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

Sort by:

Implicating genes, pleiotropy, and sexual dimorphism at blood lipid loci through multi-ancestry meta-analysis (2022)

Genome Biology
Kanoni S, Graham SE, Wang Y, Surakka I, Ramdas S, Zhu X, Clarke SL, Bhatti KF, Vedantam S, Winkler TW, Locke AE, Marouli E, Zajac GJM, Wu KH, Ntalla I, Hui Q, Klarin D, Hilliard AT, Wang Z, Xue C, Thorleifsson G, Helgadottir A, Gudbjartsson DF, Holm H, Olafsson I, Hwang MY, Han S, Akiyama M, Sakaue S, Terao C, Kanai M, Zhou W, Brumpton BM, Rasheed H, Havulinna AS, Veturi Y, Pacheco JA, Rosenthal EA, Lingren T, Feng Q, Kullo IJ, Narita A, Takayama J, Martin HC, Hunt KA, Trivedi B, Haessler J, Giulianini F, Bradford Y, Miller JE, Campbell A, Lin K, Millwood IY, Rasheed A, Hindy G, Faul JD, Zhao W, Weir DR, Turman C, Huang H, Graff M, Choudhury A, Sengupta D, Mahajan A, Brown MR, Zhang W, Yu K, Schmidt EM, Pandit A, Gustafsson S, Yin X, Luan J, Zhao JH, Matsuda F, Jang HM, Yoon K, Medina-Gomez C, Pitsillides A, Hottenga JJ, Wood AR, Ji Y, Gao Z, Haworth S, Yousri NA, Mitchell RE, Chai JF, Aadahl M, Bjerregaard AA, Yao J, Manichaikul A, Hwu CM, Hung YJ, Warren HR, Ramirez J, Bork-Jensen J, Kårhus LL, Goel A, Sabater-Lleal M, Noordam R, Mauro P, Matteo F, McDaid AF, Marques-Vidal P, Wielscher M, Trompet S, Sattar N, Møllehave LT, Munz M, Zeng L, Huang J, Yang B, Poveda A, Kurbasic A, Lamina C, Forer L, Scholz M, Galesloot TE, Bradfield JP, Ruotsalainen SE, Daw E, Zmuda JM, Mitchell JS, Fuchsberger C, Christensen H, Brody JA, Vazquez-Moreno M, Feitosa MF, Wojczynski MK, Wang Z, Preuss MH, Mangino M, Christofidou P, Verweij N, Benjamins JW, Engmann J, Tsao NL, Verma A, Slieker RC, Lo KS, Zilhao NR, Le P, Kleber ME, Delgado GE, Huo S, Ikeda DD, Iha H, Yang J, Liu J, Demirkan A, Leonard HL, Marten J, Frank M, Schmidt B, Smyth LJ, Cañadas-Garre M, Wang C, Nakatochi M, Wong A, Hutri-Kähönen N, Sim X, Xia R, Huerta-Chagoya A, Fernandez-Lopez JC, Lyssenko V, Nongmaithem SS, Bayyana S, Stringham HM, Irvin MR, Oldmeadow C, Kim HN, Ryu S, Timmers PRHJ, Arbeeva L, Dorajoo R, Lange LA, Prasad G, Lorés-Motta L, Pauper M, Long J, Li X, Theusch E, Takeuchi F, Spracklen CN, Loukola A, Bollepalli S, Warner SC, Wang YX, Wei WB, Nutile T, Ruggiero D, Sung YJ, Chen S, Liu F, Yang J, Kentistou KA, Banas B, Nardone GG, Meidtner K, Bielak LF, Smith JA, Hebbar P, Farmaki AE, Hofer E, Lin M, Concas MP, Vaccargiu S, van der Most PJ, Pitkänen N, Cade BE, van der Laan SW, Chitrala KN, Weiss S, Bentley AR, Doumatey AP, Adeyemo AA, Lee JY, Petersen ERB, Nielsen AA, Choi HS, Nethander M, Freitag-Wolf S, Southam L, Rayner NW, Wang CA, Lin SY, Wang JS, Couture C, Lyytikäinen LP, Nikus K, Cuellar-Partida G, Vestergaard H, Hidalgo B, Giannakopoulou O, Cai Q, Obura MO, van Setten J, Li X, Liang J, Tang H, Terzikhan N, Shin JH, Jackson RD, Reiner AP, Martin LW, Chen Z, Li L, Kawaguchi T, Thiery J, Bis JC, Launer LJ, Li H, Nalls MA, Raitakari OT, Ichihara S, Wild SH, Nelson CP, Campbell H, Jäger S, Nabika T, Al-Mulla F, Niinikoski H, Braund PS, Kolcic I, Kovacs P, Giardoglou T, Katsuya T, de Kleijn