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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The biomarker GlycA is associated with chronic inflammation and predicts long-term risk of severe infection (2015)

Cell Systems
Ritchie SC, Würtz P, Nath AP, Abraham G, Havulinna AS, Fearnley LG, Sarin A-P, Kangas AJ, Soininen P, Aalto K, Seppälä I, Raitoharju E, Salmi M, Maksimow M, Männistö S, Kähönen M, Juonala M, Ripatti S, Lehtimäki T, Jalkanen S, Perola M, Raitakari O, Salomaa V, Ala-Korpela M, Kettunen J, Inouye M
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

Meta-analysis of Genome-wide Association Studies for Neuroticism, and the Polygenic Association With Major Depressive Disorder (2015)

JAMA Psychiatry
de Moor MH, van den Berg SM, Verweij KJ, Krueger RF, Luciano M, Arias Vasquez A, Matteson LK, Derringer J, Esko T, Amin N, Gordon SD, Hansell NK, Hart AB, Seppälä I, Huffman JE, Konte B, Lahti J, Lee M, Miller M, Nutile T, Tanaka T, Teumer A, Viktorin A, Wedenoja J, Abecasis GR, Adkins DE, Agrawal A, Allik J, Appel K, Bigdeli TB, Busonero F, Campbell H, Costa PT, Davey Smith G, Davies G, de Wit H, Ding J, Engelhardt BE, Eriksson JG, Fedko IO, Ferrucci L, Franke B, Giegling I, Grucza R, Hartmann AM, Heath AC, Heinonen K, Henders AK, Homuth G, Hottenga JJ, Iacono WG, Janzing J, Jokela M, Karlsson R, Kemp JP, Kirkpatrick MG, Latvala A, Lehtimäki T, Liewald DC, Madden PA, Magri C, Magnusson PK, Marten J, Maschio A, Medland SE, Mihailov E, Milaneschi Y, Montgomery GW, Nauck M, Ouwens KG, Palotie A, Pettersson E, Polasek O, Qian Y, Pulkki-Råback L, Raitakari OT, Realo A, Rose RJ, Ruggiero D, Schmidt CO, Slutske WS, Sorice R, Starr JM, St Pourcain B, Sutin AR, Timpson NJ, Trochet H, Vermeulen S, Vuoksimaa E, Widen E, Wouda J, Wright MJ, Zgaga L, Porteous D, Minelli A, Palmer AA, Rujescu D, Ciullo M, Hayward C, Rudan I, Metspalu A, Kaprio J, Deary IJ, Räikkönen K, Wilson JF, Keltikangas-Järvinen L, Bierut LJ, Hettema JM, Grabe HJ, van Duijn CM, Evans DM, Schlessinger D, Pedersen NL, Terracciano A, McGue M, Penninx BW, Martin NG, Boomsma DI
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

The impact of low-frequency and rare variants on lipid levels (2015)

Nature Genetics
Surakka I, Horikoshi M, Magi R, Sarin AP, Mahajan A, Lagou V, Marullo L, Ferreira T, Miraglio B, Timonen S, Kettunen J, Pirinen M, Karjalainen J, Thorleifsson G, Hagg S, Hottenga JJ, Isaacs A, Ladenvall C, Beekman M, Esko T, Ried JS, Nelson CP, Willenborg C, Gustafsson S, Westra HJ, Blades M, de Craen AJM, de Geus EJ, Deelen J, Grallert H, Hamsten A, Havulinna AS, Hengstenberg C, Houwing-Duistermaat JJ, Hypponen E, Karssen LC, Lehtimaki T, Lyssenko V, Magnusson PKE, Mihailov E, Muller-Nurasyid M, Mpindi JP, Pedersen NL, Penninx BWJH, Perola M, Pers TH, Peters A, Rung J, Smit JH, Steinthorsdottir V, Tobin MD, Tsernikova N, van Leeuwen EM, Viikari JS, Willems SM, Willemsen G, Schunkert H, Erdmann J, Samani NJ, Kaprio J, Lind L, Gieger C, Metspalu A, Slagboom PE, Groop L, van Duijn CM, Eriksson JG, Jula A, Salomaa V, Boomsma DI, Power C, Raitakari OT, Ingelsson E, Jarvelin MR, Thorsteinsdottir U, Franke L, Ikonen E, Kallioniemi O, Pietiainen V, Lindgren CM, Stefansson K, Palotie A, McCarthy MI, Morris AP, Prokopenko I, Ripatti S; ENGAGE Consortium
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

