Workshops

Professor Jan Borén, MD, PhD (born 1963) is currently Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Department of Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy at Göteborg University and Director of the Wallenberg Laboratory for Cardiovascular Research.

His main interest has been to study the role of apoB-containing lipoproteins in normal and disturbed lipid physiology and to understand the molecular mechanism by which the apoB-containing lipoproteins exert its effect on the arterial wall.

Professor Borén’s outstanding achievements have been recognised by several honours and awards including Irvine H. Page Atherosclerosis Research Awards for Young Investigators (AHA, 1997) and Göran Gustafsson’s Prize in Medicine from the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences (2004). He has been actively involved in activities of EAS and IAS, including the IAS meetings in Stockholm 2000 and Osaka 2003.

For EAS, he has taken part in the organization of the Society’s Congresses in Seville 2004, Prague 2005, Helsinki 2007, Istanbul 2008 and Hamburg 2010 and he was co-Chair of EAS Congress 2011 in Gothenburg. Professor Borén served on the Society’s Executive Committee as Treasurer from 2008 until 2018 and serves as Vice-President from January 2017.

Esther Lutgens studied Medicine at the University of Maastricht and did a PhD in Experimental Vascular Pathology during her studies, resulting in an MD-PhD degree in 2001. In 2001, she obtained the TALENT stipend from NWO, which enabled her to do her post-doctoral fellowships at Harvard University in Boston, MA, and at Dartmouth University in Hanover, NH, USA (2002-2004). After her return at the University of Maastricht, she obtained a VENI-grant (NWO), a Dr. E. Dekker fellowship (DHF) then a VIDI grant (NWO), which allowed her to set up her own laboratory on Experimental Vascular Immuno-pathology. Focus of her research is the role of immune-modulation in atherosclerosis. She became an ‘Established Investigator’ of the Dutch Heart Foundation in 2009, and obtained a Sofja Kovalevskaja fellowship in Germany, which enabled her to start a second laboratory at the Ludwig Maximilian’s University in Munich. In 2011, she was appointed full Professor at the University of Maastricht. In 2011, she received the LnvH jubileum prijs for most promising female scientist within life sciences. At the end of 2011, she was appointed as a full professor at the AMC in Amsterdam, where she is co-heading the Experimental Vascular Biology lab. In 2013, she obtained the prestigious VICI grant (NWO) which allows her to continue her research on the role of the immune system on atherosclerosis and obesity. Esther is married and has 2 children.

Professor de Kleijn is since 2016 Professor of Experimental Vascular Surgery at UMC Utrecht and since 2010 professor of the Netherlands Heart Institute, Utrecht the Netherlands. From 2012 to 2016, he was Research Professor of Surgery at NUS/NUHS and preclinical director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute (CVRI) Singapore. He was until 2016 professor of Cardiovascular Immunology and co-chair of Experimental Cardiology at UMC Utrecht. Since 1997 he is involved in cardiovascular research from basic science, animal myocardial infarction and atherosclerotic studies (mouse and pig) towards clinical biobanking studies. Next to this, he was CTO of a UMC Utrecht spin-off biomarker company Cavadis BV and member of the Scientific Committee of ICIN and initiator and founder SOciety for Clinical Research and Translation of Extracellular Vesicles Singapore ”SOCRATES”. His research interests are: The innate immune system in cardiovascular disease and atherosclerosis & Biomarkers for diagnosis or predictive for secondary events with a focus on plasma extracellular vesicles. He has > 200 papers published and a H-index of 69.

Heribert Schunkert, MD is Professor of Cardiology of the Technische Universitaet Munich, Director of the Cardiology Department and Medical Director of the German Heart Centre Munich. He completed a research fellowship at Brigham and Women,s Hospital, Boston, USA and clinical fellowships at Beth Israel Hospital and at the Universitaetsklinikum, Regensburg and the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, USA. From 2002-2012 Prof. Schunkert was Director of Internal Medicine and Cardiology at the University of Luebeck. He conducts research in the molecular genetics of multifactorial cardiovascular disease.He coordinates several EU- and BMBF-sponsored projects as well as the European-American Leducq network CADgenomics to identify the genetic roots of myocardial infarction. He served in the Board of Directors of the German Societies of Hypertension (DHZ) as well as Cardiology (DGK). He is the author of more than 500 publications in international journals.

Dr. Jay D. Horton is the Director of the Center for Human Nutrition and Professor of Internal Medicine and Molecular Genetics. He obtained his B.S. and M.D. degrees from the University of Iowa and completed his Internal Medicine residency, gastroenterology fellowship, and Howard Hughes post-doctoral fellowship at UT Southwestern. Dr. Horton’s research interests are in determining how transcriptional regulators of fat metabolism contribute to the development of fatty liver and delineating the function of PCSK9, a protein secreted into the blood that regulates LDL receptors in liver.

