Faculty

Charalambos Antoniades

OxfordUnited Kingdom

Charis Antoniades is a Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine and Consultant Cardiologist. He was awarded his PhD title with hons on the genetics of premature myocardial infarction, and during his PhD studies he won multiple Young Investigator award competitions, including those of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) twice, the ISHR and others. He has been awarded the Outstanding Achievement Award of the basic Cardiovascular Science Council of the European Society of Cardiology in 2016, a National clinical excellence award in 2020 and has given various named lectures. He is the Director of Acute Vascular Imaging Centre of the University of Oxford, the Deputy Head of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine and director of the Oxford Academic cardiovascular CT programme (and Oxford Academic Cardiovascular CT Core Lab). He is also the Chair of the British Atherosclerosis Society.

His research is focused on the study of the cross-talk between adipose tissue and the cardiovascular system, with specific interest in the non-invasive imaging of inflammation. He directs the Oxford Heart Vessels and Fat programme, and coordinates large national flagship programmes (such as the UK C19-CRC) and international multicentre studies (e.g. ORFAN study). His research has led to the development of novel imaging biomarkers using Computed Tomography, with major role in cardiovascular risk prognosis.

He is also deputy editor of Cardiovascular Research, one of the editors of British Journal of Pharmacology and associate editor of Hellenic Journal of Cardiology. He has published more than 300 peer review scientific papers in high impact journals like the Lancet, Science Transl Med, Circulation, JACC, EHJ and others. He is one of the founders of the Scientists of Tomorrow of the ESC and has served as vice chair in the Marie Curie Fellowships panel of the European Commission. He is also founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Caristo Diagnostics, a university of Oxford spinout company.

Marcello Arca

CataniaItaly

University of Rome Sapienza. He completed his research training as postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Human Nutrition and then at the Department of Molecular Genetics, at the UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas (USA). He is full professor of Internal Medicine and, at present, he Chair of the Department of Translational and Precision Medicine: He is also the Director the Unit of Internal Medicine and Metabolic Diseases as well as the Unit of Rare Lipid Disorders at the University Hospital Policlinico Umberto I in Rome.
The research interests of Prof. Arca are related to genetic disorders of lipid metabolism, to genetics of atherosclerosis and to treatment of cardiovascular risk. He is co-authors of 300 papers in peer reviewed journal and 10 chapters of books. He is member of the Editorial Board of Endocrine and American Journal of Preventive Medicine and he is serving as reviewer for several scientific journals in the area of metabolism, cardiovascular disease, genetics and internal medicine. At present, he is holding the chair of President of the Italian Society of Atherosclerosis (SISA)

Maciej Banach

LodzPoland

Prof. Maciej Banach was an Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Poland (2010-2012), and a President of the Polish Mother’s Memorial Hospital – Research Institute (PMMHRI) (February 2014-March 2021). He is a Head of Cardiovascular Research Centre at University of Zielona Gora, full Professor of Cardiology at the Medical University of Lodz (MUL) and PMMHRI, Head of Foreign Affairs Office (2012-2014), Head of Department of Preventive Cardiology and Lipidology at the Medical University of Lodz and Professor in the Department of Nephrology, Hypertension and Family Medicine, Chair of Nephrology and Hypertension, at the WAM University Hospital in Lodz, Poland (2009-).

He is a Secretary of the European Atherosclerosis Society (EAS) (2021-2024) and member of the Scientific and Health Policy Advisory Group of the FH Europe. He is a Founder and Head of the Polish Lipid Association (PoLA) (2011-) and Lodz Chapter of Polish Society of Hypertension (2009-). He is the founder of the Lipid and Blood Pressure Meta-analysis Collaboration (LBPMC; lbpmcgroup.umed.pl) Group (2012-) – a group of over 150 worldwide experts aimed to investigate the most important issues in the field of lipid disorders, hypertension, nutrition and cardiovascular risk, as well as the International Lipid Expert Panel (ILEP; ilep.eu) (2015-), currently with >50 national society members, which has been founded to prepare recommendations in the area of preventive cardiology in the most debatable issues that have not been covered in the existing guidelines. He is also a member of the REPROGRAM Consortium – a group of experts challenging with Covid-19 pandemic, member of 2 largest worldwide databases – the Global Burden of Disease (GDB) (University of Washington, Seattle, US) and Non-Communicable Diseases Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC, Imperial College of London, UK). He is also Founder and President of the foundation – Think-Tank “Innovation for Health”, which gathers six main health research institutes and over 40 medical business representatives in Poland with main aim to make innovations in the medical area in Poland. He is a Visiting Professor of University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and University of Medicine and Pharmacy Victor Babes in Timisoara, Romania, and University of California at Irvine.

Prof. Banach has published over 1000 original articles, reviews, editorials, and book chapters in the field of hypertension, dyslipidemia, cardiology, and risk stratification. His combined IF (for only full-text manuscripts) is over 10,000 pts, number of citations: 39,090 (acc. Web of Science Core Collection/Publons with >14,000 citations for year 2021), 40,228 (acc. SCOPUS; with >15,000 citations for year 2021), 49,601 (acc. ResearchGate), and 59,898 (acc. Google Scholar; with >21,000 citations for year 2021), Hirsch’s Index = 75 (WoS/Publons), 75 (SCOPUS), 88 (ResearchGate) and 93 (i10-index: 598) (Google Scholar) – being within 1% the highest cited scientists in the world (in the research area of Clinical Medicine and Pharmacology and Toxicology) according to Essential Science Indicators by Clarivate (with 42 TOP Papers). Prof. Banach is also within top 10 worldwide experts according to ExpertScape in the field of lipids (9), statins (2), dyslipidemias (6), cholesterol (5), lipoproteins (12), LDL cholesterol (9), lipoproteins LDL (6), HDL cholesterol (5), and dietary supplements (15). He is also a 1% Top Reviewer in the areas of Clinical Medicine and Cross-Field (in 2018 and 2019) by Publons/Clarivate and Publons Academy Mentor.

He is Founder (2005) and Editor-in-Chief of the Archives of Medical Science (IF2020 = 3.318), Archives of Medical Science – Civilization Diseases, and Archives of Medical Science – Atherosclerotic Diseases, Deputy Editor of European Heart Journal Open, Editor in Chief of the Cardiology Section in Journal of Clinical Medicine, Section Editor of Current Atherosclerosis Reports, Scientific Coordinator of the HeartBeat Journal (2012-2018), Regional Associate Editor of European Heart Journal – Quality of Care and Clinical Outcomes, Co-Founder and Deputy Editor of Thyroid Research (2007-2012), Associate/Section Editor of BMC Medicine, Scientific Reports, Recent Patents on Cardiovascular Drugs Discovery & Biomed Research International, and member of Editorial Advisory Board of over 60 international medical journals. Guest Editor (2010-) among others in BMC Medicine, Expert Opinion on Pharmacotherapy, Nutrients, Current Hypertension Reports, Journal of Diabetes Research, Current Vascular Pharmacology, Current Pharmaceutical Design, Current Medicinal Chemistry and Frontiers in Digital Public. He is also a Faculty member of F1000 prime. He is Reviewer of over 80 international journals, including New England Journal of Medicine, European Heart Journal, JACC, Circulation, JAMA-Cardiology, JAMA Network Open, Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, Circulation Research, and British Medical Journal; editor or author of 31 books (102 chapters). He was also a Scientific President (2016-2020) of the Termedia Publishing House, being responsible for the indexation and developing of over 50 scientific journals, including 9 journals with IF.

Participation in clinical trials since 2005: (1) IPDACS Trial (Incidence and Predictors of Delirium After Cardiac Surgery) (NCT00784576) (study coordinator [SC]); (2) ACT 2 Trial with RSD1235 – vernakalant (principal investigator [PI]); (3) The Influence of Atorvastatin on the Parameters of Inflammation and the Function of Left Ventricle (NCT01015144) (PI); (4) SWEEP TRIAL (Study to Evaluate the Efficacy, Safety and Immunogenicity of Subcutaneous HX575 in the Treatment of Anemia Associated With Chronic Kidney Disease) (PI); (5) SWEEP OLE Trial (PI); (6) STIPPARE Trial (Simvastatin in the Treatment of Isolated arterial hyPertension and Prevention of cARdiovascular Events) (NCT01017835) (PI); (7) FIRST Trial (Ferumoxytol Compared to Iron Sucrose Trial: A Randomized, Multicenter Trial of Ferumoxytol Compared to Iron Sucrose for the Treatment of Iron Deficiency Anemia in Adult Subjects with Chronic Kidney Disease); (8) FER-CKD Trial (An open-label multicentre, randomised 3-arm study to investigate the comparative efficacy and safety of intravenous ferric carboxymaltose versus oral iron for the treatment of iron deficiency anaemia in subjects with non-dialysis-dependent chronic kidney disease) (Co-Investigator [CPI]); (9) FOURIER (Further Cardiovascular Outcomes Research with PCSK9 Inhibition in Subjects With Elevated Risk) trial (PI); (10) ENSURE-AF (national PI [NPI]); (10) BetOnMACE trial (RVX222-CS-015) (NPI); (11) ODDYSEY APPRISE Trial (LPS14245) (NPI); (12) CLEAR Harmony trial (Evaluation of Long-Term Safety and Tolerability of ETC-1002 in High-Risk Patients With Hyperlipidemia and High CV Risk) (PI); (13) CLEAR Harmony OLE Trial (PI); (14) CLEAR Outcomes Study (1002-043) (NPI); (15) Da Vinci Study (co-NPI), ODDYSEY Kids (NPI), (16) VESALIUS-REAL Trial with evolocumab (NPI), (17) LIPIDOGRAM & LIPIDOGEN study (co-PI), (18) FHSC Registry (NPI), (19) TERCET Registry; (20) VESALIUS-CV Trial with evolocumab (PI), and (21) Lp(a)HORIZON with TQJ231 (PI), (22) ORION-16 with inclisiran (PI), (23) Study to Evaluate ARO-APOC3 in Adults With Severe Hypertriglyceridemia (PI).

