Advanced Clinical Seminars

Kausik Kumar Ray is currently Professor of Public Heath, 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. 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 postdoctoral 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 European Atherosclerosis Society also serving on the EAS Consensus panel. Professor Ray has been the national lead investigator (SC or EC member) for several major medical trials, and is currently involved in 8 ongoing trials in lipids and diabetes and the PI for ORION 1 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 59, an i10 of 123 and over 26,000 citations overall, including over 170 publications in journals including NEJM, Lancet, JAMA, Archives of Internal Medicine, Circulation, the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, and the European Heart Journal. 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 and includes 68 countries, 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.

S. Lale Tokgözoğlu, M.D., F.A.C.C., F.E.S.C. was born in 1959 in Ankara, Turkey. She graduated from the Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine in 1982 on the honor roll. After finishing the Internal Medicine Residency program in the Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine Department of Internal Medicine on 1988, she completed a fellowship program on Cardiology and Atherosclerosis at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. Dr. Tokgözoğlu returned to the Hacettepe University in 1991 to become Associate Professor of Cardiology, and later Professor of Cardiology in 1998.

Prof. Tokgözoğlu has served on the Executive Committee of the European Society of Atherosclerosis as member between 2003 and 2005, as Secretary between 2005-2009, as Vice President of the European Atherosclerosis Society between 2009-2013 and as President since January 2017. She was the President of the 77th European Atherosclerosis Society meeting in Istanbul. She also served as the President of the ‘Atherosclerosis and Vascular Biology Working Group of the European Society of Cardiology’ between 2008 and 2010. She has served for 2 years on board of the European Society of Cardiology Fellowship and Training Committee and for 2 years on the board of the Education Committee. She has also served first as Member-at-Large (Europe) of the Executive Committee of the International Society of Atherosclerosis, then as President of the European Federation of the International Atherosclerosis Society followed by the post of Secretary of the International Society of Atherosclerosis.

Prof. Tokgözoğlu has served on the Board of the Prevention Association of the European Society of Cardiology chairing their Education Committee. She has been a member of the Young Investigator Award Committees of the International Atherosclerosis Society in Stockholm 2000, European Atherosclerosis Society in Prague in 2005 and has served in the Scientific Program Committe of the European Society of Cardiology in 2009, 2010, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018.

Prof. Tokgözoğlu has been elected to the ‘Science Academy in Turkey’ in 2014.

Prof. Tokgözoğlu has served as the Secretary of the Lipid Working Group of the Turkish Society of Cardiology between 1994 and 1996, as President of the Lipid Working Group of the Turkish Society of Cardiology between 1998 and 2000. She has been on the Executive Committee of the Turkish Society of Cardiology for 6 years between 2000 and 2006 and as Vice President between 2008 and 2010 and the President of the Turkish Society of Cardiology between 2014-2016. She was the first female President of this society in its history of 52 years. She has chaired the ‘Research Committee of the Turkish Society of Cardiology’ for 4 years. She is the founding member of the Atherosclerosis Research and Education Society in Turkey. Prof Tokgözoğlu is one of the authors of the ‘National Heart Health Policy’ for Turkey. She has been on the Guideline Committee for the Prevention of Coronary Heart Disease in Turkey in 1995 and in 2002 when the Guidelines were revised.She has also been an author on the EAS/ESC dyslipidemia guideines in 2011. She also received the Paul Dudley White International Science Team Award in 2017.

Prof. Tokgözoğlu is currently a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology and European Society of Cardiology. She is also member of many societies of her specialty. She has won the “Prof. Dr. Şeref Zileli “Resident of the Year” Award in 1987; the Sandoz Scientific Award in 1989 and the “Young Investigator Award” of the Turkish Society of Cardiology in 1994 and second runner up in the Pfizer Cardiology Scientific Award in 1999. She also received the Paul Dudley White International Science Team Award in 2017.

Alberico L. Catapano was born in Milano in 1952. Received degree from the University of Milano in 1975 and a specialization in Clinical Pharmacology in 1979. From 1972 been involved in the field of Atherosclerosis, Lipids, Lipoproteins and genetic dislypidaemias. From the scientific standpoint Prof. Catapano has made landmark observations regarding the role of HSP’s and of Petranxins in Atherogenesis and on the role of HDL in the modulation of the immune response. Alberico Catapano is Full Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Milano, Director of the Laboratory for the study of Lipoproteins and Atherosclerosis and of the Center for the Study of Atherosclerosis of the Italian Society of Atherosclerosis (S.I.S.A.) at the “Bassini” Hospital. He is also the Director of Center of Epidemiology and Preventive Pharmacology of the University of Milano (SEFAP).

Professor Catapano is Past President of the European Atherosclerosis Society (EAS), the Chairman of EAS Educational, Guidelines & Corporate Activities Committees and the Chairman of the EAS/ESC guidelines for the treatment of dyslipoproteinemias. He holds board positions in several learned Scientific Societies including the Italian Society for the Study of Atherosclerosis ; he is also President of the Italian Society of Clinical and Experimental Therapy (SITeCS) and General Director of the SISA Foundation.

He has authored more than 400 scientific papers in peer reviewed journals and of several books in the area of the Atherosclerosis, Lipoproteins and Lipid Metabolism. He is the editor of Atherosclerosis Supplements and also co editor of “Atherosclerosis” and associate editor of other scientific journals.

Marja-Riitta Taskinen is an Emerita Professor of Medicine at the Cardiovascular Research Group, Heart and Lung Centre, at Helsinki University Central Hospital. Currently she leads her research team at Biomedicum Helsinki focusing on lipoprotein kinetics in health and lipid disorders and genetics of familial dyslipidemias. Prof. Taskinen’s team is a member of the Research Program Unit, Diabetes & Obesity Research program at the University of Helsinki.

Professor Taskinen has over 400 original publications and over 100 reviews and chapters. Her outstanding achievements have been recognized by several international awards including the Claude Bernard Award (EASD 2002), Edwin Bierman Award (ADA 2004) and Novartis Award (2006). She has been involved in activities of European Atherosclerosis Society (President of EAS 2006-2008) and IAS (International Atherosclerosis Society) as well as of the EASD and IDF (International Diabetes Federation). Professor Taskinen was a member of the task force on “ESC guidelines on diabetes, pre-diabetes and cardiovascular diseases” developed in collaboration with the EASD in 2013. She also continues as a member of the EAS/ESC Guidelines committee on Management of dyslipidemias and EAS Consensus Paper Panel. Her group is currently a partner in a EU-project RESOLVE (FP7-HEALTH-2012-INNOVATION-1), which started in 2013. Professor Taskinen is also a member of NIH (1R01HL113315-01) funded consortium “Genomic and Metabolomic Profiling of Finnish Familial Dyslipidemia Families” that started in 2012.