Olli Raitakari
MD/PhD
olli.raitakari@utu.fi +358 29 450 2304 Kiinamyllynkatu 10 Turku ORCID-tunniste: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9365-3702 |
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.
- The Association Between Social Support, Body Mass Index and Increased Risk of Prediabetes: the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study (2017)
- International Journal of Behavioral Medicine
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä ) - The biomarker and causal roles of homoarginine in the development of cardiometabolic diseases: an observational and Mendelian randomization analysis (2017)
- Scientific Reports
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä ) - The biometric antecedents to happiness (2017)
- PLoS ONE
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä ) - The challenges of GxE research: A rejoinder (2017)
- Social Science and Medicine
(B1 Vertaisarvioimaton kirjoitus tieteellisessä lehdessä ) - The effect of an apple polyphenol extract rich in epicatechin and flavan-3-ol oligomers on brachial artery flow-mediated vasodilatory function in volunteers with elevated blood pressure (2017)
- Nutrition Journal
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä ) - Tracking of Television Viewing Time during Adulthood: The Young Finns Study (2017)
- Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä ) - Vascular ultrasound measures before pregnancy and pregnancy complications: A prospective cohort study (2017)
- Hypertension in Pregnancy
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä ) - Vitamin D and cognitive function: A Mendelian randomisation study (2017)
- Scientific Reports
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä ) - Worldwide trends in blood pressure from 1975 to 2015: a pooled analysis of 1479 population-based measurement studies with 19.1 million participants (2017)
- Lancet
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä ) - Worldwide trends in body-mass index, underweight, overweight, and obesity from 1975 to 2016: a pooled analysis of 2416 population-based measurement studies in 128·9 million children, adolescents, and adults (2017)
- Lancet
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä ) - 52 Genetic Loci Influencing Myocardial Mass (2016)
- Journal of the American College of Cardiology
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä ) - A century of trends in adult human height (2016)
- eLife
(A2 Vertaisarvioitu katsausartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä) - A Genome-Wide Approach to Children's Aggressive Behavior: The EAGLE consortium (2016)
- American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics
Michel G. Nivard, Ilja M. Nolte, Carla M. T. Tiesler, Marian J. Bakermans-Kranenburg,
Gareth E. Davies, David M. Evans, Marie-Claude Geoffroy, Harald Grallert,
Maria M. Groen-Blokhuis, James J. Hudziak, John P. Kemp,
Liisa Keltikangas-Järvinen, George McMahon, Viara R. Mileva-Seitz, Ehsan Motazedi,
Christine Power, Olli T. Raitakari, Susan M. Ring, Fernando Rivadeneira,
Alina Rodriguez, Paul A. Scheet, Ilkka Seppälä, Harold Snieder, Marie Standl,
Elisabeth Thiering, Nicholas J. Timpson, Rene Veenstra, Fleur P. Velders,
Andrew J. O. Whitehouse, George Davey Smith, Joachim Heinrich, Elina Hypponen,
Terho Lehtimäki, Christel M. Middeldorp, Albertine J. Oldehinkel, Craig E. Pennell, Dorret I. Boomsma, Henning Tiemeier
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä ) - A genome-wide association meta-analysis on apolipoprotein A-IV concentrations (2016)
- Human Molecular Genetics
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä ) - Aging-associated DNA methylation changes in middle-aged individuals: the Young Finns study (2016)
- BMC Genomics
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä ) - A principal component meta-analysis on multiple anthropometric traits identifies novel loci for body shape (2016)
- Nature Communications
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä ) - Associations with intraocular pressure across Europe: The European Eye Epidemiology (E3) Consortium. (2016)
- European Journal of Epidemiology
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä ) - Blood hsa-miR-122-5p and hsa-miR-885-5p levels associate with fatty liver and related lipoprotein metabolism-The Young Finns Study (2016)
- Scientific Reports
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä ) - Body-Mass Index in Adolescence and Cardiovascular Death in Adulthood (2016)
- New England Journal of Medicine
(B1 Vertaisarvioimaton kirjoitus tieteellisessä lehdessä ) - Childhood gene-environment interactions and age-dependent effects of genetic variants associated with refractive error and myopia: The CREAM Consortium (2016)
- Scientific Reports
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä )