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

Contact

+358 29 450 2304
Kiinamyllynkatu 10
20520
Turku

Links

10_representative_publications.pdf
ORCID

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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Meta-analysis of rare and common exome chip variants identifies S1PR4 and other loci influencing blood cell traits (2016)

Nature Genetics
Pankratz N, Schick UM, Zhou Y, Zhou W, Ahluwalia TS, Allende ML, Auer PL, Bork-Jensen J, Brody JA, Chen MH, Clavo V, Eicher JD, Grarup N, Hagedorn EJ, Hu B, Hunker K, Johnson AD, Leusink M, Lu Y, Lyytikäinen LP, Manichaikul A, Marioni RE, Nalls MA, Pazoki R, Smith AV, van Rooij FJ, Yang ML, Zhang X, Zhang Y, Asselbergs FW, Boerwinkle E, Borecki IB, Bottinger EP, Cushman M, de Bakker PI, Deary IJ, Dong L, Feitosa MF, Floyd JS, Franceschini N, Franco OH, Garcia ME, Grove ML, Gudnason V, Hansen T, Harris TB, Hofman A, Jackson RD, Jia J, Kähönen M, Launer LJ, Lehtimäki T, Liewald DC, Linneberg A, Liu Y, Loos RJ, Nguyen VM, Numans ME, Pedersen O, Psaty BM, Raitakari OT, Rich SS, Rivadeneira F, Di Sant AM, Rotter JI, Starr JM, Taylor KD, Thuesen BH, Tracy RP, Uitterlinden AG, Wang J, Wang J, Dehghan A, Huo Y, Cupples LA, Wilson JG, Proia RL, Zon LI, O'Donnell CJ, Reiner AP, Ganesh SK
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

Creatine and entrepreneurship (2016)

Journal of Bioeconomics
Cornelius A. Rietveld, Petri Böckerman, Jutta Viinikainen, Alex Bryson, Olli Raitakari, Jaakko Pehkonen
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

Twenty-eight genetic loci associated with ST-T-wave amplitudes of the electrocardiogram (2016)

Human Molecular Genetics
Verweij N, Mateo Leach I, Isaacs A, Arking DE, Bis JC, Pers TH, Van Den Berg ME, Lyytikäinen LP, Barnett P, Wang X; LifeLines Cohort Study., Soliman EZ, Van Duijn CM, Kähönen M, Van Veldhuisen DJ, Kors JA, Raitakari OT, Silva CT, Lehtimäki T, Hillege HL, Hirschhorn JN, Boyer LA, Van Gilst WH, Alonso A, Sotoodehnia N, Eijgelsheim M, De Boer RA, De Bakker PI, Franke L, Van Der Harst P
(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))

KLB is associated with alcohol drinking, and its gene product β-Klotho is necessary for FGF21 regulation of alcohol preference (2016)

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Schumann G, Liu C, O'Reilly P, Gao H, Song P, Xu B, Ruggeri B, Amin N, Jia T, Preis S, Segura Lepe M, Akira S, Barbieri C, Baumeister S, Cauchi S, Clarke TK, Enroth S, Fischer K, Hällfors J, Harris SE, Hieber S, Hofer E, Hottenga JJ, Johansson å, Joshi PK, Kaartinen N, Laitinen J, Lemaitre R, Loukola A, Luan J, Lyytikäinen LP, Mangino M, Manichaikul A, Mbarek H, Milaneschi Y, Moayyeri A, Mukamal K, Nelson C, Nettleton J, Partinen E, Rawal R, Robino A, Rose L, Sala C, Satoh T, Schmidt R, Schraut K, Scott R, Smith AV, Starr JM, Teumer A, Trompet S, Uitterlinden AG, Venturini C, Vergnaud AC, Verweij N, Vitart V, Vuckovic D, Wedenoja J, Yengo L, Yu B, Zhang W, Zhao JH, Boomsma DI, Chambers J, Chasman DI, Daniela T, de Geus E, Deary I, Eriksson JG, Esko T, Eulenburg V, Franco OH, Froguel P, Gieger C, Grabe HJ, Gudnason V, Gyllensten U, Harris TB, Hartikainen AL, Heath AC, Hocking L, Hofman A, Huth C, Jarvelin MR, Jukema JW, Kaprio J, Kooner JS, Kutalik Z, Lahti J, Langenberg C, Lehtimäki T, Liu Y, Madden PA, Martin N, Morrison A, Penninx B, Pirastu N, Psaty B, Raitakari O, Ridker P, Rose R, Rotter JI, Samani NJ, Schmidt H, Spector TD, Stott D, Strachan D, Tzoulaki I, van der Harst P, van Duijn CM, Marques-Vidal P, Vollenweider P, Wareham NJ, Whitfield JB, Wilson J, Wolffenbuttel B, Bakalkin G, Evangelou E, Liu Y, Rice KM, Desrivières S, Kliewer SA, Mangelsdorf DJ, Müller CP, Levy D, Elliott P
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