He is a fellow of the Council for High Blood Pressure Research of the American Heart Association (FAHA), National Lipid Association (FNLA), American Society of Angiology (FASA), European Society of Cardiology (FESC), Royal Society for Public Health (FRSPH) and Society of Geriatric Cardiology (FSGC; 2008-2010). He is a member of the working-core of Alliance for Biomedical Research/European Council for Health Research (2011-2013 and 2016- being as a EAS representative), steering committee of European Innovation Partnership in Active and Healthy Ageing (2010-2012) at the European Commission, member of the European Commission’s Scientific Panel for Health (SPH) (2014-2017), and steering committee of Centre for Good Aging / Healthy Ageing Research Center (HARC) at the Medical University of Lodz, member of Committee for Public Health of the Polish Academy of Sciences, member of the Scientific Board of Institute of Sport in Warsaw, Poland, and the Presiding Board of Scientific Committee of the Polish Ministry of Health (2015-). He is an expert of the European Medicines Agency (EMA, 2018-), and member of prestigious EU Academy of Sciences (EUAS; 2018-).

He is a laureate of several prizes and award, including: Doctor Honoris Causa of the Medical University in Kosice, Slovak Republic (2020), on Top-100 List of the most influential scientists in medicine in Poland for year 2020 (position 8), 2019 (10), and 2018 (9), Doctor Honoris Causa of the Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Bucharest, Romania, “Gold Scalpel” Distinction in 2019 for the Innovation (Smart Hospital); Honorary Member of the Romanian Society of Cardiology (2019), Doctor Honoris Causa of the Institute of Cardiology in Kiev (2018), and the University of Medicine and Pharmacy Victor Babes in Timisoara (2017); Gold Honorary Medal for scientific achievements of the Medical Faculty of Medical University in Kosice, Slovak Republic (2018), The Manager of the Year 2016 – Public Entities (2017), “Innovator of the Year – Science Category” by Wprost journal (2017); “Gold Scalpel” Distinction in 2016 for the Innovation; The Personality of the Year 2013 in Poland for the development of science in the field of healthcare – founded by the Heath Manager journal (Termedia Publishing House), Super-Talent in Medicine 2012 Award – the winner of the competition for young scientists in medicine (up to 40) founded by Puls Medycyny journal; scientific awards of Ministry of Health of Republic of Poland for the cycle of publications (2009, 2011), >40 individual and group scientific awards of President of Medical University of Lodz (2009-2020); START Award (2008) and Conferences Awards (2005, 2007) of Foundation for Polish Science, Polityka journal Awards for Young Scientists (2006), and Travel Grants of European Society of Hypertension (2007) and Heart Failure Association of ESC (2005, 2007).

His main area of scientific interests concerns hypertension aspects (risk stratification, prehypertension, new biomarkers, optimal level of BP – J-curve phenomenon, pharmacotherapy/combined therapy, prevention, complications), lipid disorders (risk stratification, new biomarkers, diagnosis, rare diseases), dyslipidemia therapy (statins, new drugs, combined treatment) and new drugs in CVD therapy.

Marianne Benn

CopenhagenDenmark

Professor Marianne Benn, MD, PhD and DMSc is currently senior consultant at Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen; professor in Clinical Biochemistry with special focus on Translational Medicine; and co-chair of the BRIDGE – Translational Excellence Programme at University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Martin Bennett

CambridgeUnited Kingdom

Heart Foundation Chair of Cardiovascular Sciences at the University of Cambridge, with Honorary Consultant Cardiologist positions at Addenbrooke’s and Papworth Hospitals. Professor Bennett directs the BHF Cambridge Centre for Research Excellence and the Cambridge Cardiovascular Interdisciplinary Research Centre. His major research interest is the vascular biology of atherosclerosis and his clinical research programme examines the ability of invasive and non-invasive coronary artery imaging to identify vulnerable plaques, focussing particularly on VH-IVUS and OCT. His research combines clinical medicine, imaging and engineering to predict patient events, in time for prevention.

Christoph Binder

ViennaAustria

Christoph J. Binder (born 1973) received his MD degree from the University of Vienna, Austria, in 1997 and his PhD degree in Molecular Pathology from the University of California San Diego (UCSD), USA, in 2002. Following postdoctoral training at the Department of Medicine of UCSD, he established his own research group at the Medical University of Vienna in 2005. In 2009 he was appointed Full Professor of Atherosclerosis Research at the Medical University of Vienna. He is a specialist in Laboratory Medicine and currently Deputy Head of the Department of Laboratory Medicine at the Medical University of Vienna. He is also PI of the Austrian Familial Hypercholesterolemia Registry. Since 2014 Christoph Binder acts as a referee and board member of the Austrian Science Fund. From 2016 until 2019 he was a member of the Executive Committee and since 2021 he is Vice President of the European Atherosclerosis Society. Christoph Binder’s research interests span vascular biology, lipid oxidation, and immunity. His group is investigating immune mechanisms of atherosclerosis with a special focus on the role of innate and humoral immunity and how this can be exploited for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. Christoph Binder has authored >150 original and review papers in important international journals, including Nature Medicine and Nature. He is Co-Editor of Atherosclerosis and Section Editor of Thrombosis & Haemostasis.

Michael Blaha

BaltimoreUSA

Dr. Michael J. Blaha MD MPH (Professor of Cardiology and Epidemiology) is the Director of Clinical Research for the Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease.

Dr. Blaha has published over 500 scientific articles, with a focus on appropriate use of tests and new therapies in the prevention of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. He is a standing member of the Endocrinologic and Metabolic Drug Advisory Committee (EMDAC) for the FDA. He has received multiple grant awards from the National Institutes of Health, FDA, American Heart Association, Amgen Foundation, Aetna Foundation, Novo Nordisk, and Bayer.

In 2018, Dr. Blaha received the Dr. Fred Brancati award at Johns Hopkins for excellence in mentoring. He has mentored over 30 trainees, many of which have gone on to hold prominent academic appointments.

Clinically, he practices as a preventive cardiologist and in the interpretation of cardiac CT. His clinic specializes in patients with advanced subclinical atherosclerosis, and the focused use of an array of lifestyle and pharmacotherapies to mitigate that risk.

Marie-Luce Bochaton-Piallat

GenevaSwitzerland

Marie-Luce Bochaton-Piallat, PhD, leads a research group at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Geneva where she also teaches cardiovascular pathophysiology. She is chair of the Working Group Atherosclerosis and Vascular Biology of the ESC. She also serves as member of the scientific committee of the Swiss CardioVascular Biology Working Group and section editor of The ESC Textbook of Vascular Biology. Recently she co-edited a spotlight issue on Novel concept for the role of smooth muscle cells in vascular disease in CardioVascular Research.

She has a longstanding experience in the implication of smooth muscle cell heterogeneity in atherosclerosis. She is currently investigating the role of S100A4 in the phenotypic modulation of intimal smooth muscle cells in vitro and in vivo. Since 2002 she receives continuous support from the Swiss National Science Foundation for her research. Her h-index is 37.

Bertrand Cariou

NantesFrance

Pr Cariou (MD, PhD) is a Professor of Endocrinology at the Nantes University Hospital and Medical School in Nantes and the team leader of “Dyslipidemia and Lipotoxicity” team at INSERM U1087, Nantes, France. Since 2015, he is the director of l’institut du thorax, a high qualified public center devoted to patient care, research and training in cardiovascular, respiratory and metabolic diseases. He received his PhD in Endocrinology and Cellular Interactions from the University of Paris and completed his post-doctoral training at the Institut Pasteur de Lille on the metabolic function of the bile acid nuclear receptor FXR.

Pr Cariou is interested in the function of PCSK9 and in pharmacological management of type 2 diabetes and NASH. He is a core member of a TransAtlantic Network of Excellence on PCSK9 funded by the Fondation Leducq (2014-2019) and the coordinator of RHU project CHOPIN (Cholesterol Personalized Innovation), aiming at identifying new therapeutic targets and biomarkers for hypercholesterolemia management.

He has authored more than 260 original publications in the area of diabetes, lipidology and molecular biology and is a principal investigator in several clinical trials in Diabetology, Lipidology and Endocrinology.

Alberico Catapano

MilanItaly

Full Professor of Pharmacology, Director of the Center of Epidemiology and Preventive Pharmacology (SEFAP) as well as Director of the Laboratory of Lipoproteins, Immunity and Atherosclerosis at the University of Milan (Department of Pharmacological and Biomolecular

Sciences) and PhD coordinator from 2017 to 2020.
Moreover he is Director of the Center for the Study, Prevention and Therapy of Atherosclerosis of the University of Milan, at the Bassini Hospital, Head of Cardiovascular Research Line at Multimedica IRCCS Sesto San Giovanni (Mi), President of the Italian Society of Clinical and Sperimental Therapy (SITeCS) and General Director of the SISA Foundation
His main research, from 1972, interests include the study of atherosclerosis, lipids, lipoproteins and genetic dyslipidaemias, and he has made landmark observations regarding heat shock proteins and pentraxins in atherogenesis, on high-density lipoproteins in the modulation of the immune response, and on the identification of possible therapeutic targets by exploiting genetic information. Past President of the European Atherosclerosis Society (EAS), Professor Catapano is currently Co- Chairman of the EAS/European Society of Cardiology (ESC) guidelines for the treatment of dyslipoproteinaemias. Editor of Atherosclerosis Supplements, Co-editor of Atherosclerosis and Associate Editor of other scientific journals, he has authored more than 590 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals (I.F. 10.929) and is among the highly cited scientists in 2019, 2020 and 2021 according to Clarivate

Carlos Escobar Cervantes

MadridSpain

MD graduate at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (1993-99). PhD grade at the Universidad de Alcalá; Doctoral Thesis qualification: A cum laude, unanimously (2007). Consultant cardiologist at the University Hospital La Paz (Madrid).
Past-member of the Executive Committee of the Investigation Agency of the Spanish Society of Cardiology. Past-president of the Clinical Cardiology group of the Spanish Society of Cardiology. Member of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). Member of the Cardiovascular Pharmacology and Drug Therapy Working Group of ESC. Member of the Council of Cardio-Oncology Regular of ESC. Member of the Council of Stroke Regular of ESC. Member of the Spanish Society of Cardiology. Member of the International Lipid Expert Panel. Member of the working group of hypertension and cardiovascular disease of SEMERGEN (Spain).
Referee of several national and international peer-review journals. Participation in several clinical trials and investigation projects in the fields of hypertension, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, acute coronary syndrome, pulmonary embolism and cardiometabolic disease.
Over 375 papers published in national and international peer-review journals and over 60 chapters in Cardiology textbooks.

