Marja-Riitta Taskinen

Research Program for Clinical and Molecular Metabolism, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

Marja-Riitta Taskinen MD, PhD is an Emerita Professor of Medicine and her research team is a member of the Research Program for Clinical and Molecular Metabolism, Biomedicum Helsinki, University of Helsinki. Her expertise is in the field of lipid and lipoprotein metabolism, cardiovascular disease, vascular health, NAFLD and diabetes. Her current research focus is on the pathophysiology of liver lipid and lipoprotein metabolism in health and disease, including T2DM, the metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance and the genetics of lipid disorders. The research group combines the use of stable isotopes to follow the production, transfer and direct catabolism of lipoprotein particles, triglycerides and apoproteins in vivo. These studies allow to analyse the dynamics and pathophysiology of lipid metabolism and to investigate crosstalk between adipose tissue, gut and the liver. She has 462 original publications and 138 reviews and chapters (H-index 100).

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 was selected as Robert Levy Memorial Lecturer by American Heart Association (AHA 2017) and as EASD honorary member in 2017. She has been involved in activities of European Atherosclerosis Society (President of EAS 2006-2008) as well as of the EASD and IDF. She is an ESC fellow and a Task Force member of the ESC/EAS guidelines in “Lipid management” and a member of EAS Consensus Paper Panel. Prof. Taskinen has had multiple scientific evaluation tasks e.g. Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research, Sweden; German Centre for Diabetes Research program, Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany; ISAC-CVON (International Scientific Advisory Committee of the CardioVasculair Onderzoek Nederlande) (2011-2018); Vetenskapsrådet/Swedish Research Council, preconditions for clinical research in Sweden (2017-2020); Premios Rey Jaime I, Spain (2017); EASD-Novo Nordisk Foundation Diabetes Price for Excellence (2019-2021). She is currently a member of the International Steering Committee of Residual Risk Reduction initiative (R3i) foundation (2020-) and of the Triglyceride Education and Research Forum (TG Forum) (2020-).