Olli Raitakari profile picture
Olli
Raitakari
InFLAMES Flagship
Professor, Cardiovascular Medicine (CAPC)
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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Mitochondrial genome-wide analysis of nuclear DNA methylation quantitative trait loci (2022)

Human Molecular Genetics
Laaksonen Jaakko, Mishra Pashupati P., Seppälä Ilkka, Raitoharju Emma, Marttila Saara, Mononen Nina, Lyytikäinen Leo-Pekka, Kleber Marcus E., Delgado Graciela E., Lepistö Maija, Almusa Henrikki, Ellonen Pekka, Lorkowski Stefan, März Winfried, Hutri-Kähönen Nina, Raitakari Olli, Kähönen Mika, Salonen Jukka T., Lehtimäki Terho
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

A saturated map of common genetic variants associated with human height (2022)

Nature
Yengo L, Vedantam S, Marouli E, Sidorenko J, Bartell E, Sakaue S, Graff M, Eliasen AU, Jiang YX, Raghavan S, Miao JK, Arias JD, Graham SE, Mukamel RE, Spracklen CN, Yin XY, Chen SH, Ferreira T, Highland HH, Ji YJ, Karaderi T, Lin K, Lull K, Malden DE, Medina-Gomez C, Machado M, Moore A, Rueger S, Sim X, Vrieze S, Ahluwalia TS, Akiyama M, Allison MA, Alvarez M, Andersen MK, Ani A, Appadurai V, Arbeeva L, Bhaskar S, Bielak LF, Bollepalli S, Bonnycastle LL, Bork-Jensen J, Bradfield JP, Bradford Y, Braund PS, Brody JA, Burgdorf KS, Cade BE, Cai H, Cai QY, Campbell A, Canadas-Garre M, Catamo E, Chai JF, Chai XR, Chang LC, Chang YC, Chen CH, Chesi A, Choi SH, Chung RH, Cocca M, Concas MP, Couture C, Cuellar-Partida G, Danning R, Daw EW, Degenhard F, Delgado GE, Delitala A, Demirkan A, Deng X, Devineni P, Dietl A, Dimitriou M, Dimitrov L, Dorajoo R, Ekici AB, Engmann JE, Fairhurst-Hunter Z, Farmaki AE, Faul JD, Fernandez-Lopez JC, Forer L, Francescatto M, Freitag-Wolf S, Fuchsberger C, Galesloot TE, Gao Y, Gao ZS, Geller F, Giannakopoulou O, Giulianini F, Gjesing AP, Goel A, Gordon SD, Gorski M, Grove J, Guo XQ, Gustafsson S, Haessler J, Hansen TF, Havulinna AS, Haworth SJ, He J, Heard-Costa N, Hebbar P, Hindy G, Ho YLA, Hofer E, Holliday E, Horn K, Hornsby WE, Hottenga JJ, Huang HY, Huang J, Huerta-Chagoya A, Huffman JE, Hung YJ, Huo SF, Hwang MY, Iha H, Ikeda DD, Isono M, Jackson AU, Jager S, Jansen IE, Johansson I, Jonas JB, Jonsson A, Jorgensen T, Kalafati IP, Kanai M, Kanoni S, Karhus LL, Kasturiratne A, Katsuya T, Kawaguchi T, Kember RL, Kentistou KA, Kim HN, Kim YJ, Kleber ME, Knol MJ, Kurbasic A, Lauzon M, Le P, Lea R, Lee JY, Leonard HL, Li SCA, Li XH, Li XY, Liang JJ, Lin HH, Lin SY, Liu J, Liu XP, Lo KS, Long JR, Lores-Motta L, Luan JA, Lyssenko V, Lyytikainen LP, Mahajan A, Mamakou V, Mangino M, Manichaikul A, Marten J, Mattheisen M, Mavarani L, McDaid AF, Meidtner K, Melendez TL, Mercader JM, Milaneschi Y, Miller JE, Millwood IY, Mishra PP, Mitchell RE, Mollehave LT, Morgan A, Mucha S, Munz M, Nakatochi M, Nelson CP, Nethander M, Nho CW, Nielsen AA, Nolte IM, Nongmaithem SS, Noordam R, Ntalla I, Nutile T, Pandit A, Christofidou P, Parna K, Pauper M, Petersen ERB, Petersen LV, Pitkanen N, Polasek O, Poveda A, Preuss MH, Pyarajan S, Raffield LM, Rakugi H, Ramirez J, Rasheed A, Raven D, Rayner NW, Riveros C, Rohde R, Ruggiero D, Ruotsalainen SE, Ryan KA, Sabater-Lleal M, Saxena R, Scholz M, Sendamarai A, Shen BT, Shi JCZ, Shin JH, Sidore C, Sitlani CM, Slieker RKC, Smit RAJ, Smith AV, Smith JA, Smyth LJ, Southam LE, Steinthorsdottir V, Sun L, Takeuchi F, Tallapragada D, Taylor KD, Tayo BO, Tcheandjieu C, Terzikhan N, Tesolin P, Teumer A, Theusch E, Thompson DJ, Thorleifsson G, Timmers PRHJ, Trompet S, Turman C, Vaccargiu S, van der Laan SW, van der Most PJ, van Klinken JB, van Setten J, Verma SS, Verweij N, Veturi Y, Wang CA, Wang CL, Wang LH, Wang Z, Warren HR, Wei WB, Wickremasinghe AR, Wielscher M, Wiggins KL, Winsvold BS, Wong A, Wu Y, Wuttke M, Xia R, Xie T, Yamamoto K, Yang JY, Yao J, Young H, Yousri NA, Yu L, Zeng LY, Zhang WH, Zhang XY, Zhao JH, Zhao