Filippo Crea

RomeItaly

Filippo Crea is Professor of Cardiology, Director of the Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, Director of the Postgraduate School in Cardiology and Coordinator of the PhD program in Cellular and Molecular Cardiology at the Catholic University in Rome, Italy.

His research activity has primarily focused on studying the multiple mechanisms of myocardial ischaemia in chronic and acute coronary syndromes (ACS). Professor Crea has received numerous research awards including the Arrigo Recordati International Prize for the “Lifetime achievement in researching the pivotal role of microcirculation in systemic and organ diseases”.

He has given prestigious lectureship worldwide including the 7th annual Robert L. Krakoff International Lecture in Cardiovascular Medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard University Medical School. He is Editor-in-Chief of the European Heart Journal since September 2020.

Marina Cuchel

PhiladelphiaUSA

Dr. Cuchel is a Research Associate Professor at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. She is a translational scientist with a longstanding research interest in rare disorders of lipoprotein metabolism and the development of novel therapeutic strategies. Her research has had a significant impact on the development and regulatory approval of novel treatments for homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia as well as advancing our understanding of the role of genes affecting lipid and lipoprotein metabolism in human pathophysiology. In addition to the development of novel therapeutic approaches and the investigation of their mechanism of action, she has also investigated the association of cholesterol efflux capacity with atherosclerosis and led the development of a method to assess reverse cholesterol transport in humans that has been extensively validated in animal models.

Heinz Drexel

FeldkirchAustria

1983-1987 Assistant Professor, leading physician of the Diabetes inpatient and outpatient clinic, University of Innsbruck.
1988-1990 Associate Professor of Internal Medicine; 1991-1994 Head of Lipid Research. Division of Cardiology, University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland.
Since 1994 Professor of Medicine.
1994–2016 Head of Department of Medicine, County Hospital of Feldkirch, Austria.
Since 1997: Head of the Vorarlberg Institute for Vascular Investigation and Treatment, Austria
2006-2021 Dean of the Medical Faculty and Full Professor of Medicine, Private University of the Principality of Liechtenstein.
2007 Honorary Degree Doctor of Letters, Drexel University College of Medicine.
2009 Adjunct Professor of Medicine, Drexel University College of Medicine.
September 2017–December 2019 Senior Consultant, Division of Angiology, Swiss Cardiovascular Center, University Hospital Bern, Switzerland.
2018-2020 President of the ESC-Working Group “Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy”.
Since December 2020 Head of the Department of Internal Medicine & Intensive Care, County Hospital Bregenz, Austria.
Experiences in Clinical Studies over 33 years.

Marat Ezhov

MoscowRussia

Marat V. Ezhov, MD, PhD, DSc, is a Fellow of European Society of Cardiology, Member of European Atherosclerosis Society, American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, and head of laboratory of lipid disorders in Chazov National Medical Research Center of Cardiology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, Russia.
Since 2015, he has been holding a position of a President of the Russian National Atherosclerosis Society.
Within the framework of his scientific activity he had performed clinical studies with a focus on lipoprotein(a) and apolipoprotein(a) phenotyping in patients with CHD, including long-term prospective data. He has written and is a co-author of more than 100 original manuscripts
His current research interests include the role of lipoproteins and different biomarkers in atherogenesis, atherosclerosis of different vascular beds and aortic valve, and prevalence and management of hereditary lipid disorders [familial hypercholesterolaemia, hypertriglyceridemia, hyperlipoproteinemia(a)] in the Russian population, etc.
Since 1995 he has been serving as a national lead, principal investigator, study coordinator, sub-investigator in multiple international clinical trials in lipidology, cardiology, and endocrinology. He is an active lecturer in many local and international conferences, schools and workshops on behalf of the Russian National Atherosclerosis Society.

Jose Javier Fuster

MadridSpain

José Fuster is Assistant Professor and Group Leader at the Spanish National Center for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC) in Madrid (Spain). Previously, he completed postdoctoral training at Boston University School of Medicine in the USA and held faculty positions at Boston University (2015-2018) and the University of Virginia (2018). At CNIC he leads a research group focused on the investigation of the interplay between aging, hematopoiesis and cardiovascular disease, with a particular interest in the pathophysiology of atherosclerosis and heart failure. He is considered a leading expert in the role of age-related clonal hematopoiesis in cardiovascular disease and he actively collaborates on this topic with several international research groups. His work on this topic has been published in prestigious journals, including research articles in Science, the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and Cell Reports. Among other awards, he has been awarded the Young Investigator Award of the European Atherosclerosis Society.

Daniel Gaudet

MontrealCanada

Dr. Gaudet is affiliated to the Department of Medicine, Université de Montréal (UdeM). He is the scientific director of the UdeM Community Genetic Medicine Center and its Clinical Lipidology and Rare Lipid Disorders Unit. He is currently president and scientific director of ECOGENE-21, a non-for profit organization devoted to access to innovation in precision medicine. His main clinical and academic activities aim at investigating rare dyslipidemias and translating new knowledge issued from extreme phenotypes to more common forms of diseases. Over the years, he has coordinated more than 200 studies involving the development of screening tools, technologies or therapies for severe dyslipidemias or related disorders, in collaboration with biotechs, pharmas, or academic partners. He authored more than 300 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals, including several tens in very highly rated Journals (NEJM, Lancet, Nature Medicine, Nature Genetics) as well as >500 scientific communications or book chapters.

Chiara Giannarelli

New YorkUSA

Dr. Giannarelli is an Associate Professor of Cardiology, Medicine and Associate Professor of Pathology at the New York University (NYU) Langone Health and the NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City. She is a physician scientist with years of experience in the field of vascular biology and atherosclerosis. She has published original research spanning from preclinical models to clinical studies in the areas of endothelial dysfunction, arterial stiffness, hypertension, angiogenesis, and atherosclerosis. Dr. Giannarelli currently focuses on translational and patient-oriented research using systems biology and drug repurposing approaches. Her laboratory was the first to integrate Cytometry by time of flight (CyTOF), single cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq), and Cellular Indexing of Transcriptomes and Epitopes by sequencing (CITE-Seq) to map the composition and molecular states of circulating and plaque-derived immune cells from CVD patients and to establish their role in plaque progression and clinical cardiovascular events.

Anne Carol Goldberg

Saint LouisUSA

Anne Carol Goldberg, MD, FACP, FAHA, FNLA is an endocrinologist and lipid specialist. She received her medical degree from University of Maryland and completed internal medicine residency at Michael Reese Hospital, Chicago, Illinois, and endocrinology fellowship at Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, where she is now Professor of Medicine. Research interests include therapies for hyperlipidemia and the treatment of familial hypercholesterolemia. She has conducted clinical trials involving most classes of lipid-modifying drugs. She treats adults and children with dyslipidemia, including familial hypercholesterolemia, and has a lipoprotein apheresis program. Awards include the National Forum for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Public Policy Award, the Foundation of the National Lipid Association Clinician/Educator Award, and Washington University School of Medicine Distinguished Clinician Award.
She is a past President of the National Lipid Association (NLA) and immediate past president of the Foundation of the NLA. She chaired the NLA Expert Panel on Familial Hypercholesterolemia and was a member of the ACC/AHA Blood Cholesterol Expert Panel for the 2013 ACC/AHA Cholesterol Guidelines and of the task force for the Endocrine Society Clinical Practice Guideline on Evaluation and Treatment of Hypertriglyceridemia. She is currently the Chief Science Officer of the NLA.

Ira Goldberg

New YorkUSA

Dr. Goldberg received his undergraduate degree from MIT and his medical degree from Harvard Medical School. After fellowships in endocrinology and metabolism, and atherosclerosis and metabolism, he was appointed to the faculty of the Department of Medicine at Columbia University in 1983 and was Chief of the Division of Preventive Medicine and Nutrition and the Dickinson Richards Professor of Medicine. He is currently the Clarissa and Edgar Bronfman, Jr. Professor and Chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at New York University School of Medicine.

Dr. Goldberg has published over 200 articles, as well as numerous book chapters, editorials, and reviews. His research has focused on abnormalities of lipoprotein metabolism, macrovascular disease in diabetes, and the role of triglycerides in atherosclerosis. Among Dr. Goldberg’s honors is a MERIT Award from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. He was chosen to give the 2007 Robert Levy Lecture of the NPAM Committee of the American Heart Association, the Edwin Bierman Lecture on diabetes and heart disease at the 2010 American Diabetes Association Meeting, and the 2017 George Lyman Duff Lecture of the ATVB council.

Antonio Gotto

New YorkUSA

Dr. Antonio M. Gotto is Dean Emeritus and Provost for Medical Affairs Emeritus of Weill Cornell Medical College. Previously, at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, he was the Bob and Vivian Smith Professor and Chairman of the Department of Medicine, Scientific Director of the DeBakey Heart Center, and the JS Abercrombie Chair for Atherosclerosis and Lipoprotein Research. He also served as Chief of the Internal Medicine Service at The Methodist Hospital in Houston. Dr. Gotto’s postgraduate work included doctoral studies at Oxford University in England as a Rhodes Scholar, and residency training at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.

