Markus Juonala profile picture
Markus
Juonala
Professor, Internal Medicine
Professor
Cardiovascular epidemiology, Young Finns Study, i3c consortium

Contact

+358 29 450 2754
+358 50 478 3572

Areas of expertise

Internal medicine
endocrinology
cardiovascular risk

Biography

Professor Markus Juonala (MD, PhD, University of Turku) is a specialist in internal medicine and endocrinology at the Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland. Since 2001, he has been conducting research on longitudinal studies examining the importance of childhood risk factors on later cardiovascular health. His PhD work was based primarily on the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study (University of Turku, April 2005). Since 2008, he has had a major involvement in the development of the International Childhood Cardiovascular Cohort (i3C) Consortium that combines the efforts of the main longitudinal studies worldwide. In June 2014, he was appointed as Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Turku. In 2014-2015 and 2018-2019 he has been working as the Dame Elisabeth Murdoch Fellow in Murdoch Childrens Research Institute (MCRI). 

His career publications total is 270 (h-index 44) with published highlights including a first-author paper in the New England Journal of Medicine, the first-ranked general medicine journal, one paper in JAMA, the third-ranked general medicine journal and 30 papers (11 as first/last author) published in either the number one, two, or three ranked cardiovascular disease journals (17 in Circulation, five in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, eight in the European Heart Journal). 

Teaching

Teaching responsibilities: 1) Internal medicine for medical students, 2) Internal medicine specialisation programme for MDs

Special interest areas: Acute internal medicine, endocrinology, lipidology

  

Research

Professor Juonala’s principal research focus has been to provide novel information on the effects of childhood risk factors on cardiovascular health in adulthood. Beginning from the summer of 2008 he has led a research group within the Young Finns Study and i3c consortium with special interest on cardiometabolic risk factors. The most important findings of his research have provided information on childhood and early adulthood risk factors for atherosclerosis, suggesting that childhood risk factors, such as dyslipidaemia, elevated blood pressure and smoking, predict early atherosclerosis and its progression independent of adult risk factors levels. Concerning cardiometabolic risk factors, his group has been able to show that overweight and metabolic syndrome diagnosed either in childhood or adulthood is predictive of carotid atherosclerosis and its progression in adulthood. However, at the time of obesity epidemic, the most important findings concern the reversibility of cardiovascular risk. His work has demonstrated that although overweight and metabolic syndrome are predictive of early atherosclerosis, favourable changes in lifestyle associated with weight maintenance or reduction improve cardiovascular health.

 


Publications

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Correction: The Influence of Age and Sex on Genetic Associations with Adult Body Size and Shape: A Large-Scale Genome-Wide Interaction Study (2016)

