Joint sessions

Alberto Zambon

Italy

Prof. Alberto Zambon MD, PhD, FAHA
Associate Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine – DIMED – University of Padua School of Medicine – Italy
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). 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 1995-1998), where, in 1999, he was appointed Acting Assistant Professor of Medicine and currently holds a position of Affiliate Assistant Professor of Medicine. He has authored or co-authored more than 120 peer-reviewed publications and 5 book chapters, and has delivered more than 250 invited lectures.
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). Professor Zambon is currently a member of the EAS Executive Committee.

Gerald Watts

Australia

GERALD F WATTS, DSc DM PhD FRCP FRACP FCSANZ.

Gerald Watts trained at Imperial & King’s College, London University, and was a scholar at Wolfson College, Oxford University. He is a senior consultant physician, specializing in cardiometabolic medicine, and is the current chair of the Familial Hypercholesterolemia Australasia Network.

He leads the Cardiometabolic Service in the Departments of Cardiology and Internal Medicine at Royal Perth Hospital and is Winthrop Professor of Cardiometabolic Medicine in the University of Western Australia. Research interests include fundamental and applied aspects of lipid disorders and cardiovascular prevention, and improving healthcare delivery for patients with high risk dyslipidemias, in particular familial hypercholesterolaemia and hyperchylomicronaemia.

He has supervised several Masters, MD and PhD students and post-doctoral research fellows, and holds several research grants, with multiple international collaborations. Professor Watts has published over 850 articles and other works and is a highly cited author. He is on the editorial board of several journals, including Atherosclerosis, Metabolism, Journal of Clinical Lipidology, American Journal of Preventative Cardiology, Current Opinion in Lipidology, and is editor-in chief of Current Opinion in Endocrinology, Diabetes & Obesity.

Marina Cuchel

USA

Dr. Marina Cuchel is a Research Associate Professor of Medicine, in the Division of Translational Medicine & Human Genetics at the University of Pennsylvania. She graduated from Università degli Studi di Milano (University of Milan) with a MD, and a PhD in Pathophysiology of Aging. She received a Master of Science in Translational Research in 2008 from the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Cuchel is a translational scientist with a longstanding research interest in rare disorders of lipoprotein metabolism and the development of novel therapeutic strategies for these conditions. She has extensive experience in designing and conducting mechanistic studies as well as early phase clinical trials, that have ultimately resulted in regulatory approval of novel treatments for homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (HoFH). She is one of the founders and promoters of an investigator-initiated international registry for HoFH (the HICC registry) that currently contains data from about 1000 patients worldwide.
Dr. Cuchel is a member of the Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics and serves as an Associate Director of ITMAT Education Programs and Program Director for the ITMAT Education Clinical Trialist Training Program at the University of Pennsylvania. She is interested in mentoring students and early career physicians and scientists.

Kirsten Holven

Norway

Professor Kirsten B. Holven is a professor in clinical nutrition at the department of nutrition, University of Oslo and the National Advisory Unit on Familial Hypercholesterolemia (FH), Oslo University Hospital.

She has worked with research relating to patients with FH, for more than 25 years with particular focus on impact on cholesterol exposure in children with FH and women`s health issues focusing on women with FH, pregnancy and breastfeeding related issues, lipids through life cycle and dietary intervention studies.

She is leading the education committee for the five-year master program in clinical nutrition at the faculty of medicine and at the national advisory unit on FH, she is involved in organizing national educational lipid meetings and making information material for both health personal and patients. She collaborates with the Norwegian FH patient organisation and the European FH patient foundation. She is the national contact person for the EAS Lipid Clinic Network and national lead of Norway for the EAS FHSC. She is chairman of the Scandinavian society of atherosclerosis research and is newly-elected as ordinary member responsible for educational activities to the EAS executive committee. She is a member of the Norwegian national nutrition council.