As a lifelong supporter of educational efforts aimed at cardiovascular risk reduction, Dr. Gotto has been National President of the American Heart Association, President of the International Atherosclerosis Society, and National Lipid Association. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a recipient of many honors, including the Gold Heart Award from the American Heart Association, the 2000 Distinguished Alumnus award from Vanderbilt University and the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, honorary doctoral degrees from the University of Bologna and Abilene Christian University, honorary professorships from the University of Buenos Aires and Francisco Marroquin University (Guatemala), and the Order of the Lion from the Republic of Finland. Dr. Gotto was the 2004 recipient of the International Okamoto Award from the Japan Vascular Disease Research Foundation. In 2004 Dr. Gotto was also named Honorary Member of the Society for Progress in Internal Medicine (Ludwig Heilmeyer Society) in Germany. In 2010, he received the Maurice R. Greenberg Distinguished Service Award, the highest honor bestowed by New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell on members of the medical staff.

Mai-Lis Hellenius

StockholmSweden

Mai-Lis Hellénius, MD, Ph.D., professor in cardiovascular prevention at the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.

Mai-Lis Hellénius was born 1953. MD at Karolinska Institutet 1978. Certified specialist in Family Medicine 1985. In 1995 Mai-Lis Hellénius defended her thesis “Prevention of cardiovascular disease – Studies on the role of diet and exercise in the prevention of cardiovascular disease among middle aged men.” The thesis was based on a controlled randomized trial and thereby she was among the first in the world to scientifically evaluate advice on lifestyle. Associate professor in 1999. Professor in cardiovascular prevention focusing lifestyle in 2006.

She has for more than 40 years been working both as a clinician, a researcher and a teacher in the area of lifestyle medicine. She was among the first physicians in the world initiating physical activity on prescription in 1987. Mai-Lis Hellénius has 260 publications and 169 of them are publications in peer review journals.

Mai-Lis Hellénius has been the tutor of 16 Ph.D. students who have defended their thesis. All Ph.D. projects have focused physical activity, lifestyle and prevention. She has been engaged in the writing of national and Nordic guidelines for diet and physical activity as well as prevention of cardiovascular disease. She is a member of many expert committees both nationally and internationally and she has been invited speaker at international meetings more than 100 times. Mai-Lis Hellenius has served as a faculty opponent on 36 occasions of both Swedish and international universities. She has been awarded in Sweden and from several international universities. Year 2017 she was invited to give the Morris-Paffenbarger Honorary lecture at the opening session of American College of Sports Medicine meeting in Denver, USA.

She has written several textbooks in lifestyle medicine and cardiovascular prevention for the professional audience. She has also developed a web-based educational program for health care professionals as well as the public, which was launched in 2009 from the Karolinska Institutet (www.sundkurs.se). She is a requested lecturer for professional as well as for the public.

Mai-Lis Hellénius has also written several popular science books on nutrition, physical activity and a healthy lifestyle. Several of them have been awarded in Sweden and internationally. Mai-Lis Hellénius received the Dun Gifford’s Award from Gourmand International Cookbook Awards for one of the books. The books “Vitally important” about lifestyle and health and Vitally important-the Cookbook, won the Gourmand International Cookbook Award in 2017 and 2019. In 2021 the book Vitally important was awarded as the Best during 25 years in its category and a new book about health for seniors also won a prize the Gourmand Cookbook International Award.

Minna Kaikkonen-Maatta

KuopioFinland

Minna Kaikkonen-Määttä was born in Kiuruvesi, Finland. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Cellular Biology and Physiology from the Claude Bernard University Lyon 1, France, in 2002 and Master’s degree in Molecular Biology from University of Jyväskylä, Finland, in 2005. She obtained her PhD in Molecular Medicine under the supervision of Prof. Seppo Ylä-Herttuala in Kuopio in 2008. She did her postdoctoral studies with Prof. Christopher Glass at University of California San Diego where she studied transcriptional gene regulation and enhancer RNAs supported by the Young Investigator Award from Leducq Foundation. She started her own lab in 2015 at the University of Eastern Finland with a focus on gene and cell level understanding of atherosclerosis using state-of-the-art next generation sequencing methods. Currently she is a tenured Associate Professor in Cardiovascular Genomics and a Director of the Single Cell Genomics Core. She has published 80 peer-reviewed articles with ~3800 citations. She has received over 5 million in research funding and is currently supported by the European Research Council Starting Grant and Academy of Finland. She is the President of the Finnish Society of Atherosclerosis and member of the board of SSAR, EVBO, and Membership Engagement Committee of ASHG.

Sekar Kathiresan

CambridgeUSA

Dr. Sekar Kathiresan is co-founder and CEO of Verve Therapeutics, a biotechnology company pioneering a new approach to the care of cardiovascular disease, transforming treatment from chronic management to single-course gene editing medicines. Dr. Kathiresan is a cardiologist and scientist who has focused his career on understanding the inherited basis for heart attack and leveraging those insights to improve the care of cardiovascular disease. Based on his groundbreaking discoveries in human genetic mutations that confer resistance to cardiovascular disease, Dr. Kathiresan co-founded Verve Therapeutics with a vision to create a pipeline of single-course, gene editing therapies focused on addressing the root causes of this highly prevalent and life-threatening disease. Verve is advancing two initial programs that target PCSK9 and ANGPTL3, respectively – genes that have been extensively validated by Dr. Kathiresan and others as targets for lowering blood lipids, such as low-density lipoprotein cholesterol.

Prior to joining Verve, Dr. Kathiresan’s roles included director of the MGH Center for Genomic Medicine, director of the Cardiovascular Disease Initiative at the Broad Institute and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Kathiresan’s research laboratory focused on understanding the inherited basis for blood lipids and myocardial infarction. For his research contributions, he has been recognized by the AHA with its highest scientific honor – a Distinguished Scientist Award and by the ASHG with the 2018 Curt Stern Award.

Dr. Kathiresan graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in history from the University of Pennsylvania and received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School. He completed his clinical training in internal medicine and cardiology at MGH and his postdoctoral research training in human genetics at the Framingham Heart Study and the Broad Institute.

Amit V Khera

BostonUSA

Amit V. Khera, MD MSc, is a cardiologist, human geneticist, and population biologist at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), group leader within the MGH Center for Genomic Medicine, Associate Director of the Program in Medical and Population Genetics and Merkin Institute Fellow at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School.

He received his MD with Alpha Omega Alpha distinction from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and went on to complete clinical training in Internal Medicine and cardiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and MGH. He completed a Masters of Science at the Harvard School of Public Health and a postdoctoral research fellowship with Dr. Sekar Kathiresan in human genetics at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

His research program (kheralab.org) uses genetic variation as a tool to uncover new biology and enable enhanced clinical care informed by inherited susceptibility.

He has developed expertise in epidemiology, clinical medicine, and human genetics. Among his scientific contributions, he pioneered use of a new approach to quantify genetic risk (‘genome-wide polygenic scores’) for common diseases, developed biomarkers that provide new biologic insights, and analyzed large-scale gene sequencing data to highlight key pathways driving risk and identify molecular subtypes of cardiometabolic diseases.

Dr. Khera has authored more than 90 scientific publications, including lead or senior-authored publications in the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, Cell, Nature Reviews Genetics, Nature Genetics, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, and Circulation. His work has been recognized as among the top ten research advances by the American Heart Association (in both 2016 and 2018), and the National Human Genome Research Institute (in 2020), and he is the 2019 recipient of the Douglas P. Zipes Distinguished Young Scientist Award from the American College of Cardiology.

In tandem with his research efforts, he founded and is co-leading a Preventive Genomics Clinic at MGH to provide a clinical infrastructure for genome-first medicine.

Wolfgang Koenig

MunichGermany

Wolfgang Koenig MD, PhD, FRCP, FACC, FAHA, FESC
German Heart Center Munich, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany

Wolfgang Koenig is a Professor of Medicine/Cardiology. He is a board-certified internist and interventional cardiologist and has extensive experience in the molecular epidemiology of cardiovascular diseases. A former Director of the WHO-MONICA Augsburg Myocardial Infarction Register, Professor Koenig has held multiple clinical positions at the University of Ulm Medical Center. In April 2015 he joined the German Heart Centre in Munich, where he is the Head of the Cardiometabolic Unit.
Professor Koenig`s research interest is atherosclerosis, focusing on the identification and evaluation of new biomarkers for cardiometabolic diseases, the clinical pharmacology of cardiovascular compounds, and the clinical epidemiology of cardiovascular disorders. He serves on the steering committee of multiple large, international clinical trials. He has published more than 900 papers and has an H-Index of 101. In 2014 he was given the Rudolf Schönheimer Award from the German Atherosclerosis Society, in 2019 he received the degree of Adjunct Professor from the Medical University of Vienna and in 2020 he was awarded the Paul Morawitz price from the German Cardiac Society.

Jan Kuivenhoven

GroningenThe Netherlands

Jan Albert Kuivenhoven started with an MSc degree in molecular biology and finished his PhD on the genetics of human high-density lipoprotein at the Academic Medical Center (AMC). After a postdoc appointment at the Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Biology, he established his own research group at the AMC. His current research is focused on identifying novel lipid genes using an extreme genetics approach.

Irene Lang

ViennaAustria

Irene M Lang is a clinical cardiologist and Professor of Vascular Biology at the Medical University of Vienna. She has been nominated as one of the WMA–Caring Physicians of the World in 2005. She directs an out-patient clinic for pulmonary vascular diseases and is an active interventional and structural cardiologist. She also leads basic research on the biology of vascular occlusions, with a special focus on chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension. Prof. Lang is a Member of the Austrian and European societies of cardiology, member of senate of the Medical University of Vienna and Editor for Pulmonary Circulation, the European Heart Journal and Atherosclerosis.

Eicke Latz

BonnGermany

Eicke Latz studied medicine in Göttingen and Berlin and worked as an intensive care physician at the Charité Hospital in Berlin. Starting in 2000, he received post-doctoral training at Boston University and UMass Medical School, joining the UMass faculty in 2006. In 2010, he returned to Germany and founded the Institute of Innate Immunity at the University of Bonn.

Eicke has co-founded IFM Therapeutics, DiosCure Therapeutics, and a ‘Stealth’ biotech that translate discoveries into novel therapeutics. He has been a highly cited scientist in immunology yearly since 2014, and he has received prestigious awards, such as the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize in 2018.

