Olli Raitakari
MD/PhD
olli.raitakari@utu.fi +358 29 450 2304 Kiinamyllynkatu 10 Turku |
cardiovascular and metabolic diseases; risk factors; vascular epidemiology; genetic epidemiology; epidemiology; dietary intervention; cohort studies; follow-up studies
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
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.
- Increase in adiposity from childhood to adulthood predicts a metabolically obese phenotype in normal-weight adultsLipidomic architecture shared by subclinical markers of osteoporosis and atherosclerosis: The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study (2020)
- International Journal of ObesityBONE
- Influence of Genetic Variation in PDE3A on Endothelial Function and Stroke (2020)
- Hypertension
- 2020
- Longitudinal association of a body mass index (BMI) genetic risk score with growth and BMI changes across the life course: The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study (2020)
- International Journal of Obesity
- Mendelian randomization analysis does not support causal associations of birth weight with hypertension risk and blood pressure in adulthood (2020)
- European Journal of Epidemiology
- Multi-ancestry GWAS of the electrocardiographic PR interval identifies 202 loci underlying cardiac conduction (2020)
- Nature Communications
- National trends in total cholesterol obscure heterogeneous changes in HDL and non-HDL cholesterol and total-to-HDL cholesterol ratio: a pooled analysis of 458 population-based studies in Asian and Western countries (2020)
- International Journal of Epidemiology
- Non-HDL Cholesterol Levels in Childhood and Carotid Intima-Media Thickness in Adulthood (2020)
- Pediatrics
- Novel loci for childhood body mass index and shared heritability with adult cardiometabolic traits (2020)
- PLoS Genetics
- Patterning of educational attainment across inflammatory markers: Findings from a multi-cohort study (2020)
- Brain, Behavior, and Immunity
- Personality, occupational sorting and routine work (2020)
- Employee Relations
Jaakko Pehkonen, Laura Pulkki-Råback, Olli Raitakari, Liisa Keltikangas-Järvinen - Prediction of adult class II/III obesity from childhood BMI: the i3C consortium (2020)
- International Journal of Obesity
- Pulse wave velocity is related to exercise blood pressure response in young adults. The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study (2020)
- Blood Pressure
- Reducing socio-economic inequalities in all-cause mortality: a counterfactual mediation approach (2020)
- International Journal of Epidemiology
- Refining Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorder Genetic Loci by Integrating Summary Data From Genome-wide Association, Gene Expression, and DNA Methylation Studies (2020)
- Biological Psychiatry
- Repositioning of the global epicentre of non-optimal cholesterol (2020)
- Nature
- Systemic vascular resistance predicts the development of hypertension: the cardiovascular risk in young Finns study (2020)
- Blood Pressure
- Temperament profiles are associated with dietary behavior from childhood to adulthood (2020)
- Appetite
- The Contribution of Neighborhood Socioeconomic Disadvantage to Depressive Symptoms Over the Course of Adult Life: A 32-Year Prospective Cohort Study (2020)
- American Journal of Epidemiology
- The Polygenic and Monogenic Basis of Blood Traits and Diseases (2020)
- Cell