D, de Borst GJ, Kim EK, Adams HHH, Ikram MA, Zhu X, Asselbergs FW, Kraaijeveld AO, Beulens JWJ, Shu XO, Rallidis LS, Pedersen O, Hansen T, Mitchell P, Hewitt AW, Kähönen M, Pérusse L, Bouchard C, Tönjes A, Chen YI, Pennell CE, Mori TA, Lieb W, Franke A, Ohlsson C, Mellström D, Cho YS, Lee H, Yuan JM, Koh WP, Rhee SY, Woo JT, Heid IM, Stark KJ, Zimmermann ME, Völzke H, Homuth G, Evans MK, Zonderman AB, Polasek O, Pasterkamp G, Hoefer IE, Redline S, Pahkala K, Oldehinkel AJ, Snieder H, Biino G, Schmidt R, Schmidt H, Bandinelli S, Dedoussis G, Thanaraj TA, Kardia SLR, Peyser PA, Kato N, Schulze MB, Girotto G, Böger CA, Jung B, Joshi PK, Bennett DA, De Jager PL, Lu X, Mamakou V, Brown M, Caulfield MJ, Munroe PB, Guo X, Ciullo M, Jonas JB, Samani NJ, Kaprio J, Pajukanta P, Tusié-Luna T, Aguilar-Salinas CA, Adair LS, Bechayda SA, de Silva HJ, Wickremasinghe AR, Krauss RM, Wu JY, Zheng W, Hollander AI, Bharadwaj D, Correa A, Wilson JG, Lind L, Heng CK, Nelson AE, Golightly YM, Wilson JF, Penninx B, Kim HL, Attia J, Scott RJ, Rao DC, Arnett DK, Hunt SC, Walker M, Koistinen HA, Chandak GR, Mercader JM, Costanzo MC, Jang D, Burtt NP, Villalpando CG, Orozco L, Fornage M, Tai E, van Dam RM, Lehtimäki T, Chaturvedi N, Yokota M, Liu J, Reilly DF, McKnight AJ, Kee F, Jöckel KH, McCarthy MI, Palmer CNA, Vitart V, Hayward C, Simonsick E, van Duijn CM, Jin ZB, Qu J, Hishigaki H, Lin X, März W, Gudnason V, Tardif JC, Lettre G, Hart LM', Elders PJM, Damrauer SM, Kumari M, Kivimaki M, van der Harst P, Spector TD, Loos RJF, Province MA, Parra EJ, Cruz M, Psaty BM, Brandslund I, Pramstaller PP, Rotimi CN, Christensen K, Ripatti S, Widén E, Hakonarson H, Grant SFA, Kiemeney LALM, de Graaf J, Loeffler M, Kronenberg F, Gu D, Erdmann J, Schunkert H, Franks PW, Linneberg A, Jukema JW, Khera AV, Männikkö M, Jarvelin MR, Kutalik Z, Francesco C, Mook-Kanamori DO, van Dijk KW, Watkins H, Strachan DP, Grarup N, Sever P, Poulter N, Chuang LM, Rotter JI, Dantoft TM, Karpe F, Neville MJ, Timpson NJ, Cheng CY, Wong TY, Khor CC, Li H, Sabanayagam C, Peters A, Gieger C, Hattersley AT, Pedersen NL, Magnusson PKE, Boomsma DI, Willemsen AHM, Cupples L, van Meurs JBJ, Ghanbari M, Gordon-Larsen P, Huang W, Kim YJ, Tabara Y, Wareham NJ, Langenberg C, Zeggini E, Kuusisto J, Laakso M, Ingelsson E, Abecasis G, Chambers JC, Kooner JS, de Vries PS, Morrison AC, Hazelhurst S, Ramsay M, North KE, Daviglus M, Kraft P, Martin NG, Whitfield JB, Abbas S, Saleheen D, Walters RG, Holmes MV, Black C, Smith BH, Baras A, Justice AE, Buring JE, Ridker PM, Chasman DI, Kooperberg C, Tamiya G, Yamamoto M, van Heel DA, Trembath RC, Wei WQ, Jarvik GP, Namjou B, Hayes MG, Ritchie MD, Jousilahti P, Salomaa V, Hveem K, Åsvold BO, Kubo M, Kamatani Y, Okada Y, Murakami Y, Kim BJ, Thorsteinsdottir U, Stefansson K, Zhang J, Chen Y, Ho YL, Lynch JA, Rader DJ, Tsao PS, Chang KM, Cho K, O'Donnell CJ, Gaziano JM, Wilson PWF, Frayling TM, Hirschhorn JN, Kathiresan S, Mohlke KL, Sun YV, Morris AP, Boehnke M, Brown CD, Natarajan P, Deloukas P, Willer CJ, Assimes TL, Peloso GM
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

Differential and shared genetic effects on kidney function between diabetic and non-diabetic individuals (2022)

Communications Biology
Winkler TW, Rasheed H, Teumer A, Gorski M, Rowan BX, Stanzick KJ, Thomas LF, Tin A, Hoppmann A, Chu AY, Tayo B, Thio CHL, Cusi D, Chai JF, Sieber KB, Horn K, Li M, Scholz M, Cocca M, Wuttke M, van der Most PJ, Yang Q, Ghasemi S, Nutile T, Li Y, Pontali G, Gunther F, Dehghan A, Correa A, Parsa A, Feresin A, de Vries APJ, Zonderman AB, Smith AV, Oldehinkel AJ, De Grandi A, Rosenkranz AR, Franke A, Teren A, Metspalu A, Hicks AA, Morris AP, Tonjes A, Morgan A, Podgornaia AI, Peters A, Korner A, Mahajan A, Campbell A, Freedman BI, Spedicati B, Ponte B, Schottker B, Brumpton B, Banas B, Kramer BK, Jung B, Asvold BO, Smith BH, Ning B, Penninx BWJH, Vanderwerff BR, Psaty BM, Kammerer CM, Langefeld CD, Hayward C, Spracklen CN, Robinson-Cohen C, Hartman CA, Lindgren CM, Wang CL, Sabanayagam C, Heng CK, Lanzani C, Khor CC, Cheng CY, Fuchsberger C, Gieger C, Shaffer CM, Schulz CA, Willer CJ, Chasman DI, Gudbjartsson DF, Ruggiero D, Toniolo D, Czamara D, Porteous DJ, Waterworth DM, Mascalzoni D, Mook-Kanamori DO, Reilly DF, Daw EW, Hofer E, Boerwinkle E, Salvi E, Bottinger EP, Tai ES, Catamo E, Rizzi F, Guo F, Rivadeneira F, Guilianini F, Sveinbjornsson G, Ehret G, Waeber G, Biino G, Girotto G, Pistis G, Nadkarni GN, Delgado GE, Montgomery GW, Snieder H, Campbell H, White HD, Gao H, Stringham HM, Schmidt H, Li HT, Brenner H, Holm H, Kirsten H, Kramer H, Rudan I, Nolte IM, Tzoulaki I, Olafsson I, Martins J, Cook JP, Wilson JF, Halbritter J, Felix JF, Divers J, Kooner JS, Lee JJM, O'Connell J, Rotter JI, Liu JJ, Xu J, Thiery J, Arnlov J, Kuusisto J, Jakobsdottir J, Tremblay J, Chambers JC, Whitfield JB, Gaziano JM, Marten J, Coresh J, Jonas JB, Mychaleckyj JC, Christensen K, Eckardt KU, Mohlke KL, Endlich K, Dittrich K, Ryan KA, Rice KM, Taylor KD, Ho K, Nikus K, Matsuda K, Strauch K, Miliku K, Hveem K, Lind L, Wallentin L, Yerges-Armstrong LM, Raffield LM, Phillips LS, Launer LJ, Lyytikainen LP, Lange LA, Citterio L, Klaric L, Ikram MA, Ising M, Kleber ME, Francescatto M, Concas MP, Ciullo M, Piratsu M, Orho-Melander M, Laakso M, Loeffler M, Perola M, de Borst MH, Gogele M, La Bianca M, Lukas MA, Feitosa MF, Biggs ML, Wojczynski MK, Kavousi M, Kanai M, Akiyama M, Yasuda M, Nauck M, Waldenberger M, Chee ML, Chee ML, Boehnke M, Preuss MH, Stumvoll M, Province MA, Evans MK, O'Donoghue ML, Kubo M, Kahonen M, Kastarinen M, Nalls MA, Kuokkanen M, Ghanbari M, Bochud M, Josyula NS, Martin NG, Tan NYQ, Palmer ND, Pirastu N, Schupf N, Verweij N, Hutri-Kahonen N, Mononen N, Bansal N, Devuyst O, Melander O, Raitakari OT, Polasek O, Manunta P, Gasparini P, Mishra PP, Sulem P, Magnusson PKE, Elliott P, Ridker PM, Hamet P, Svensson PO, Joshi PK, Kovacs P, Pramstaller PP, Rossing P, Vollenweider P, van der Harst P, Dorajoo R, Sim RZH, Burkhardt R, Tao R, Noordam R, Magi R, Schmidt R, de Mutsert R, Rueedi R, van Dam RM, Carroll RJ, Gansevoort RT, Loos RJF, Felicita SC, Sedaghat S, Padmanabhan S, Freitag-Wolf S, Pendergrass SA, Graham SE, Gordon SD, Hwang SJ, Kerr SM, Vaccargiu S, Patil SB, Hallan S, Bakker SJL, Lim SC, Lucae S, Vogelezang S, Bergmann S, Corre T, Ahluwalia TS, Lehtimaki T, Boutin TS, Meitinger T, Wong TY, Bergler T, Rabelink TJ, Esko T, Haller T, Thorsteinsdottir U, Volker U, Foo VHX, Salomaa V, Vitart V, Giedraitis V, Gudnason V, Jaddoe VWV, Huang W, Zhang WH, Wei WB, Kiess W, Marz W, Koenig W, Lieb W, Gao X, Sim XL, Wang YX, Friedlander Y, Tham YC, Kamatani Y, Okada Y, Milaneschi Y, Yu Z, Stark KJ, Stefansson K, Boger CA, Hung AM, Kronenberg F, Kottgen A, Pattaro C, Heid IM
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

Childhood Cardiovascular Risk Factors and Adult Cardiovascular Events (2022)

New England Journal of Medicine
Jacobs DR, Woo JG, Sinaiko AR, Daniels SR, Ikonen J, Juonala M, Kartiosuo N, Lehtimäki T, Magnussen CG, Viikari JSA, Zhang NH, Bazzano LA, Burns TL, Prineas RJ, Steinberger J, Urbina EM, Venn AJ, Raitakari OT, Dwyer T
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

Genetic analyses of the electrocardiographic QT interval and its components identify additional loci and pathways (2022)

Nature Communications
Young WJ, Lahrouchi N, Isaacs A, Duong TV, Foco L, Ahmed F, Brody JA, Salman R, Noordam R, Benjamins JW, Haessler J, Lyytikäinen LP, Repetto L, Concas MP, van den Berg ME, Weiss S, Baldassari AR, Bartz TM, Cook JP, Evans DS, Freudling R, Hines O, Isaksen JL, Lin HH, Mei H, Moscati A, Muller-Nurasyid M, Nursyifa C, Qian Y, Richmond A, Roselli C, Ryan KA, Tarazona-Santos E, Theriault S, van Duijvenboden S, Warren HR, Yao J, Raza D, Aeschbacher S, Ahlberg G, Alonso A, Andreasen L, Bis JC, Boerwinkle E, Campbell A, Catamo E, Cocca M, Cutler MJ, Darbar D, De Grandi A, De Luca A, Ding J, Ellervik C, Ellinor PT, Felix SB, Froguel P, Fuchsberger C, Gogele M, Graff C, Graff M, Guo XQ, Hansen T, Heckbert SR, Huang PL, Huikuri HV, Hutri-Kähönen N, Ikram MA, Jackson RD, Junttila J, Kavousi M, Kors JA, Leal TP, Lemaitre RN, Lin HJ, Lind L, Linneberg A, Liu SM, MacFarlane PW, Mangino M, Meitinger T, Mezzavilla M, Mishra PP, Mitchell RN, Mononen N, Montasser ME, Morrison AC, Nauck M, Nauffal V, Navarro P, Nikus K, Pare G, Patton KK, Pelliccione G, Pittman A, Porteous DJ, Pramstaller PP, Preuss MH, Raitakari OT, Reiner AP, Ribeiro ALP, Rice KM, Risch L, Schlessinger D, Schotten U, Schurmann C, Shen X, Shoemaker MB, Sinagra G, Sinner MF, Soliman EZ, Stoll M, Strauch K, Tarasov K, Taylor KD, Tinker A, Trompet S, Uitterlinden A, Volker U, Volzke H, Waldenberger M, Weng LC, Whitsel EA, Wilson JG, Avery CL, Conen D, Correa A, Cucca F, Dorr M, Gharib SA, Girotto G, Grarup N, Hayward C, Jamshidi Y, Jarvelin MR, Jukema JW, Kaab S, Kähönen M, Kanters JK, Kooperberg C, Lehtimäki T, Lima-Costa MF, Liu YM, Loos RJF, Lubitz SA, Mook-Kanamori DO, Morris AP, O'Connell JR, Olesen MS, Orini M, Padmanabhan S, Pattaro C, Peters A, Psaty BM, Rotter JI, Stricker B, van der Harst P, van Duijn CM, Verweij N, Wilson JF, Arking DE, Ramirez J, Lambiase PD, Sotoodehnia N, Mifsud B, Newton-Cheh C, Munroe PB
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

Economic burden of low physical activity and high sedentary behaviour in Finland (2022)

Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
Kolu Päivi, Kari Jaana T, Raitanen Jani, Sievänen Harri, Tokola Kari, Havas Eino, Pehkonen Jaakko, Tammelin Tuija H, Pahkala Katja, Hutri-Kähönen Nina, Raitakari Olli T, Vasankari Tommi
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

Gene set analysis of transcriptomics data identifies new biological processes associated with early markers of atherosclerosis but not with those of osteoporosis: Atherosclerosis-osteoporosis co/multimorbidity study in the Young Finns Study (2022)

Atherosclerosis
Mishra Binisha H., Sievänen Harri, Raitoharju Emma, Mononen Nina, Viikari Jorma, Juonala Markus, Laaksonen Marika, Hutri-Kähönen Nina, Kähönen Mika, Raitakari Olli T., Lehtimäki Terho, Mishra Pashupati P.
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))