Peter Libby

BostonUSA

Peter Libby, MD, is a cardiovascular specialist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, and holds the Mallinckrodt Professorship of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. His areas of clinical expertise include general and preventive cardiology. His current major research focus is the role of inflammation in vascular diseases such as atherosclerosis. Dr. Libby has a particular devotion to translate his basic laboratory studies to pilot and then large-scale clinical cardiovascular outcome trials. He instigated and helped to lead the large-scale CANTOS trial that provided clinical validation of the role of inflammation in atherosclerosis.
An author and lecturer on cardiovascular medicine and atherosclerosis, Dr. Libby has published extensively in top ranked medical journals. He is the Editor-in Chief for the 12th edition of Braunwald’s Heart Disease
Dr. Libby earned his medical degree at the University of California, San Diego, and completed his training in internal medicine and cardiology at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (now Brigham and Women’s Hospital). He also holds an honorary MA degree from Harvard University, and Doctorat honoris causa from the Université de Lille, France , Université Laval in Québec, Canada, and Doctor Medicinæ Honoris Causa degree from Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Alice Lichtenstein

BostonUSA

Dr. Lichtenstein is the Stanley N. Gershoff Professor of Nutrition Science and Policy at the Friedman School, and Director of the Cardiovascular Nutrition Laboratory and Senior Scientist at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, at Tufts University. Dr. Lichtenstein’s research focuses on assessing the interplay between diet and cardiometabolic health. Past and current work includes trans fatty acids, soy protein and isoflavones, sterol/stanol esters, novel vegetable oils differing in fatty acid profile and glycemic index. Additional work focuses on population-based studies to assess the relation between nutrient biomarkers and cardiovascular health, and application of systematic review methodology to the field of nutrition. She currently serves as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Lipid Research, and Executive Editor of the Tufts Health and Nutrition Letter. Dr. Lichtenstein received a BS in nutrition from Cornell University, MS in nutrition from the Pennsylvania State University, and MS and Doctorate in Nutritional Biochemistry from Harvard University, and received her post-doctoral training in the field of lipid metabolism at the Cardiovascular Institute at Boston University School of Medicine. In 2005 Dr. Lichtenstein was awarded an honorary doctoral degree from the medical faculty of the University of Kuopio in Finland.

Ruth Loos

CopenhagenDenmark

Ruth Loos is Vice Executive Director and Group Leader of the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research (CBMR) at the University of Copenhagen, and part-time professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. She has almost two decades of experience in researching the genetic causes of obesity. As a founding member of the GIANT (Genetic Investigation of ANTropometric traits) consortium, she has pioneered many of the large-scale gene-discovery efforts that have thus far identified more than 1,000 obesity-associated loci.
She has a particular interest in studying more refined adiposity phenotypes, composite phenotypes (of multiple adiposity-related traits) and subtypes of obesity to reveal new biology that has not been uncovered by traditional obesity outcomes. Ruth collaborates with bioinformaticians, molecular biologists and physiologists to bridge the translation gap from variant to function.
As more and more GWAS loci are being discovered, she examines whether genotype information can be used to identify subtypes of obesity, to predict who is at risk of becoming obese or to prescribe tailored prevention and treatment strategies in the context of precision diagnosis, prevention and treatment.

Francois Mach

GenevaSwitzerland

Prof. François Mach is full Professor of cardiology at Geneva University Hospital and head of Cardiology Department since 2006. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Prof. Peter Libby, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston (1995-1999). Between 2012-14, he was the President of the Swiss Society of Cardiology. He is the author of more than 500 high impact factor publications. As director of the atherosclerosis basic science laboratory, he and his research group have substantially contributed to a better clarification of the inflammatory mechanisms underlying atherosclerosis and its acute complications, both in human cohorts and animal studies. For several years now, he has also been strongly implicated in clinical research in the field of prevention, especially lipidology, by contributing to the design and completion of several clinical research projects and multi-center studies. He is also responsible of several Swiss cohorts of atherothrombotic patients, and is one of the 3 co-chairs of the ESC/EAS 2019 Lipid Guidelines, as well as co-chair of the ESC 2021 Prevention Guidelines.

Kevin Maki

AddisonUSA

Kevin C Maki, PhD is the Founder and Chief Scientist for Midwest Biomedical Research (Chicago, Illinois) and MB Clinical Research (Bonita Springs, Florida), divisions of MB Clinical Research and Consulting, LLC. He specializes in the design and conduct of clinical studies in human nutrition, metabolism, and chronic disease risk factor management. Dr Maki is also Adjunct Professor and Dean’s Eminent Scholar in the Department of Applied Health Science at the Indiana University School of Public Health, Bloomington, Indiana. He is a Fellow of the National Lipid Association, The Obesity Society, and the American College of Nutrition, as well as a certified Clinical Lipid Specialist. He is past President of the Board of Governors for the Accreditation Council for Clinical Lipidology and is President-elect of the National Lipid Association. Dr. Maki is also an inaugural member of the Statistical Review Board of the American Society for Nutrition.

Dr. Maki has participated in more than 300 clinical trials and observational studies as an investigator, consultant, or statistician, and published more than 300 scientific papers, books, and book chapters. He earned a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Illinois at Chicago’s School of Public Health, and an MS in Preventive and Rehabilitative Cardiovascular Health from Benedictine University.

Manual Mayr

LondonUK

Manuel Mayr qualified in Medicine from the University of Innsbruck (Austria) in 1999. He then moved to London to undertake a PhD on combining proteomics and metabolomics. Upon completion of his PhD in 2005, he achieved promotion to Professor at King’s College London in 2011. In 2017, he has been awarded a British Heart Foundation Personal Chair for Cardiovascular Proteomics.

His group uses proteomics in combination with other -omics technologies to integrate biological information in disease-specific networks that drive pathophysiological changes. While studying molecular interactions has been a research focus for many years and has provided important insight into biology, the attention has now shifted towards a more integrative network biology approach (Nat Rev Cardiol. 2021;18(5):313-330).

His academic achievements have been recognised by the inaugural Michael Davies Early Career Award of the British Cardiovascular Society (2007), the inaugural Bernard and Joan Marshall Research Excellence Prize of the British Society for Cardiovascular Research (2010), the Outstanding Achievement Award by the European Society of Cardiology Council for Basic Cardiovascular Science (2013) and the President’s Distinguished Lecture of the International Society for Heart Research (2022).

Alberto Mello e Silva

LisbonPortugal

ALBERTO MELLO E SILVA
. Medical graduation, Faculdade de Medicina de Lisboa, Portugal
. Specialist in Internal Medicine and Cardiology, by Portuguese Medical Association
. European Hypertension Specialist, issued by European Society of Hypertension (2001)
. Director of Service – Medicine, Hospital de Egas Moniz, Centro Hospitalar Lisboa Ocidental, a general hospital affiliated with NOVA MEDICAL SCHOOL in Lisbon, Portugal (2003-2018)
. Invited Assistant Professor of Medicine, NOVA MEDICAL SCHOOL in Lisbon, Portugal
(2012-2018)
. President of the Portuguese Society of Atherosclerosis (2011-2018)
. Congress Chair of European Atherosclerosis Society (EAS) 2018 on May 5-8, 2018
. Member of the Executive Committee for the Regional Federation for Europe of the
International Atherosclerosis Society (2017-2019) (2019-2021)
. Cardiologist, Hospitais do Grupo Luz Saúde, Portugal (since 2008)

Claudia Monaco

OxfordUK

Claudia Monaco trained as a Cardiologist (1998) and PhD (2001) with Professor Attilio Maseri at the Catholic University of Rome, Italy. During this inspiring time, I was privileged to get involved in the field of inflammation in atherosclerosis when it was still in its infancy with the identification of a cytokine-dependent systemic inflammatory response in patients with acute coronary syndromes. After my PhD studies I moved to the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, Imperial College London to work with Professor Marc Feldmann to understand the drivers of tissue inflammation in atherosclerosis. She became a Clinical lecturer/Group Leader at Imperial College in 2003 and moved to the University of Oxford in 2013. Her research demonstrated that human atherosclerotic disease shares features of persistent or chronic inflammation with classic inflammatory diseases, including the dysregulated production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, and that such inflammation is dependent on the innate Toll-like receptors. More recently, her lab was one of the first to apply single cell biology techniques to the study of the vascular tissue immune system. I currently head the “Cardiovascular inflammation” Lab, and the Mass Cytometry Facility at NDORMS, Oxford, with a focus on vascular single cell biology.

Kathryn Moore

BostonUSA

Dr. Kathryn Moore is the Jean and David Blechman Professor of Cardiology, and the Director of the Cardiovascular Research Center at New York University Grossman School of Medicine. She is internationally recognized for her research on the molecular pathogenesis of cardiometabolic diseases, and the roles that non-coding RNAs and dysregulated immune responses play in those settings. By forging new links between lipids, metabolism and innate immunity, her discoveries have revealed fundamental insights into pathways that regulate cholesterol homeostasis and vascular inflammation.

Dr. Moore’s contributions to the fields of innate immunity and vascular biology have been recognized by numerous awards, including the NIH’s Outstanding Investigator Award, the American Heart Association’s Distinguished Scientist Award, and election to the National Academy of Sciences USA.

Steve Nicholls

MelbourneAustralia

Steve Nicholls is Director of Monash Heart and Professor of Cardiology and Inaugural Director of the Victorian Heart Institute at Monash University. He is a preventive cardiologist with research interests in the biological mechanisms linking cardiometabolic risk factors to atherosclerosis, plaque imaging and leadership of clinical trials of novel cardioprotective strategies. He is President-elect of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand, President of the Australian Atherosclerosis Society, Founding Chair of the Asia Pacific Cardiometabolic Consortium and Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.

