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.
- Relative age at school entry, school performance and long-term labour market outcomes (2015)
- Applied Economics Letters
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä ) - Sex hormone-binding globulin associations with circulating lipids and metabolites and the risk for type 2 diabetes: observational and causal effect estimates (2015)
- International Journal of Epidemiology
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä ) - Shared genetic basis for migraine and ischemic stroke: A genome-wide analysis of common variants (2015)
- Neurology
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä ) - Sixteen new lung function signals identified through 1000 Genomes Project reference panel imputation (2015)
- Nature Communications
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä ) - Stress-induced cardiac autonomic reactivity and preclinical atherosclerosis: does arterial elasticity modify the association? (2015)
- Stress
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä ) - Subtle increases in heart size persist into adulthood in growth restricted babies: the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study. (2015)
- Open Heart
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä ) - Television viewing and fatty liver in early midlife. The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study (2015)
- Annals of Medicine
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä ) - Temperament and depressive symptoms: What is the direction of the association? (2015)
- Journal of Affective Disorders
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä ) - The association between lower educational attainment and depression owing to shared genetic effects? Results in ~25,000 subjects (2015)
- Molecular Psychiatry
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä ) - The Association of Dietary Alpha-Linolenic Acid with Blood Pressure and Subclinical Atherosclerosis in People Born Small for Gestational Age: The Special Turku Coronary Risk Factor Intervention Project Study (2015)
- Journal of Pediatrics
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä ) - The biomarker GlycA is associated with chronic inflammation and predicts long-term risk of severe infection (2015)
- Cell Systems
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä ) - The impact of low-frequency and rare variants on lipid levels (2015)
- Nature Genetics
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä ) - The Influence of Age and Sex on Genetic Associations with Adult Body Size and Shape: A Large-Scale Genome-Wide Interaction Study (2015)
- PLoS Genetics
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä ) - Trans-ancestry genome-wide association study identifies 12 genetic loci influencing blood pressure and implicates a role for DNA methylation (2015)
- Nature Genetics
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä ) - TV Viewing and cognitive performance in early midlife. The cardiovascular risk in young Finns study. (2015)
- Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise
(O2 Muu julkaisu ) - Vigorous physical activity and carotid distensibility in young and mid-aged adults (2015)
- Hypertension Research
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä ) - Active commuting from youth to adulthood and as a predictor of physical activity in early midlife: The Young Finns Study (2014)
- Preventive Medicine
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä ) - Amerindian-specific regions under positive selection harbour new lipid variants in Latinos (2014)
- Nature Communications
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä ) - A metabolic view on menopause and ageing (2014)
- Nature Communications
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä ) - Assessing multivariate gene-metabolome associations with rare variants using Bayesian reduced rank regression (2014)
- Bioinformatics
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä )