC, Bodmer R, Buckley BM, Campbell H, Cannon MV, Chakravarti A, Chen LY, Delitala A, Devereux RB, Doevendans PA, Dominiczak AF, Ferrucci L, Ford I, Gieger C, Harris TB, Haugen E, Heinig M, Hernandez DG, Hillege HL, Hirschhorn JN, Hofman A, Hubner N, Hwang SJ, Iorio A, Kahonen M, Kellis M, Kolcic I, Kooner IK, Kooner JS, Kors JA, Lakatta EG, Lage K, Launer LJ, Levy D, Lundby A, Macfarlane PW, May D, Meitinger T, Metspalu A, Nappo S, Naitza S, Neph S, Nord AS, Nutile T, Okin PM, Olsen JV, Oostra B, Penninger JM, Pennacchio LA, Pers TH, Perz S, Peters A, Pinto YM, Pfeufer A, Pilia MG, Pramstaller PP, Prins BP, Raitakari OT, Raychaudhuri S, Rice KM, Rossin EJ, Rotter JI, Schafer S, Schlessinger D, Schmidt CO, Sehmi J, Sillje HHW, Sinagra G, Sinner MF, Slowikowski K, Soliman EZ, Spector TD, Spiering W, Stamatoyannopoulos JA, Stolk RP, Strauch K, Tan ST, Tarasov KV, Trinh B, Uitterlinden AG, van den Boogaard M, van Duijn CM, van Gilst WH, Viikari JS, Visscher PM, Vitart V, Volker U, Waldenberger M, Weichenberger CX, Westra HJ, Wijmenga C, Wolffenbuttel BH, Yang J, Bezzina CR, Munroe PB, Snieder H, Wright AF, Rudan I, Boyer LA, Asselbergs FW, van Veldhuisen DJ, Stricker BH, Psaty BM, Ciullo M, Sanna S, Lehtimaki T, Wilson JF, Bandinelli S, Alonso A, Gasparini P, Jukema JW, Kaab S, Gudnason V, Felix SB, Heckbert SR, de Boer RA, Newton-Cheh C, Hicks AA, Chambers JC, Jamshidi Y, Visel A, Christoffels VM, Isaacs A, Samani NJ, de Bakker PIW
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

Meta-analysis of gene-environment-wide association scans accounting for education level identifies additional loci for refractive error (2016)

Nature Communications
Fan Q, Verhoeven VJ, Wojciechowski R, Barathi VA, Hysi PG, Guggenheim JA, Höhn R, Vitart V, Khawaja AP, Yamashiro K, Hosseini SM, Lehtimäki T, Lu Y, Haller T, Xie J, Delcourt C, Pirastu M, Wedenoja J, Gharahkhani P, Venturini C, Miyake M, Hewitt AW, Guo X, Mazur J, Huffman JE, Williams KM, Polasek O, Campbell H, Rudan I, Vatavuk Z, Wilson JF, Joshi PK, McMahon G, St Pourcain B, Evans DM, Simpson CL, Schwantes-An TH, Igo RP, Mirshahi A, Cougnard-Gregoire A, Bellenguez C, Blettner M, Raitakari O, Kähönen M, Seppala I, Zeller T, Meitinger T; Consortium for Refractive Error and Myopia., Ried JS, Gieger C, Portas L, van Leeuwen EM, Amin N, Uitterlinden AG, Rivadeneira F, Hofman A, Vingerling JR, Wang YX, Wang X, Tai-Hui Boh E, Ikram MK, Sabanayagam C, Gupta P, Tan V, Zhou L, Ho CE, Lim W, Beuerman RW, Siantar R, Tai ES, Vithana E, Mihailov E, Khor CC, Hayward C, Luben RN, Foster PJ, Klein BE, Klein R, Wong HS, Mitchell P, Metspalu A, Aung T, Young TL, He M, Pärssinen O, van Duijn CM, Jin Wang J, Williams C, Jonas JB, Teo YY, Mackey DA, Oexle K, Yoshimura N, Paterson AD, Pfeiffer N, Wong TY, Baird PN, Stambolian D, Wilson JE, Cheng CY, Hammond CJ, Klaver CC, Saw SM, Rahi JS, Korobelnik JF, Kemp JP, Timpson NJ, Smith GD, Craig JE, Burdon KP, Fogarty RD, Iyengar SK, Chew E, Janmahasatian S, Martin NG, MacGregor S, Xu L, Schache M, Nangia V, Panda-Jonas S, Wright AF, Fondran JR, Lass JH, Feng S, Zhao JH, Khaw KT, Wareham NJ, Rantanen T, Kaprio J, Pang CP, Chen LJ, Tam PO, Jhanji V, Young AL, Döring A, Raffel LJ, Cotch MF, Li X, Yip SP, Yap MK, Biino G, Vaccargiu S, Fossarello M, Fleck B, Yazar S, Tideman JW, Tedja M, Deangelis MM, Morrison M, Farrer L, Zhou X, Chen W, Mizuki N, Meguro A, Mäkelä KM
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

Multiethnic Exome-Wide Association Study of Subclinical Atherosclerosis (2016)

Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics
Natarajan P, Bis JC, Bielak LF, Cox AJ, Dörr M, Feitosa MF, Franceschini N, Guo X, Hwang SJ, Isaacs A, Jhun MA, Kavousi M, Li-Gao R, Lyytikäinen LP, Marioni RE, Schminke U, Stitziel NO, Tada H, van Setten J, Smith AV, Vojinovic D, Yanek LR, Yao J, Yerges-Armstrong LM, Amin N, Baber U, Borecki IB, Carr JJ, Chen YI, Cupples LA, de Jong PA, de Koning H, de Vos BD, Demirkan A, Fuster V, Franco OH, Goodarzi MO, Harris TB, Heckbert SR, Heiss G, Hoffmann U, Hofman A, Išgum I, Jukema JW, Kähönen M, Kardia SL, Kral BG, Launer LJ, Massaro J, Mehran R, Mitchell BD, Mosley TH Jr, de Mutsert R, Newman AB, Nguyen KD, North KE, O'Connell JR, Oudkerk M, Pankow JS, Peloso GM, Post W, Province MA, Raffield LM, Raitakari OT, Reilly DF, Rivadeneira F, Rosendaal F, Sartori S, Taylor KD, Teumer A, Trompet S, Turner ST, Uitterlinden AG, Vaidya D, van der Lugt A, Völker U, Wardlaw JM, Wassel CL, Weiss S, Wojczynski MK, Becker DM, Becker LC, Boerwinkle E, Bowden DW, Deary IJ, Dehghan A, Felix SB, Gudnason V, Lehtimäki T, Mathias R, Mook-Kanamori DO, Psaty BM, Rader DJ, Rotter JI, Wilson JG, van Duijn CM, Völzke H, Kathiresan S, Peyser PA, O'Donnell CJ
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

Genetic variants associated with subjective well-being, depressive symptoms, and neuroticism identified through genome-wide analyses (2016)

Nature Genetics
Okbay A, Baselmans BML, De Neve JE, Turley P, Nivard MG, Fontana MA, Meddens SFW, Linner RK, Rietveld CA, Derringer J, Gratten J, Lee JJ, Liu JZ, de Vlaming R, Ahluwalia TS, Buchwald J, Cavadino A, Frazier-Wood AC, Furlotte NA, Garfield V, Geisel MH, Gonzalez JR, Haitjema S, Karlsson R, van der Laan SW, Ladwig KH, Lahti J, van der Lee SJ, Lind PA, Liu T, Matteson L, Mihailov E, Miller MB, Minica CC, Nolte IM, Mook-Kanamori D, van der Most PJ, Oldmeadow C, Qian Y, Raitakari O, Rawal R, Realo A, Rueedi R, Schmidt B, Smith AV, Stergiakouli E, Tanaka T, Taylor K, Wedenoja J, Wellmann J, Westra HJ, Willems SM, Zhao W, Amin N, Bakshi A, Boyle PA, Cherney S, Cox SR, Davies G, Davis OSP, Ding J, Direk N, Eibich P, Emeny RT, Fatemifar G, Faul JD, Ferrucci L, Forstner A, Gieger C, Gupta R, Harris TB, Harris JM, Holliday EG, Hottenga JJ, De Jager PL, Kaakinen MA, Kajantie E, Karhunen V, Kolcic I, Kumari M, Launer LJ, Franke L, Li-Gao R, Koini M, Loukola A, Marques-Vidal P, Montgomery GW, Mosing MA, Paternoster L, Pattie A, Petrovic KE, Pulkki-Raback L, Quaye L, Raikkonen K, Rudan I, Scott RJ, Smith JA, Sutin AR, Trzaskowski M, Vinkhuyzen AE, Yu L, Zabaneh D, Attia JR, Bennett DA, Berger K, Bertram L, Boomsma DI, Snieder H, Chang SC, Cucca F, Deary IJ, van Duijn CM, Eriksson JG, Bultmann U, de Geus EJC, Groenen PJF, Gudnason V, Hansen T, Hartman CA, Haworth CMA, Hayward C, Heath AC, Hinds DA, Hypponen E, Iacono WG, Jarvelin MR, Jockel KH, Kaprio J, Kardia SLR, Keltikangas-Jarvinen L, Kraft P, Kubzansky LD, Lehtimaki T, Magnusson PKE, Martin NG, Mcgue M, Metspalu A, Mills M, de Mutsert R, Oldehinkel AJ, Pasterkamp G, Pedersen NL, Plomin R, Polasek O, Power C, Rich SS, Rosendaal FR, den Ruijter HM, Schlessinger D, Schmidt H, Svento R, Schmidt R, Alizadeh BZ, Sorensen TIA, Spector TD, Steptoe A, Terracciano A, Thurik AR, Timpson NJ, Tiemeier H, Uitterlinden AG, Vollenweider P, Wagner GG, Weir DR, Yang J, Conley DC, Smith GD, Hofman A, Johannesson M, Laibson DI, Medland SE, Meyer MN, Pickrell JK, Esko T, Krueger RF, Beauchamp JP, Koellinger PD, Benjamin DJ, Bartels M, Cesarini D
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))