Danilo Norata

MilanoItaly

Giuseppe Danilo Norata, Prof, PhD, is Full Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Milan, Italy, and is Honorary Senior Lecturer at the William Harvey Research Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine & Dentistry Queen Mary University, London, UK. He graduated in 1996 in Pharmacy, received the PhD in Experimental Medicine at the University of Siena in 2002 and was a post-doc from 2002 to 2004 at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. His research activity is devoted to the investigation of molecular mechanisms involved in vascular and cardiometabolic diseases and their connection with immunometabolism from a translational perspective. He coordinates the activities at the Laboratory of Lipoproteins, Atherosclerosis and Immunity at the Department of Pharmacological and Biomolecular Sciences in Milan and those of the Laboratory of Cardiovascular Genetics and Genomics at the Center for The Study of Atherosclerosis at the Bassini Hospital. He published more than 16 papers in the field of cardiovascular and immunometabolic diseases and participated as speaker and/or chairmen in several national and international meetings. Giuseppe Danilo Norata is Academic Editor of PLOS ONE and is a member of the Editorial Board of Nutrition Metabolism and Cardiovascular Disease. He is a member of the European Lipoprotein Club Organizing Committee, of the Faculty of the International Atherosclerosis Research School and of the European Working Group on Immunometabolism.

Katariina Öörni

HelsinkiFinland

Katariina Öörni leads the Atherosclerosis Research Laboratory at the Wihuri Research Institute in Helsinki, Finland. Her research interests are related to plasma lipoproteins and their role in atherogenesis.

Carl Orringer

MiamiUSA

Carl E. Orringer, MD, FACC, FNLA is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, Florida and Director of the Preventive Cardiovascular Medicine Program for the University of Miami Health System. He was the first recipient of the Harrington Chair in Preventive Cardiovascular Medicine at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio. He is a past president and fellow of the National Lipid Association. He has served as Editor-in-Chief of three editions of the National Lipid Association Self-Assessment Program and is the author of the Lipid Management section of the American College of Cardiology Self Assessment Program through 2023. He is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology and is a co-author of American College of Cardiology Expert Consensus Decision Pathway documents on the Management of Hypertriglyceridemia in 2021 and on Non-Statin Therapies in 2022. He served as a member of Writing Committee of the 2018 American Heart Association/ACC/Multi-Society Guideline on the Treatment of Blood Cholesterol and has authored or co-authored multiple National Lipid Association Scientific Statements. He is an Associate Editor of the European Heart Journal.

Oner Ozdogan

IzmirTurkey

Oner OZDOGAN, MD, is a Professor of Cardiology at the University of Health Sciences, Izmir Faculty of Medicine, Turkey. He works as the director of the Cardiology Department at the Faculty of Medicine. He is the president of Preventive Cardiology and Atherosclerosis working group of Turkish Society of Cardiology. He was also the past president of Lipid working group of Turkish Society of Cardiology.

Gerald Pasterkamp

UtrechtThe Netherlands

Gerard Pasterkamp, MD, is Professor of Experimental Cardiology and his research is embedded in the laboratory of clinical chemistry, UMC Utrecht, the Netherlands. The laboratory houses researchers and technicians that cover a broad range of activities. His research interests are in the field of cardiovascular biology and more specifically innovation in biomarkers and drug targets. The research group houses the largest atherosclerotic plaque biobank worldwide: Arhero-Express including >4000 patients This biobank has generated new insights into determinants of plaque destabilisation. For example, it has been demonstrated that local plaque characteristics are strongly associated with long term outcome but also that plaque characteristics have rapidly changed in the last decade. The laboratory now invests in the excavation of genetic determinants of atherosclerotic plaque characteristics. Recent insights in the mechanisms of atherosclerosis progression have been obtained by executing whole genome SNP analyses and plaque DNA methylation as well as single cell sequencing.
Private public research projects are one of the main core-activities within the laboratory of experimental cardiology. Within the laboratories spin off activities are stimulated. He coordinates national and EU based consortia with the aim to unravel biomarkers and mechanisms of atherosclerotic disease. His translational profile is noted in the private public consortia he is involved in. He is supervising three public private grants that have been rewarded with the aim to develop novel biomarkers and imaging technology to detect cardiac ischemia and endothelial dysfunction. In 2018 he obtained a LeDucq grant together with Prof G Owens (Virginia University) on the role of smooth muscle cell plasticity in the atherosclerotic plaque.

Carlo Patrono

RomaItaly

Carlo Patrono, MD is Adjunct Professor of Pharmacology at the Catholic University School of Medicine in Rome, Italy and at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Patrono’s main research interest is in the study of platelet activation and inhibition in atherothrombosis and colorectal cancer. His research has contributed characterizing the human pharmacology of aspirin as an inhibitor of platelet COX-1, and providing the basis for the development of low-dose aspirin as an antithrombotic agent.
He is an elected member of the Association of American Physicians, Royal College of Physicians, Academia Europaea and Accademia dei Lincei.
He shared with Dr. Garret FitzGerald the 2013 Grand Prix Scientifique, awarded by the Institut de France, for his work on low-dose aspirin.
He is a Section Editor of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and Deputy Editor of the European Heart Journal.
Dr. Patrono has published over 250 research articles with over 75,000 citations and an h-index of 110.
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=oBtc-DMAAAAJ&hl=en

Frederick Raal

JohannesburgSouth Africa

Professor Raal is currently Professor and Head of the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, as well as Director of the Carbohydrate and Lipid Metabolism Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
He has authored or co-authored over 300 original articles and book chapters and has reviewed for several international journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, the Lancet, Circulation, and Atherosclerosis. He is on the Editorial Board of Atherosclerosis and is a Board member of the International Atherosclerosis Society.
Professor Raal is particularly interested in lipids and lipid disorders and has been integrally involved in the management of familial dyslipidaemia, particularly heterozygous and homozygous familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH). The major focus of his research remains the clinical, biochemical, genetic and therapeutic management of this condition and he continues to conduct studies with novel therapies such as PCSK9-inhibitors and ANGPTL3-inhibitors in this patient group.

Sanjay Rajagopalan

ClevelandUSA

Dr. Sanjay Rajagopalan is the Chief of Cardiovascular Medicine, University Hospitals Harrington Heart and Vascular Institute, Herman Hellerstein, MD Professor of Cardiovascular Research and Director of the Case Cardiovascular Research Institute at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH. Dr. Rajagopalan is among an elite group of physician scientists whose work has help transform global perceptions and understanding of the impact of environmental risk factors on cardiovascular disease. He has additionally made seminal contributions towards the development of next generation therapeutic modalities for cardiovascular disease and is a leading authority in advancing innovative approaches for the imaging of complex cardiovascular disorders. Dr. Rajagopalan’s laboratory has been continually funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Rajagopalan is an elected member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI), American Association of Physicians (AAP), Association of University Cardiologists (AUC), the Association of Professors of Cardiology (APC) and is the recipient of the American College of Cardiology’s Distinguished Scientist Award (Translational Domain). Dr. Rajagopalan has published over than 400 original peer reviewed research publications in journals such as JAMA, New England Journal of Medicine, Circulation, Journal of Clinical Investigation and Circulation Research in addition to more than 300 invited editorials and reviews. He has served as an editor for at least two textbooks and several monographs on vascular disease and atherosclerosis.

Kausik Ray

LondonUnited Kingdom

Kausik Ray is currently Professor of Public Health, Deputy Director of Imperial Clinical Trials Unit and Head of Commercial Trials within the Department of Public Health and Primary Care, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, Consultant Cardiologist and Chief Clinical Officer and Head of Trials –Discover Now as well as NIHR ARC National Lead of Cardiovascular Disease. Professor Ray received his medical education (MB ChB, 1991) at the University of Birmingham Medical School, his MD (2004) at the University of Sheffield, a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School and finally an MPhil in epidemiology (2007) from the University of Cambridge.
A Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, the European Society of Cardiology, the American Heart Association and the Royal College of Physicians, Kausik Ray is also a member of the British Cardiovascular Society and President of the European Atherosclerosis Society, also serving on the EAS Consensus panel and EAS Executive Committee. Professor Ray has either been the National Lead Investigator, Principal Investigator, or served on committees for several major medical trials, as well as international registries and is currently involved in 8 ongoing trials in lipids and diabetes and the PI for ORION 1, 3, 11 assessing PCSK9 inhibition through RNA interference and BETONMACE assessing BET protein inhibition in patients with ACS.
Professor Ray’s research interests have focused on the prevention of coronary disease with a focus on lipids, diabetes, biomarkers and risk prediction. He has an H index of 87, an i10 of 220 and over 92,000 citations for his work in journals such as New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, JAMA, European Heart Journal, Circulation and JACC. He has also been included in the Clarivate Analytics’ list of the top 1% most cited authors in all of global medicine in 2018, 2019 and 2020. Key original contributions which have influenced European and American guidelines include demonstrating the early benefits of statin therapy post ACS, the impact of more/less intensive glycaemic control on CVD and the risks/benefits of aspirin therapy in primary prevention. Recently, his work on statins and diabetes risk led to a global label change for statins by the FDA and EMEA. Currently Professor Ray leads the EAS FH Studies collaboration which is the first global registry of FH which includes 70 countries and 62,000 cases, as well as being the Senior PI for the TOGETHER study looking at cardiometabolic risk in the vascular health checks in 250,000 people in London.

Katey Rayner

OttawaCanada

Katey Rayner is an Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute and the Assistant Dean of Research in the Faculty of Medicine in Ottawa, Canada. Dr. Rayner’s research program focuses how inflammation underlies common diseases like coronary artery disease, obesity and dementia. Her lab is trying to understand the molecular signals that cause inappropriate activation of the immune system and how we can use this understanding to either better diagnose/identify patients at risk of disease, or to better treat this excess inflammation directly to lower risk of disease.

Dr. Rayner has been recognized with awards such as the Joseph A Vita Award (American Heart Association), Canadian Society for Molecular Biosciences Young Investigator Award, and is a member of the College of the Royal Society of Canada. Dr. Rayner’s research is currently funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the European Cardiovascular Research Network.