Genome-wide association analysis identifies three new susceptibility loci for childhood body mass index (2016)

Human Molecular Genetics
Felix JF, Bradfield JP, Monnereau C, van der Valk RJP, Stergiakouli E, Chesi A, Gaillard R, Feenstra B, Thiering E, Kreiner-Moller E, Mahajan A, Pitkanen N, Joro R, Cavadino A, Huikari V, Franks S, Groen-Blokhuis MM, Cousminer DL, Marsh JA, Lehtimaki T, Curtin JA, Vioque J, Ahluwalia TS, Myhre R, Price TS, Vilor-Tejedor N, Yengo L, Grarup N, Ntalla I, Ang W, Atalay M, Bisgaard H, Blakemore AI, Bonnefond A, Carstensen L, Eriksson J, Flexeder C, Franke L, Geller F, Geserick M, Hartikainen AL, Haworth CMA, Hirschhorn JN, Hofman A, Holm JC, Horikoshi M, Hottenga JJ, Huang JY, Kadarmideen HN, Kahonen M, Kiess W, Lakka HM, Lakka TA, Lewin AM, Liang L, Lyytikainen LP, Ma BS, Magnus P, McCormack SE, McMahon G, Mentch FD, Middeldorp CM, Murray CS, Pahkala K, Pers TH, Pfaffle R, Postma DS, Power C, Simpson A, Sengpiel V, Tiesler CMT, Torrent M, Uitterlinden AG, van Meurs JB, Vinding R, Waage J, Wardle J, Zeggini E, Zemel BS, Dedoussis GV, Pedersen O, Froguel P, Sunyer J, Plomin R, Jacobsson B, Hansen T, Gonzalez JR, Custovic A, Raitakari OT, Pennell CE, Widen E, Boomsma DI, Koppelman GH, Sebert S, Jarvelin MR, Hypponen E, McCarthy MI, Lindi V, Harri N, Korner A, Bonnelykke K, Heinrich J, Melbye M, Rivadeneira F, Hakonarson H, Ring SM, Smith GD, Sorensen TIA, Timpson NJ, Grant SFA, Jaddoe VWV
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

Platelet-Related Variants Identified by Exomechip Meta-analysis in 157,293 Individuals (2016)

American Journal of Human Genetics
Eicher JD, Chami N, Kacprowski T, Nomura A, Chen MH, Yanek LR, Tajuddin SM, Schick UM, Slater AJ, Pankratz N, Polfus L, Schurmann C, Giri A, Brody JA, Lange LA, Manichaikul A, Hill WD, Pazoki R, Elliot P, Evangelou E, Tzoulaki I, Gao H, Vergnaud AC, Mathias RA, Becker DM, Becker LC, Burt A, Crosslin DR, Lyytikainen LP, Nikus K, Hernesniemi J, Kahonen M, Raitoharju E, Mononen N, Raitakari OT, Lehtimaki T, Cushman M, Zakai NA, Nickerson DA, Raffield LM, Quarells R, Willer CJ, Peloso GM, Abecasis GR, Liu DJJ, Deloukas P, Samani NJ, Schunkert H, Erdmann J, Fornage M, Richard M, Tardif JC, Rioux JD, Dube MP, de Denus S, Lu YC, Bottinger EP, Loos RJF, Smith AV, Harris TB, Launer LJ, Gudnason V, Edwards DRV, Torstenson ES, Liu YM, Tracy RP, Rotter JI, Rich SS, Highland HM, Boerwinkle E, Li J, Lange E, Wilson JG, Mihailov E, Magi R, Hirschhorn J, Metspalu A, Esko T, Vacchi-Suzzi C, Nalls MA, Zonderman AB, Evans MK, Engstrom G, Orho-Melander M, Melander O, O'Donoghue ML, Waterworth DM, Wallentin L, White HD, Floyd JS, Bartz TM, Rice KM, Psaty BM, Starr JM, Liewald DCM, Hayward C, Deary IJ, Greinacher A, Volker U, Thiele T, Volzke H, van Rooij FJA, Uitterlinden AG, Franco OH, Dehghan A, Edwards TL, Ganesh SK, Kathiresan S, Faraday N, Auer PL, Reiner AP, Lettre G, Johnson AD
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))
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