W, Zhou W, Zimmermann ME, Zoledziewska M, Adair LS, Adams HHH, Aguilar-Salinas CA, Al-Mulla F, Arnett DK, Asselbergs FW, Asvold BO, Attia J, Banas B, Bandinelli S, Bennett DA, Bergler T, Bharadwaj D, Biino G, Bisgaard H, Boerwinkle E, Boger CA, Bonnelykke K, Boomsma DI, Borglum AD, Borja JB, Bouchard C, Bowden DW, Brandslund I, Brumpton B, Buring JE, Caulfield MJ, Chambers JC, Chandak GR, Chanock SJ, Chaturvedi N, Chen YDI, Chen ZM, Cheng CY, Christophersen IE, Ciullo M, Cole JW, Collins FS, Cooper RS, Cruz M, Cucca F, Cupples LA, Cutler MJ, Damrauer SM, Dantoft TM, de Borst GJ, de Groot LCPGM, De Jager PL, de Kleijn DPV, de Silva HJ, Dedoussis GV, den Hollander AI, Du SF, Easton DF, Elders PJM, Eliassen AH, Ellinor PT, Elmstahl S, Erdmann J, Evans MK, Fatkin D, Feenstra B, Feitosa MF, Ferrucci L, Ford I, Fornage M, Franke A, Franks PW, Freedman BI, Gasparini P, Gieger C, Girotto G, Goddard ME, Golightly YM, Gonzalez-Villalpando C, Gordon-Larsen P, Grallert H, Grant SFA, Grarup N, Griffiths L, Gudnason V, Haiman C, Hakonarson H, Hansen T, Hartman CA, Hattersley AT, Hayward C, Heckbert SR, Heng CK, Hengstenberg C, Hewitt AW, Hishigaki H, Hoyng CB, Huang PL, Huang W, Hunt SC, Hveem K, Hypponen E, Iacono WG, Ichihara S, Ikram MA, Isasi CR, Jackson RD, Jarvelin MR, Jin ZB, Jockel KH, Joshi PK, Jousilahti P, Jukema JW, Kahonen M, Kamatani Y, Kang KD, Kaprio J, Kardia SLR, Karpe F, Kato N, Kee F, Kessler T, Khera AV, Khor CC, Kiemeney LALM, Kim BJ, Kim EK, Kim HL, Kirchhof P, Kivimaki M, Koh WP, Koistinen HA, Kolovou GD, Kooner JS, Kooperberg C, Kottgen A, Kovacs P, Kraaijeveld A, Kraft P, Krauss RM, Kumari M, Kutalik Z, Laakso M, Lange LA, Langenberg C, Launer LJ, Le Marchand L, Lee H, Lee NR, Lehtimaki T, Li HX, Li LM, Lieb W, Lin X, Lind L, Linneberg A, Liu CT, Liu JJ, Loeffler M, London B, Lubitz SA, Lye SJ, Mackey DA, Magi R, Magnusson PKE, Marcus GM, Vidal PM, Martin NG, Marz W, Matsuda F, McGarrah RW, McGue M, McKnight AJ, Medland SE, Mellstrom D, Metspalu A, Mitchell BD, Mitchell P, Mook-Kanamori DO, Morris AD, Mucci LA, Munroe PB, Nalls MA, Nazarian S, Nelson AE, Neville MJ, Newton-Cheh C, Nielsen CS, Nothen MM, Ohlsson C, Oldehinkel AJ, Orozco L, Pahkala K, Pajukanta P, Palmer CNA, Parra EJ, Pattaro C, Pedersen O, Pennell CE, Penninx BWJH, Perusse L, Peters A, Peyser PA, Porteous DJ, Posthuma D, Power C, Pramstaller PP, Province MA, Qi QB, Qu J, Rader DJ, Raitakari OT, Ralhan S, Rallidis LS, Rao DC, Redline S, Reilly DF, Reiner AP, Rhee SY, Ridker PM, Rienstra M, Ripatti S, Ritchie MD, Roden DM, Rosendaal FR, Rotter JI, Rudan I, Rutters F, Sabanayagam C, Saleheen D, Salomaa V, Samani NJ, Sanghera DK, Sattar N, Schmidt B, Schmidt H, Schmidt R, Schulze MB, Schunkert H, Scott LJ, Scott RJ, Sever P, Shiroma EJ, Shoemaker MB, Shu XO, Simonsick EM, Sims M, Singh JR, Singleton AB, Sinner MF, Smith JG, Snieder H, Spector TD, Stampfer MJ, Stark KJ, Strachan DP, Hart LMT, Tabara Y, Tang H, Tardif JC, Thanaraj TA, Timpson NJ, Tonjes A, Tremblay A, Tuomi T, Tuomilehto J, Tusie-Luna MT, Uitterlinden AG, van Dam RM, van der Harst P, Van der Velde N, van Duijn CM, van Schoor NM, Vitart V, Volker U, Vollenweider P, Volzke H, Wacher-Rodarte NH, Walker M, Wang YX, Wareham NJ, Watanabe RM, Watkins H, Weir DR, Werge TM, Widen E, Wilkens LR, Willemsen G, Willett WC, Wilson JF, Wong TY, Woo JT, Wright AF, Wu JY, Xu HC, Yajnik CS, Yokota M, Yuan JM, Zeggini E, Zemel BS, Zheng W, Zhu XF, Zmuda JM, Zonderman AB, Zwart JA, Chasman DI, Cho YS, Heid IM, McCarthy MI, Ng MCY, O'Donnell CJ, Rivadeneira F, Thorsteinsdottir U, Sun YV, Tai ES, Boehnke M, Deloukas P, Justice AE, Lindgren CM, Loos RJF, Mohlke KL, North KE, Stefansson K, Walters RG, Winkler TW, Young KL, Loh PR, Yang J, Esko T, Assimes TL, Auton A, Abecasis GR, Willer CJ, Locke AE, Berndt SI, Lettre G, Frayling TM, Okada Y, Wood AR, Visscher PM, Hirschhorn JN
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