Julie Redfern

WestmeadAustralia

Julie Redfern is a Professor of Public Health and the Research Academic Director (Researcher Development Output and Impact) in the Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney; a practicing Physiotherapist; and Professorial Fellow at The George Institute for Global Health. She has been a Chief Investigator on research grants totalling $25M in the past 5 years and has published over 190 manuscripts and 4 book chapters. Professor Redfern has held continuous research fellowships from the National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia) and the National Heart Foundation of Australia. She has over15 years of experience developing, testing and implementing scalable strategies to close evidence-practice gaps and improve health outcomes for people with chronic disease. Professor Redfern also has expertise in multidisciplinary and translational research and is an advocate for effective secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease. Professor Redfern currently holds a NHMRC Career Development Fellowship (Investigator Grant Leadership Level 2 commencing in 2022, $AU2.9M) and is CIA on a NHMRC Synergy Grant (SOLVE-CHD, $AU5M). She is Co-Chair of the Clinical and Preventative Cardiology Council of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand.

Paul Ridker

BostonUSA

Paul M. Ridker is Director of the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Eugene Braunwald Professor of Medicine at Harvard School of Medicine (HMS). His clinical interests include coronary artery disease and the underlying causes and prevention of atherosclerotic disease. His research focuses on inflammatory mediators of heart disease and the molecular and genetic epidemiology of haemostasis and thrombosis, with particular interests in biomarkers for coronary disease, “predictive” medicine, and the underlying causes and prevention of atherosclerotic disease.

Michael Roden

DüsseldorfGermany

Dr. Michael Roden is Chair/Professor of Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases as well as Director of the Department of Endocrinology&Diabetology, Heinrich-Heine University, University Hospital Düsseldorf, and CEO of the German Diabetes Center (DDZ). He was trained at University Vienna and Yale University. His translational research addresses insulin resistance and energy metabolism, specifically using noninvasive technologies, as well as diabetes and its comorbidities, e.g. fatty liver disease. He has published 600+ peer-reviewed papers, received several awards (e.g. Oskar-Minkowski Prize, G. B. Morgagni Gold Medal, Paul-Langerhans Medal) and holds honorary doctorates of the Universities of Athens and Belgrade. Prof. Roden was President of the Central European Diabetes Association, the Austrian Diabetes Association and currently serves as Chairman of the Europ. Federation f.t. Study of Diabetes (EFSD). In 2016, he was appointed by the President of Germany as member of the German Council of Science and Humanities and became head of its Committee Medicine.

Raul Santos

São PauloBrazil

Raul D. Santos MD, PhD, MSc is Director of the Lipid Clinic of the Heart Institute (InCor) and associate professor at the Cardiopneumology Department the University of São Paulo Medical School, Brazil. He is the clinical coordinator of the “Hipercol Brasil” Familial Hypercholesterolemia (FH) Genetic Cascade Screening Program. He is also Researcher at the Academic Research Organization of the Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein in São Paulo. After completing his training in cardiology Dr. Santos obtained master and PHD degrees in food science at the University of Sao Paulo. His research interests include lipid metabolism, severe forms of genetic dyslipidemias, especially familial hypercholesterolemia and HDL deficiency, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, imaging in atherosclerosis focusing on detection of vascular calcification and novel therapies for dyslipidemias. He is a past president of the International Atherosclerosis Society (IAS). In 2021 he was qualified as a Highly Cited Researcher (0.1% top researchers) in the field of Cross-Field by Clarivate Analytics.

Joseph Saseen

AuroraUSA

Joseph Saseen, PharmD, is Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs and Professor of Clinical Pharmacy and a Professor of Family Medicine. He also served as Vice Chair of the Department of Clinical Pharmacy for 10 years.

Dr. Saseen is President of the National Lipid Association (NLA). He is a fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy, American Society of Health-system Pharmacists, American Pharmacists Association, the American Heart Association, and the NLA. He is board certified as a Pharmacotherapy Specialist and an Ambulatory Care Pharmacists, and is a certified as a Clinical Lipid Specialist.

Dr. Saseen has responsibilities for enhancing the school’s clinical enterprise, further developing sustainable clinical service models, and advocating for advancing the practice of pharmacy in the State of Colorado. He is a clinical pharmacist at the University of Colorado Health focusing on cardiovascular risk reduction and population health. Dr. Saseen teaches cardiovascular pharmacotherapy and other topics related to primary care, and is the PGY2 Ambulatory Care residency program director. His scholarly work includes almost 200 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters.

Patrick Schrauwen

MaastrichtThe Netherlands

Patrick Schrauwen, PhD is Professor of Metabolic aspects of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus at the NUTRIM school for Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism. Dr. Schrauwen’s research focuses on the study of the relation between mitochondrial function and ectopic fat storage in muscle and liver and type 2 diabetes/insulin resistance. Dr. Schrauwen combines cellular and molecular biology techniques, state-of-the-art MRI/MRS technology (which are developed within the team) with human clinical intervention trails. Recently, he has been focussing on 24h metabolism in humans, among others showing that skeletal muscle mitochondrial function shows 24h rhythmicity in human volunteers. For his research, he was awarded among others the Corona Gallina Award for excellence in diabetes research in 2013 and the MINKOWSKI Award of the EASD in 2016. He is a board member of the European Association for the study of Diabetes and associate editor of ‘Obesity’. Dr. Schrauwen has published over 250 papers in international journals.

Giorgio Sesti

RomaItaly

Giorgio Sesti is Full Professor of Internal Medicine, and Head of the Division of Internal Medicine at Sapienza University of Rome. Dr. Sesti received his medical degree with honours from the University of Rome La Sapienza Medical School and his Endocrinology Specialty Degree from the University of Rome Tor Vergata.
Dr. Sesti has authored or co-authored more than 330 publications in peer-reviewed journals with a cumulative impact factor of 2466 and a publication record of 23577 citations and a Hirsch (h) factor of 75. His research focus is in the area of metabolic diseases and related complications. He was awarded the Schering Award from Italian Endocrine Society for investigator under 40 years in 1999, the SID-Alcmeone Award, the Italian Diabetes Society’s highest scientific award for Investigator under 45 years which recognizes outstanding scientific achievement in the field of diabetes in 2002, the SID-Celso Medal for Scientific Achievement Award, the Italian Diabetes Society’s highest scientific award for Investigator who has made significant, long-term contributions to diabetes research, education and awareness in 2010.
Dr Sesti has served the Italian Diabetes Society as President from 2016 to 2018, and is currently the President of the Italian Society of Internal Medicine.

Philippe Gabriel Steg

ParisFrance

– Chief, Department of Cardiology, Hôpital Bichat, Paris, France.
– Vice President for research of the board of the Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris network.
– Professor of Cardiology at Université de Paris.
– Chair of the FACT (French Alliance for cardiovascular Clinical Trials) academic research network.
Dr Steg has experience as a clinical trialist in coronary artery disease, diabetes and antithrombotics and has authored > 1 000 peer-reviewed articles. His H-Index is 116 and he has > 76 000 citations. He has been ”highly cited researcher” every year since 2014. He is Senior Associate Editor for Circulation.

Lale Tokgözoğlu

AnkaraTurkey

S. Lale Tokgözoğlu, MD, FACC, FESC is Professor of Cardiology at Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey. She is currently the immediate Past-President of the European Atherosclerosis Society and Deputy Editor of the European Heart Journal. She chaired the ‘Atherosclerosis and Vascular Biology Working Group of the European Society of Cardiology’ between 2008 and 2010. Prof.  Tokgözoğlu has served on the Board of the Turkish Society of Cardiology and was elected to be the first female President of the Society in its history, between 2014-2016. During that time, she worked with the Ministry of Health to develop ‘Heart Health policies’ and strategies. She also chaired the Dyslipidaemia Working Group of the Turkish Society of Cardiology. She has contributed to several Guidelines and Consensus Papers on dyslipidaemia and Preventive Cardiology both in Europe and nationally. She was a member of the Steering Committee of the EUROASPIRE III-V studies which were the landmark studies defining preventive measures in Europe. She has also served on the Board of the Prevention Association as well as different committees of the European Society of Cardiology including the Fellowship and Training Committee, the Education Committee and currently the Research and Grants Committee. She is a member of the Science Academy and a founding member of the Atherosclerosis Research and Education Society in Turkey. She is also a founding member of the Department of Noncommunicable diseases in Hacettepe University. She serves on the Scientific and Research Council of Turkey Working Group on women researchers.

Awards:

Metrodora Award Global Leader in Science and Health 2020

Istanbul Medical Association Science Award in 2019

Paul Dudley White Science team award AHA 2017

Prof. Dr. Şeref Zileli Resident of the Year” Award in 1987

Young Investigator Award of the Turkish Society of Cardiology in 1994

Alexandros Tselepis

IoanninaGreece

Alexandros D. Tselepis is Professor of Biochemistry-Clinical Chemistry in the Chemistry Department, University of Ioannina, Greece. Professor Tselepis was born in Heraklion Crete in 1954. He graduated in Pharmacy from the University of Thessaloniki and in Medicine from the University of Ioannina. He obtained his PhD in Biochemistry from the Department of Chemistry, University of Ioannina. His research work continued with a Postdoctoral Fellowship (Fogarty, NIH) in the Pathology Department, University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, TX, USA. From 1994 to 1999 he took a sabbatical leave (3 months per year) as invited researcher in INSERM U321 Paris, France. Professor Tselepis is currently Director of the Atherothrombosis Research Centre (http://atherothrombosis.lab.uoi.gr) and President of the Interdepartmental Postgraduate Programme “Medical Chemistry” of the University of Ioannina (http://medchem.ac.uoi.gr). Prof Tselepis is President of the European and Mediterranean League against Thrombotic Diseases (EMLTD) and the Institute for the Study and Education on Thrombosis and Antithrombotic Therapy (ISETAT). He is also a Member of the Hellenic Atherosclerosis Society Executive Committee and the Educational Committee of the European Atherosclerosis Society (EAS). His main research interests concern the role of platelets and inflammation in the development and progression of atherosclerotic plaque as well as its thrombotic complications. Professor Tselepis has supervised 25 PhDs, 35 MSc and 10 postdocs and he has an over than 30 years experience in managing international and national research projects. Currently, Prof Tselepis has 273 publications in peer reviewed journals and more than 10,000 citations, whereas his h-index is 47, according to Scopus.