Directional dominance on stature and cognition in diverse human populations (2015)

Nature
Joshi PK, Esko T, Mattsson H, Eklund N, Gandin I, Nutile T, Jackson AU, Schurmann C, Smith AV, Zhang WH, Okada Y, Stancakova A, Faul JD, Zhao W, Bartz TM, Concas MP, Franceschini N, Enroth S, Vitart V, Trompet S, Guo XQ, Chasman DI, O'Connel JR, Corre T, Nongmaithem SS, Chen Y, Mangino M, Ruggiero D, Michela T, Farmaki AE, Kacprowski T, Bjonnes A, van der Spek A, Wu Y, Giri AK, Yanek LR, Wang LH, Hofer E, Rietveld CA, McLeod O, Cornelis MC, Pattaro C, Verweij N, Baumbach C, Abdellaoui A, Warren HR, Vuckovic D, Mei H, Bouchard C, Perry JRB, Cappellani S, Mirza SS, Benton MC, Broeckel U, Medland SE, Lind P, Malerba G, Drong A, Yengo L, Bielak LF, Zhi DG, van der Most PJ, Shriner D, Magi R, Hemani G, Karaderi T, Wang ZM, Liu T, Demuth I, Zhao JH, Meng WH, Lataniotis L, van der Laan SW, Bradfield JP, Wood AR, Bonnefond A, Ahluwalia TS, Hall L, Salvi E, Yazar S, Carstensen L, de Haan HG, Abney M, Afzal U, Allison MA, Amin N, Asselbergs FW, Bakker SJL, Barr RG, Baumeister SE, Benjamin DJ, Bergmann S, Boerwinkle E, Bottinger EP, Campbell A, Chakravarti A, Chan YL, Chanock SJ, Chen C, Chen YDI, Collins FS, Connell J, Correa A, Cupples LA, Smith GD, Davies G, Dorr M, Ehret G, Ellis SB, Feenstra B, Feitosa MF, Ford I, Fox CS, Frayling TM, Friedrich N, Geller F, Scotland G, Gillham-Nasenya I, Gottesman O, Graff M, Grodstein F, Gu C, Haley C, Hammond CJ, Harris SE, Harris TB, Hastie ND, Heard-Costa NL, Heikkila K, Hocking LJ, Homuth G, Hottenga JJ, Huang JY, Huffman JE, Hysi PG, Ikram MA, Ingelsson E, Joensuu A, Johansson A, Jousilahti P, Jukema JW, Kahonen M, Kamatani Y, Kanoni S, Kerr SM, Khan NM, Koellinger P, Koistinen HA, Kooner MK, Kubo M, Kuusisto J, Lahti J, Launer LJ, Lea RA, Lehne B, Lehtimaki T, Liewald DCM, Lind L, Loh M, Lokki ML, London SJ, Loomis SJ, Loukola A, Lu YC, Lumley T, Lundqvist A, Mannisto S, Marques-Vidal P, Masciullo C, Matchan A, Mathias RA, Matsuda K, Meigs JB, Meisinger C, Meitinger T, Menni C, Mentch FD, Mihailov E, Milani L, Montasser ME, Montgomery G, Morrison A, Myers RH, Nadukuru R, Navarro P, Nelis M, Nieminen MS, Nolte IM, O'Connor GT, Ogunniyi A, Padmanabhan S, Palmas WR, Pankow JS, Patarcic I, Pavani F, Peyser PA, Pietilainen K, Poulter N, Prokopenko I, Ralhan S, Redmond P, Rich SS, Rissanen H, Robino A, Rose LM, Rose R, Sala C, Salako B, Salomaa V, Sarin AP, Saxena R, Schmidt H, Scott LJ, Scott WR, Sennblad B, Seshadri S, Sever P, Shrestha S, Smith BH, Smith JA, Soranzo N, Sotoodehnia N, Southam L, Stanton AV, Stathopoulou MG, Strauch K, Strawbridge RJ, Suderman MJ, Tandon N, Tang ST, Taylor KD, Tayo BO, Toglhofer AM, Tomaszewski M, Tsernikova N, Tuomilehto J, Uitterlinden AG, Vaidya D, Vlieg AV, van Setten J, Vasankari T, Vedantam S, Vlachopoulou E, Vozzi D, Vuoksimaa E, Waldenberger M, Ware EB, Wentworth-Shields W, Whitfield JB, Wild S, Willemsen G, Yajnik CS, Yao J, Zaza G, Zhu XF, Salem RM, Melbye M, Bisgaard H, Samani NJ, Cusi D, Mackey DA, Cooper RS, Froguel P, Pasterkamp G, Grant SFA, Hakonarson H, Ferrucci L, Scott RA, Morris AD, Palmer CNA, Dedoussis G, Deloukas P, Bertram L, Lindenberger U, Berndt SI, Lindgren CM, Timpson NJ, Tonjes A, Munroe PB, Sorensen TIA, Rotimi CN, Arnett DK, Oldehinkel AJ, Kardia SLR, Balkau B, Gambaro G, Morris AP, Eriksson JG, Wright MJ, Martin NG, Hunt SC, Starr JM, Deary IJ, Griffiths LR, Tiemeier H, Pirastu N, Kaprio J, Wareham NJ, Peerusse L, Wilson JG, Girotto G, Caulfield MJ, Raitakari O, Boomsma DI, Gieger C, van der Harst P, Hicks AA, Kraft P, Sinisalo J, Knekt P, Johannesson M, Magnusson PKE, Hamsten A, Schmidt R, Borecki IB, Vartiainen E, Becker DM, Bharadwaj D, Mohlke KL, Boehnke M, van Duijn CM, Sanghera DK, Teumer A, Zeggini E, Metspalu A, Gasparini P, Ulivi S, Ober C, Toniolo D, Rudan I, Porteous DJ, Ciullo M, Spector TD, Hayward C, Dupuis J, Loos RJF, Wright AF, Chandak GR, Vollenweider P, Shuldiner AR, Ridker PM, Rotter JI, Sattar N, Gyllensten U, North KE, Pirastu M, Psaty BM, Weir DR, Laakso M, Gudnason V, Takahashi A, Chambers JC, Kooner JS, Strachan DP, Campbell H, Hirschhorn JN, Perola M, Polasek O, Wilson JF
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

