World's Best Scientists 2026 revealed!
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Best Scientists
2025
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Medicine
Finland
2026

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Best Scientists

D-Index
175
Citations
155388
World Ranking
707
National Ranking
8

Medicine

D-Index
176
Citations
160409
World Ranking
410
National Ranking
8

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2026 - Research.com Medicine in Finland Leader Award
  • 2025 - Research.com Best Scientists Award
  • 2025 - Research.com Medicine in Finland Leader Award
  • 2023 - Research.com Medicine in Finland Leader Award
  • 2022 - Research.com Medicine in Finland Leader Award

Overview

Olli T. Raitakari is affiliated with Turku University Hospital in Finland and has contributed extensively to research in medicine, biochemistry, genetics, and molecular biology. Their research output comprises numerous studies focused on cardiovascular medicine, molecular biology, genetics, public health, pediatrics, and related subfields.

The scientist's work is notably present in venues such as bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory), Atherosclerosis, Scientific Reports, Circulation, and Nature Communications. This diverse publication record spans a range of journals with different emphases on cardiovascular health and molecular biology.

Key topics studied by Raitakari include genetic associations and epidemiology, birth, development, and health, obesity, physical activity, diet, cardiovascular health and disease prevention, epigenetics and DNA methylation, diabetes, cardiovascular risks, lipoproteins, and physical activity and health.

Raitakari has collaborated frequently with several co-authors, including Terho Lehtimäki, Mika Kähönen, Jorma Viikari, Katja Pahkala, and Markus Juonala, indicating a pattern of sustained research partnerships.

Among recent publications are the following influential papers:

  • Large-scale cis- and trans-eQTL analyses identify thousands of genetic loci and polygenic scores that regulate blood gene expression, 2021, Nature Genetics
  • The Polygenic and Monogenic Basis of Blood Traits and Diseases, 2020, Cell
  • Trans-ethnic and Ancestry-Specific Blood-Cell Genetics in 746,667 Individuals from 5 Global Populations, 2020, Cell
  • Polygenic prediction of educational attainment within and between families from genome-wide association analyses in 3 million individuals, 2022, Nature Genetics
  • Genome-wide analysis of 102,084 migraine cases identifies 123 risk loci and subtype-specific risk alleles, 2022, Nature Genetics

Best Publications

  • Worldwide trends in body-mass index, underweight, overweight, and obesity from 1975 to 2016: a pooled analysis of 2416 population-based measurement studies in 128·9 million children, adolescents, and adults

    Leandra Abarca-Gómez;Ziad A Abdeen;Zargar Abdul Hamid;Niveen M Abu-Rmeileh

  • Trends in adult body-mass index in 200 countries from 1975 to 2014: A pooled analysis of 1698 population-based measurement studies with 19.2 million participants

    Mariachiara Di Cesare;Mariachiara Di Cesare;James Bentham;Gretchen A Stevens;Bin Zhou

  • Worldwide trends in diabetes since 1980: a pooled analysis of 751 population-based studies with 4.4 million participants

    Bin Zhou;Yuan Lu;Kaveh Hajifathalian;James Bentham

  • Association analyses of 249,796 individuals reveal 18 new loci associated with body mass index

    Elizabeth K. Speliotes;Elizabeth K. Speliotes;Cristen J. Willer;Sonja I. Berndt;Keri L. Monda

  • Worldwide trends in hypertension prevalence and progress in treatment and control from 1990 to 2019: a pooled analysis of 1201 population-representative studies with 104 million participants

    Bin Zhou;Rodrigo M Carrillo-Larco;Goodarz Danaei;Leanne M Riley

  • Worldwide trends in blood pressure from 1975 to 2015: a pooled analysis of 1479 population-based measurement studies with 19·1 million participants

    Bin Zhou;James Bentham;Mariachiara Di Cesare;Honor Bixby

  • Hundreds of variants clustered in genomic loci and biological pathways affect human height

    Hana Lango Allen;Karol Estrada;Guillaume Lettre;Sonja I. Berndt

  • Genetic variants in novel pathways influence blood pressure and cardiovascular disease risk

    Georg B. Ehret;Georg B. Ehret;Georg B. Ehret;Patricia B. Munroe;Kenneth M. Rice;Murielle Bochud

  • Defining the role of common variation in the genomic and biological architecture of adult human height

    Andrew R. Wood;Tonu Esko;Jian Yang;Sailaja Vedantam

  • Cardiovascular risk factors in childhood and carotid artery intima-media thickness in adulthood: the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study.

    Olli T. Raitakari;Markus Juonala;Mika Kähönen;Leena Taittonen

  • Childhood Adiposity, Adult Adiposity, and Cardiovascular Risk Factors

    Markus Juonala;Costan G. Magnussen;Gerald S. Berenson;Alison Venn

  • Physical Activity from Childhood to Adulthood: A 21-Year Tracking Study.

    Risto Telama;Xiaolin Yang;Jorma Viikari;Ilkka Välimäki

  • Integrative approaches for large-scale transcriptome-wide association studies.

    Alexander Gusev;Alexander Gusev;Arthur Ko;Huwenbo Shi;Gaurav Bhatia;Gaurav Bhatia

  • Genetic studies of body mass index yield new insights for obesity biology

    Adam E. Locke;Bratati Kahali;Sonja I. Berndt;Anne E. Justice

  • Genome-wide association study identifies 74 loci associated with educational attainment

    Aysu Okbay;Jonathan P. Beauchamp;Mark Alan Fontana;James J. Lee

  • A century of trends in adult human height

    James Bentham;Mariachiara Di Cesare;Mariachiara Di Cesare;Gretchen A. Stevens;Bin Zhou

  • Genome-wide meta-analysis identifies 56 bone mineral density loci and reveals 14 loci associated with risk of fracture

    Karol Estrada;Unnur Styrkarsdottir;Evangelos Evangelou;Yi-Hsiang Hsu

  • Consistent dietary patterns identified from childhood to adulthood: the cardiovascular risk in Young Finns Study.

    V. Mikkilä;L. Räsänen;O.T. Raitakari;P. Pietinen

  • Genome-wide association study identifies 74 loci associated with educational attainment

    Aysu Okbay;Jonathan P. Beauchamp;Mark Alan Fontana;James J. Lee

  • Hundreds of variants clustered in genomic loci and biological pathways affect human height

    H. Lango Allen;K. Estrada;G. Lettre;S. I. Berndt

Frequent Co-Authors

Terho Lehtimäki
Terho Lehtimäki Tampere University
Jorma Viikari
Jorma Viikari Turku University Hospital
Mika Kähönen
Mika Kähönen Tampere University
Markus Juonala
Markus Juonala Turku University Hospital
Markus Perola
Markus Perola Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare
Marjo-Riitta Järvelin
Marjo-Riitta Järvelin Imperial College London
André G. Uitterlinden
André G. Uitterlinden Erasmus University Rotterdam
Johan G. Eriksson
Johan G. Eriksson National University of Singapore
Albert Hofman
Albert Hofman Harvard University
Veikko Salomaa
Veikko Salomaa Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare

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