Wolfgang Koenig
Munich, Germany
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.
Monday 23 May
Imaging and biomarkers: Targeting the right patient for the right treatment
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Alberico Catapano
Alberico Catapano
Milan, ItalyFull 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 -
Kausik Ray
Kausik Ray
London, United KingdomKausik 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.
Personalised medicine, in which medical therapy is tailored to specific patient characteristics, is now a clinical reality. Imaging and biomarkers are two of the tools that can help in precisely defining disease mechanisms so that treatments are targeted to patients likely to benefit most.
Imaging already has a pivotal role in diagnosis and risk stratification in atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) prevention. Multimodal cardiovascular imaging can identify vulnerable plaque and may anticipate the beneficial effect of pharmacological agents on clinical endpoints and patients’ potential responsiveness to these agents. Leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning provides objective assessment of the potential clinical benefit to the individual, and thus aids transition to personalised delivery of precision cardiovascular medicine.
Identification and validation of novel biomarkers also provide opportunities for personalising therapy, moving beyond the use of a single marker such as apolipoprotein B/LDL-C to simultaneously target other drivers of atherosclerotic risk. For example, mechanistic studies have shown an interplay between inflammatory processes within the arterial wall or systemic circulation and the cholesterol pathway, linked by activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome. Prevailing evidence suggests that targeting the NLRP3 inflammasome pathway may help to refine phenotypic screening, improve risk stratification, and guide treatment eligibility. Combining multiple markers into a multiplex panel could further improve the application of personalised approaches to ASCVD prevention.
Taken together, integrating information from ‘omics’ technologies with traditional risk factors and imaging data, using artificial intelligence approaches will aid the implementation of specific treatment strategies for precision cardiovascular medicine.
Key references
Sujana C, Salomaa V, Kee F, Costanzo S, Söderberg S, Jordan J, Jousilahti P, Neville C, Iacoviello L, Oskarsson V, Westermann D, Koenig W, Kuulasmaa K, Reinikainen J, Blankenberg S, Zeller T, Herder C, Mansmann U, Peters A, Thorand B; BiomarCaRE Consortium. Natriuretic peptides and risk of type 2 diabetes: results from the biomarkers for cardiovascular risk assessment in Europe (BiomarCaRE) Consortium. Diabetes Care 2021;44:2527-2535.
Batra G, Ghukasyan Lakic T, Lindbäck J, Held C, White HD, Stewart RAH, Koenig W, Cannon CP, Budaj A, Hagström E, Siegbahn A, Wallentin L; STABILITY Investigators. Interleukin 6 and cardiovascular outcomes in patients with chronic kidney disease and chronic coronary syndrome. JAMA Cardiol 2021:e213079.
Wallentin L, Eriksson N, Olszowka M, Grammer TB, Hagström E, Held C, Kleber ME, Koenig W, März W, Stewart RAH, White HD, Åberg M, Siegbahn A. Plasma proteins associated with cardiovascular death in patients with chronic coronary heart disease: A retrospective study. PLoS Med 2021;18(1):e1003513.