Coronary heart disease risk factors, coronary artery calcification and epicardial fat volume in the Young Finns Study (2015)

EHJ Cardiovascular Imaging / European Heart Journal - Cardiovascular Imaging
Hartiala O, Magnussen CG, Bucci M, Kajander S, Knuuti J, Ukkonen H, Saraste A, Rinta-Kiikka I, Kainulainen S, Kähönen M, Hutri-Kähönen N, Laitinen T, Lehtimäki T, Viikari JS, Hartiala J, Juonala M, Raitakari OT
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

Fine mapping the CETP region reveals a common intronic insertion associated to HDL-C (2015)

npj aging and mechanisms of disease
van Leeuwen EM, Huffman JE, Bis JC, Isaacs A, Mulder M, Sabo A, Smith AV, Demissie S, Manichaikul A, Brody JA, Feitosa MF, Duan Q, Schraut KE, Navarro P, van Vliet-Ostaptchouk JV, Zhu G, Mbarek H, Trompet S, Verweij N, Lyytikainen LP, Deelen J, Nolte IM, van der Laan SW, Davies G, Vermeij-Verdoold AJM, van Oosterhout AALJ, Vergeer-Drop JM, Arking DE, Trochet H, Scotland G, Medina-Gomez C, Rivadeneira F, Uitterlinden AG, Dehghan A, Franco OH, Sijbrands EJ, Hofman A, White CC, Mychaleckyj JC, Peloso GM, Swertz MA, Willemsen G, de Geus EJ, Milaneschi Y, Penninx BWJH, Ford I, Buckley BM, de Craen AJM, Starr JM, Deary IJ, Pasterkamp G, Oldehinkel AJ, Snieder H, Slagboom PE, Nikus K, Kahonen M, Lehtimaki T, Viikari JS, Raitakari OT, van der Harst P, Jukema JW, Hottenga JJ, Boomsma DI, Whitfield JB, Montgomery G, Martin NG, Polasek O, Vitart V, Hayward C, Kolcic I, Wright AF, Rudan I, Joshi PK, Wilson JF, Lange LA, Wilson JG, Gudnason V, Harris TB, Morrison AC, Borecki IB, Rich SS, Padmanabhan S, Psaty BM, Rotter JI, Smith BH, Boerwinkle E, Cupples LA, van Duijn C
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))