Sotirios Tsimikas

San DiegoUSA

Dr. Tsimikas is Professor of Medicine and the Director of Vascular Medicine at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine. His education and training included obtaining his MD degree from the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Internal Medicine training at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, and separate fellowships in Cardiovascular Medicine, Atherosclerosis and Molecular Medicine and Interventional Cardiology at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) Medical Center. Dr. Tsimikas is the Founding Director of the Vascular Medicine Program withing the Cardiovascular Medicine Division. In 2014, he established the concpet of a dedicated “Lp(a) Clinic” at UCSD. Dr. Tsimikas’ research interests are translational in scope and focus on two major areas: 1-“biotheranostics”- biomarkers, molecular imaging and therapeutics targeted to oxidation-specific epitopes, and 2- Lp(a) pathophysiology and therapeutics. He has published in all of the major medical journals, including NEJM, Lancet, Nature, Cell and has over 300 original manuscripts, review articles and book chapters. He currently has a dual appointment at University of California San Diego Medical School and as Senior Vice President of Global Cardiovascular Development at Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Carlsbad, CA. He is co-inventor of 13 issued patents, and co-founder of Oxitope, Inc, Kleanthi Diagnostics and Covicept Therapeutics.

Bart van de Sluis

GroningenThe Netherlands

Prof. dr. Bart van de Sluis graduated in Biology from the Utrecht University, the Netherlands. In 1998, he was appointed as a PhD student at the Department of Human Genetics at the Utrecht University, the Netherlands, under the supervision of Prof. Cisca Wijmenga. He received his PhD degree (cum laude, highest distinction in the Netherlands) in 2002 on the basis of the identification of a copper toxicosis gene in Bedlington terriers. As a postdoctoral fellow, he continued his scientific career in the lab of Dr. Paul Liu at the Genetics and Molecular Biology Branch at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NIH, Bethesda, USA). He worked on a project to identify novel players in leukemogenesis and hematopoiesis. Mid-2004, he returned back to Utrecht as a post-doc on a joined project of Dr. L. Klomp and Prof. C. Wijmenga. In March 2008, Prof. dr. van de Sluis moved to Groningen to set up his own research group to better understand how the trafficking of receptors (including members of the LDLR family) in the cell is regulated, and how inflammation is kept under control, with the focus on the NF-kB signaling pathway. He is using cellular and mouse models to study these different processes in great detail. In addition, Prof. dr. van de Sluis runs a mouse transgenic mouse facility at the RUG/UMCG to generate new mouse models using different approaches, such as the CRISPR/Cas methodology. In the recent years, he is awarded with several grants, including a Dutch NWO-ALW grant, ITN trainingsnetwork grant and participates as a PI in a Dutch and European consortium.

Arnold von Eckardstein

ZurichSwitzerland

Arnold von Eckardstein studied medicine in Giessen and Kiel and then specialized in laboratory medicine and clinical chemistry in Frankfurt and Münster (Germany). Since 2001, he is professor at the medical faculty of the University of Zurich and the director of the Institute of Clinical Chemistry of the University Hospital of Zurich (Switzerland; http://www.en.ikc.usz.ch/Pages/default.aspx). His main research interests include risk factors and biomarkers of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases as well as structure, function, and metabolism of high density lipoproteins (HDL) and sphingolipids. He has published about 400 original and review papers in international peer reviewed scientific journals. Arnold von Eckardstein is the Editor-in-Chief of Atherosclerosis and current member of the Editorial Boards of Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology; BBA Molecular Biology of Lipids; Cardiovascular Research, and European Heart Journal. Previously, he served as the Chairman of the European Lipoprotein Club, the Swiss and German Atherosclerosis Societies, and the Swiss Society of Clinical Chemistry as well as the Secretary of the European Atherosclerosis Society.

Michal Vrablik

Praha 2Czech Republic

Michal Vrablik M.D., Ph.D. is a Professor of Internal Medicine at the 1st Faculty of Medicine, Charles University in Prague, the Czech Republic. His main interests include preventive cardiology, clinical lipidology, CVD risk reduction strategies.
He is the chairman of the Czech Atherosclerosis Society, member of board of the Czech Society of Internal Medicine and the chairman of the Czech Association of Preventive Cardiology of the Czech Society of Cardiology. He is the head of the National centre of the FH screening MedPed program.
He served as a member of the Executive Committee of the European Atherosclerosis Society between 2012 and 2016.He closely cooperates with the International Atherosclerosis Society being the chair of IAS Regional Federation for Europe since January 2019. Since 2010 Dr. Vrablik has co-organized International Atherosclerosis Research School endorsed by the EAS and IAS.
Dr. Vrablik has authored and co-authored more than 400 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals. He is the sole author of three monographs and of 25 book chapters. He is also a member of editorial board as well as a reviewer for several national and international journals.

Nathan Wong

IrvineUSA

Dr. Nathan Wong is a cardiovascular epidemiologist, specialist in preventive cardiology, and Professor and Director, Heart Disease Prevention Program, Division of Cardiology at the University of California, Irvine, with joint appointments in epidemiology and UCLA and UC Irvine and population health and disease prevention at UC Irvine. He holds MPH and PhD degrees in epidemiology from Yale University and is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, American Heart Association, National Lipid Association, American Society for Preventive Cardiology (ASPC), and International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences. He is currently president of the Interamerican Heart Foundation serving Latin America, and is a past president of the ASPC and Pacific Lipid Association. Dr. Wong has primary research interests include subclinical atherosclerosis, where he did some of the original work with coronary calcium and cardiovascular disease over 30 years ago, and epidemiology and management of dyslipidemia and diabetes in relation to cardiovascular disease. He has been an investigator / collaborator with many NIH studies including the Framingham Heart Study, Women’s Health Initiative, and Multiethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, and has conducted numerous clinical trials involving dyslipidemia. He has authored over 400 papers and co-edited seven textbooks, including the Braunwald Companion on Preventive Cardiology and two editions of the ASPC Manual of Preventive Cardiology. He is also on the editorial board of several cardiology and diabetes-related journals, including serving as co-editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Preventive Cardiology. He is also an honorary member of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and recent recipient of the ASPC Joseph Stokes MD Award for lifetime achievement in preventive cardiology and lifetime achievement award in clinical research from the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine.

Salim Yusuf

HamiltonCanada

Salim Yusuf is Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics and Executive Director of the Population Health Research Institute, McMaster University, Chief Scientist at Hamilton Health Sciences, Canada, and Past-President of the World Heart Federation. His research over the last 35 years has substantially improved the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease, thereby benefiting millions of people. He coordinated the ISIS trial (which set the structure for future international collaborative work in cardiovascular disease) and served on the steering committees for all subsequent ISIS trials. In 1984, he moved to the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA, where he developed and led the SOLVD trial (establishing the value of ACE-inhibitors in heart failure and left ventricular dysfunction) and the DIG trial (clarifying the role of digitalis). In 1992 he moved to McMaster University and as Founding Director of the Population Health Research Institute at Hamilton Health Sciences established an international programme of research in cardiovascular diseases and prevention. He currently leads the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study in 25 high, middle and low income countries in 5 continents. Dr Yusuf has received the Lifetime Research Achievement award of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society, the Paul Wood Silver Medal of the British Cardiac Society, the European Society of Cardiology Gold medal, the American Heart Association Clinical Research Award, the Eugene Braunwald Lecturer of the American College of Cardiology, as well as over 50 international and national awards for research. He has been inducted into the Royal Society of Canada and Canadian Medical Hall of Fame, appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada, and received the Canada Gairdner Wightman Award. He was elected a Fellow of the Islamic World Academy of Sciences in 2017.

Laurent Yvant-Charvet

NiceFrance

Dr. Laurent Yvan-Charvet obtained his Ph.D. in Endocrinology in 2005 from the University of Paris XI, France. His research work at Columbia University has been mainly focused on how regulation of inflammation and stem cell biology by cholesterol efflux pathways affect cardiovascular diseases. He was the recipient of the Roger Davis Award in 2010, finalist of the I.H. Page Young Investigator Award in 2011, recipient of the EAS young Investigator Award in 2013 and the Daniel Steinberg Early Career Investigator Award in 2015. After a contribution to the development of new therapeutics for cardiovascular diseases at Pfizer, his current research interest as a Director of Research and group leader lies in hematopoietic cell metabolism – a new area of research for cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases. This work is supported by two most prominent French and European fundings: an Atip-Avenir excellence program and an European ERC consolidator excellence program.

Alberto Zambon

PadovaItaly

Professor Alberto Zambon received his MD degree in 1988 from the University of Padua. He is board certified in endocrinology and metabolism (1993), and holds a PhD in gerontology from the University of Padua (1998).
Professor Zambon was a Post-Doctoral Fellow in Endocrinology and Metabolism at the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Nutrition, School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, (1991-1993 and again 1995-1998), where, in 1999, he was appointed Acting Assistant Professor of Medicine and currently holds a position of Affiliate Assistant Professor of Medicine.
Professor Zambon received an AHA fellowship award (1996-97), the 1997 Young Faculty Award of the Western Society for Clinical Investigation (US), the Paul Beeson Physician Faculty Scholarship of American Federation For Aging Research (1998-2001), the Merck Young Investigators on Lipid Research Award for outstanding research contribution (1999) and the Award for Outstanding Scientific Contributions in Medical Research (2000 and 2001) from the School of Medicine, University of Padua, Italy. His main clinical interests are in the care of patients with premature atherosclerosis and in patients with lipid disorders. Professor Zambon is currently a member of the national board of the Italian Atherosclerosis Society Foundation. He is a member of the Italian Atherosclerosis Society (SISA), the European Atherosclerosis Society (EAS), Gold Heart Member of the AHA and FAHA, and the International Atherosclerosis Society (IAS). He has served as member of the the International Advisory Board for the XV and XVI International Atherosclerosis Society (IAS) Symposiums. Professor Zambon is currently a member of the Executive Board of the EAS.