Afamin predicts the prevalence and incidence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (2022)

Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine
Pitkänen Niina, Finkenstedt Armin, Lamina Claudia, Juonala Markus, Kähönen Mika, Mäkelä Kari-Matti, Dieplinger Benjamin, Viveiros Andre, Melmer Andreas, Leitner Isabella, Kedenko Ludmilla, Seppälä Ilkka, Viikari Jorma S.A., Mueller Thomas, Kronenberg Florian, Paulweber Bernhard, Lehtimäki Terho, Zoller Heinz, Raitakari Olli T., Dieplinger Hans
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

Relative Contribution of Blood Pressure in Childhood, Young- and Mid-Adulthood to Large Artery Stiffness in Mid-Adulthood (2022)

Journal of the American Heart Association
Meng Yaxing, Buscot Marie‐Jeanne, Juonala Markus, Wu Feitong, Armstrong Matthew K., Fraser Brooklyn J., Pahkala Katja, Hutri‐Kähönen Nina, Kähönen Mika, Laitinen Tomi, Viikari Jorma S. A., Raitakari Olli T., Magnussen Costan G., Sharman James E.
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

Validity of fatty liver disease indices in the presence of alcohol consumption (2022)

Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology
Danielsson Oscar, Nano Jana, Pahkala Katja, Rospleszcz Susanne, Lehtimäki Terho, Schlett Christopher L., Kähönen Mika, Bamberg Fabian, Raitakari Olli, Peters Annette, Nissinen Markku J., Åberg Fredrik O.
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))