PLoS Genetics
Winkler TW, Justice AE, Graff M, Barata L, Feitosa MF, Chu S, Czajkowski J, Esko T, Fall T, Kilpeläinen TO, Lu Y, Mägi R, Mihailov E, Pers TH, Rüeger S, Teumer A, Ehret GB, Ferreira T, Heard-Costa NL, Karjalainen J, Lagou V, Mahajan A, Neinast MD, Prokopenko I, Simino J, Teslovich TM, Jansen R, Westra HJ, White CC, Absher D, Ahluwalia TS, Ahmad S, Albrecht E, Alves AC, Bragg-Gresham JL, de Craen AJ, Bis JC, Bonnefond A, Boucher G, Cadby G, Cheng YC, Chiang CW, Delgado G, Demirkan A, Dueker N, Eklund N, Eiriksdottir G, Eriksson J, Feenstra B, Fischer K, Frau F, Galesloot TE, Geller F, Goel A, Gorski M, Grammer TB, Gustafsson S, Haitjema S, Hottenga JJ, Huffman JE, Jackson AU, Jacobs KB, Johansson å, Kaakinen M, Kleber ME, Lahti J, Mateo Leach I, Lehne B, Liu Y, Lo KS, Lorentzon M, Luan J, Madden PA, Mangino M, McKnight B, Medina-Gomez C, Monda KL, Montasser ME, Müller G, Müller-Nurasyid M, Nolte IM, Panoutsopoulou K, Pascoe L, Paternoster L, Rayner NW, Renström F, Rizzi F, Rose LM, Ryan KA, Salo P, Sanna S, Scharnagl H, Shi J, Smith AV, Southam L, Stančáková A, Steinthorsdottir V, Strawbridge RJ, Sung YJ, Tachmazidou I, Tanaka T, Thorleifsson G, Trompet S, Pervjakova N, Tyrer JP, Vandenput L, van der Laan SW, van der Velde N, van Setten J, van Vliet-Ostaptchouk JV, Verweij N, Vlachopoulou E, Waite LL, Wang SR, Wang Z, Wild SH, Willenborg C, Wilson JF, Wong A, Yang J, Yengo L, Yerges-Armstrong LM, Yu L, Zhang W, Zhao JH, Andersson EA, Bakker SJ, Baldassarre D, Banasik K, Barcella M, Barlassina C, Bellis C, Benaglio P, Blangero J, Blüher M, Bonnet F, Bonnycastle LL, Boyd HA, Bruinenberg M, Buchman AS, Campbell H, Chen YI, Chines PS, Claudi-Boehm S, Cole J, Collins FS, de Geus EJ, de Groot LC, Dimitriou M, Duan J, Enroth S, Eury E, Farmaki AE, Forouhi NG, Friedrich N, Gejman PV, Gigante B, Glorioso N, Go AS, Gottesman O, Gräßler J, Grallert H, Grarup N, Gu YM, Broer L, Ham AC, Hansen T, Harris TB, Hartman CA, Hassinen M, Hastie N, Hattersley AT, Heath AC, Henders AK, Hernandez D, Hillege H, Holmen O, Hovingh KG, Hui J, Husemoen LL, Hutri-Kähönen N, Hysi PG, Illig T, De Jager PL, Jalilzadeh S, Jørgensen T, Jukema JW, Juonala M, Kanoni S, Karaleftheri M, Khaw KT, Kinnunen L, Kittner SJ, Koenig W, Kolcic I, Kovacs P, Krarup NT, Kratzer W, Krüger J, Kuh D, Kumari M, Kyriakou T, Langenberg C, Lannfelt L, Lanzani C, Lotay V, Launer LJ, Leander K, Lindström J, Linneberg A, Liu YP, Lobbens S, Luben R, Lyssenko V, Männistö S, Magnusson PK, McArdle WL, Menni C, Merger S, Milani L, Montgomery GW, Morris AP, Narisu N, Nelis M, Ong KK, Palotie A, Pérusse L, Pichler I, Pilia MG, Pouta A, Rheinberger M, Ribel-Madsen R, Richards M, Rice KM, Rice TK, Rivolta C, Salomaa V, Sanders AR, Sarzynski MA, Scholtens S, Scott RA, Scott WR, Sebert S, Sengupta S, Sennblad B, Seufferlein T, Silveira A, Slagboom PE, Smit JH, Sparsø TH, Stirrups K, Stolk RP, Stringham HM, Swertz MA, Swift AJ, Syvänen AC, Tan ST, Thorand B, Tönjes A, Tremblay A, Tsafantakis E, van der Most PJ, Völker U, Vohl MC, Vonk JM, Waldenberger M, Walker RW, Wennauer R, Widén E, Willemsen G, Wilsgaard T, Wright AF, Zillikens MC, van Dijk SC, van Schoor NM, Asselbergs FW, de Bakker PI, Beckmann JS, Beilby J, Bennett DA, Bergman RN, Bergmann S, Böger CA, Boehm BO, Boerwinkle E, Boomsma DI, Bornstein SR, Bottinger EP, Bouchard C, Chambers JC, Chanock SJ, Chasman DI, Cucca F, Cusi D, Dedoussis G, Erdmann J, Eriksson JG, Evans DA, de Faire U, Farrall M, Ferrucci L, Ford I, Franke L, Franks PW, Froguel P, Gansevoort RT, Gieger C, Grönberg H, Gudnason V, Gyllensten U, Hall P, Hamsten A, van der Harst P, Hayward C, Heliövaara M, Hengstenberg C, Hicks AA, Hingorani A, Hofman A, Hu F, Huikuri HV, Hveem K, James AL, Jordan JM, Jula A, Kähönen M, Kajantie E, Kathiresan S, Kiemeney LA, Kivimaki M, Knekt PB, Koistinen HA, Kooner JS, Koskinen S, Kuusisto J, Maerz W, Martin NG, Laakso M, Lakka TA, Lehtimäki T, Lettre G, Levinson DF, Lind L, Lokki ML, Mäntyselkä P, Melbye M, Metspalu A, Mitchell BD, Moll FL, Murray JC, Musk AW, Nieminen MS, Njølstad I, Ohlsson C, Oldehinkel AJ, Oostra BA, Palmer LJ, Pankow JS, Pasterkamp G, Pedersen NL, Pedersen O, Penninx BW, Perola M, Peters A, Polašek O, Pramstaller PP, Psaty BM, Qi L, Quertermous T, Raitakari OT, Rankinen T, Rauramaa R, Ridker PM, Rioux JD, Rivadeneira F, Rotter JI, Rudan I, den Ruijter HM, Saltevo J, Sattar N, Schunkert H, Schwarz PE, Shuldiner AR, Sinisalo J, Snieder H, Sørensen TI, Spector TD, Staessen JA, Stefania B, Thorsteinsdottir U, Stumvoll M, Tardif JC, Tremoli E, Tuomilehto J, Uitterlinden AG, Uusitupa M, Verbeek AL, Vermeulen SH, Viikari JS, Vitart V, Völzke H, Vollenweider P, Waeber G, Walker M, Wallaschofski H, Wareham NJ, Watkins H, Zeggini E; arcOGEN Consortium; CHARGE Consortium; DIAGRAM Consortium; GLGC Consortium; Global-BPGen Consortium; ICBP Consortium; MAGIC Consortium, Chakravarti A, Clegg DJ, Cupples LA, Gordon-Larsen P, Jaquish CE, Rao DC, Abecasis GR, Assimes TL, Barroso I, Berndt SI, Boehnke M, Deloukas P, Fox CS, Groop LC, Hunter DJ, Ingelsson E, Kaplan RC, McCarthy MI, Mohlke KL, O'Connell JR, Schlessinger D, Strachan DP, Stefansson K, van Duijn CM, Hirschhorn JN, Lindgren CM, Heid IM, North KE, Borecki IB, Kutalik Z, Loos RJ
(Muu (O2))