Dr. Elena Aikawa is Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She is also Director of the Vascular Biology Program at the Center for Interdisciplinary Sciences (CICS), Founding Director of the Heart Valve Translational Research Program (HVTRP) and Associate Head of Section of Cardiovascular Life Sciences at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Dr. Aikawa is a passionate advocate for the early imaging and treatment of calcific aortic valve disease. Dr. Aikawa’s primary research focuses on the development of new therapies to prevent, treat and cure calcific aortic valve stenosis, a disease that currently has no treatment options other than valve replacement. She was at the forefront in the discovery of inflammation-dependent mechanisms of cardiovascular calcification ( Circulation 2007). Her studies contributed to the discovery of calcifying extracellular vesicles as a precursor of microcalcification ( Nature Materials, 2016; Journal of Clinical Investigation, 2016). More recently she used systems approaches, involving multi-omics and network medicine, to identify novel therapeutic targets ( Circulation, 2018). Dr. Aikawa has been a member of the Working Group on Calcific Aortic Valve Stenosis and the Alliance of Investigators on Calcific Aortic Valve Disease of the National Institutes of Health. She holds editorial positions at the Journal of Extracellular Vesicles, Circulation Research, Arteriosclerosis Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, and PLoS ONE. Dr. Aikawa has delivered numerous keynote lectures and cardiovascular grand rounds nationally and internationally, and has authored more than 200 articles on cardiovascular pathobiology. Her research program has been continuously supported by NIH funding. Dr. Aikawa remains committed to advancing the careers of women in science and medicine. She cofounded the BWH Committee for Internationally Trained Women Faculty in 2004 and founded the annual Women in Medicine and Science Symposium at BWH in 2012. She was recently elected as Vice-chair of the Women’s Leadership Committee of American Heart Association Council on Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology. In 2016, Dr. Aikawa was elected as President of the International Society for Applied Cardiovascular Biology (ISACB). She is serving as the society’s first female president.

Max Nieuwdorp MD PhD is an internist endocrinologist and professor of Internal Medicine at UVA. Amsterdam the Netherlands. He is currently chair of the AMC/Vumc Diabetes Center. After obtaining his PhD at University of Amsterdam followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at UC San Diego (prof jeff esko, department of cellular and molecular medicine), dr Nieuwdorp started his own translational researchgroup (currently 25 MD PhD students, 5 postdoctoral fellows) focusing on the causal role of (small) intestinal bacterial strains to treat insulin resistance, adipose tissue inflammation and cardiovascular disease

Ruth Frikke-Schmidt, MD, PhD, DMSc is Chief Physician at the Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Rigshospitalet, and Associate Research Professor at the Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Copenhagen.

Ruth Frikke-Schmidt joined the Scandinavian Society for Atherosclerosis Research as a young MD, and has led the Society from 2006 to 2011. She has served as Faculty member in the European Atherosclerosis Society Congresses since 2010. She was invited speaker at the 83rd EAS congress in Glasgow, at the 17th International Symposium on Atherosclerosis congress in Amsterdam, and is invited to talk at the Gordon Research Conference on Lipoprotein Metabolism in New Hampshire, USA June 2016, and at Scientific Sessions, American Heart Association, New Orleans, USA November 2016, with talks focusing on lipoprotein metabolism, diabetes, and the interrelationship between lipids, atherosclerosis, and dementia.

In 2010 she was granted the prestigious Sapere Aude Research Leader Grant from the Danish Medical Research Council of 900,000 Euros, with the aim to focus on the genetic component of common multifactorial diseases as ischemic heart disease, stroke and dementia. Presently she and her students focus on the interplay between atherosclerosis, lipid metabolism and dementia, and recently they identified the first lipid-related plasma biomarker robustly associated with future risk of dementia in the general population, as well as novel associations between lipid-related genes and dementia. Such knowledge will have the potential to form the basis for more personalized and targeted medications and preventive interventions for dementia – a disease highly correlated with atherosclerosis, but with no currently effective treatment.

Heribert Schunkert is Professor of Cardiology at the Technische Universitaet Munich, Director of the Cardiology Department and Medical Director of the German Heart Centre Munich. After completing his medical studies, he undertook a research fellowship at the Brigham and Womens Hospital, Boston, USA and subsequent clinical fellowships at Beth Israel Hospital, the Universitaetsklinikum, Regensburg, and the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, USA. From 2002-2012 Professor Schunkert was Director of Internal Medicine and Cardiology at the University of Luebeck, before appointment to his current position. His research focuses on the molecular genetics of multifactorial cardiovascular disease. He coordinates several European Union- and the German BMBF-sponsored projects, as well as the European-American Leducq network CADgenomics which aims to identify genetic factors contributing to myocardial infarction. He has served on the Board of Directors of the German Societies of Hypertension and Cardiology, and is the author of more than 500 publications in international journals.