Childhood predictors of adult fatty liver. The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study (2016)

Journal of Hepatology
Emmi Suomela, Mervi Oikonen, Niina Pitkänen, Ari Ahola-Olli, Johanna Virtanen, Riitta Parkkola, Eero Jokinen, Tomi Laitinen, Nina Hutri-Kähönen, Mika Kähönen, Terho Lehtimäki, Leena Taittonen, Päivi Tossavainen, Antti Jula, Britt-Marie Loo, Vera Mikkilä, Risto Telama, Jorma S.A. Viikari, Markus Juonala, Olli T. Raitakari
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

Life-course risk factor levels and coronary artery calcification. The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study (2016)

International Journal of Cardiology
Olli Hartiala, Sami Kajander, Juhani Knuuti, Heikki Ukkonen, Antti Saraste, Irina Rinta-Kiikka, Sakari Kainulainen, Mika Kähönen , Nina Hutri-Kähönen, Tomi Laitinen, Terho Lehtimäki, Jorma S.A. Viikari , Jaakko Hartiala, Markus Juonala, Olli T. Raitakari, Costan G. Magnussen
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

Childhood Psychosocial Factors and Coronary Artery Calcification in Adulthood The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study (2016)

JAMA Pediatrics
Markus Juonala, Laura Pulkki-Råback, Marko Elovainio, Christian Hakulinen, Costan G. Magnussen, Matthew A. Sabin, David P. Burgner, David L. Hare, Olli Hartiala, Heikki Ukkonen, Antti Saraste, Sami Kajander, Nina Hutri-Kähönen, Mika Kähönen, Irina Rinta-Kiikka, Tomi Laitinen, Sakari Kainulainen, Jorma S. A. Viikari, Olli T. Raitakari
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))