AtheroTalk

AtheroTalk is your go-to podcast for in-depth discussions on atherosclerosis and cardiovascular health. Join leading experts as they explore the latest research, breakthrough treatments, and real-world insights into preventing and managing heart disease. Whether you’re a healthcare professional, researcher, or just passionate about heart health, AtheroTalk delivers valuable knowledge and practical tips straight from the experts. Tune in to stay informed and inspired about the future of cardiovascular care!

This podcast is proudly initiated by the EAS Young Fellows.

Upcoming episodes

AtheroTalk team

Bringing this podcast to life has been a collaborative effort, and we’re deeply grateful to the exceptional team behind it. Each person’s dedication, creativity, and expertise have played a vital role in shaping the quality and impact of this project.

Azin Kheirkhah

A researcher at the Institute of Genetic Epidemiology, Medical University of Innsbruck. She completed her PhD, focusing on PCSK9 in cardiovascular and kidney diseases. Her research explores atherosclerosis and the role of PCSK9 in cardiovascular health. Azin holds a BSc in Biomedical Sciences from King’s College London and an MSc in Immunology from Imperial College London.

Fotios Barkas

An Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ioannina, Greece, and collaborates with the Imperial Centre for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention, Imperial College London, UK.

His research focuses on cardiovascular disease prevention, with a particular emphasis on lipids, obesity, and diabetes. Since 2011, Prof. Barkas has been actively involved in the clinical and research activities of the Outpatient Lipid & Obesity Clinic at the University Hospital of Ioannina. He has participated in over 20 multicenter randomized clinical trials in the fields of dyslipidemia, obesity, and diabetes.

Hana Bartuskova

A junior researcher in the Atherosclerosis Research Laboratory at the Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine in Prague, Czech Republic. She is finishing her PhD specifically focusing on the role of adipose tissue dysfunction and local inflammatory processes in atherosclerosis initiation and development. She also studies advanced atherosclerosis in a project exploring the immunological landscape in carotid artery plaques.

Vanessa Bianconi

Internal Medicine Doctor and Assistant Professor at the Department of Medicine and Surgery of University of Perugia, Italy. Her research mainly deals with cardiometabolic risk and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, with a specific focus on lipids, PCSK9, inflammation, and emerging CV risk factors.

Alexandr Ceasovschih

MD, PhD, Assistant Professor in Grigore T. Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Internal Medicine and Cardiology Consultant in Clinical Emergency Hospital Sfantul Spiridon, Iasi, Romania. His research is focused on inflammation, atherosclerosis, peripheral arterial disease and heart failure. He is deputy editor in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology and reviewer in many Clarivate Web of Science journals.

Mariia Cherska

MD, PhD, Doctor of Medicine, Associate Professor, Head of the Cardiology and Diagnostic Department in Institute of Endocrinology and metabolism, Ukrainian Academy of Medical Science (Kiev, Ukraine). Her research is focused on cardiocerebral vascular disorders in patients with diabetes mellitus, atrial fibrillation, stroke, factors of progression and ways of correction CVD; programs for young men with metabolic syndrome and obesity.

Joana Rita Chora

A post-doctoral research fellow at the National Institute of Health Dr. Ricardo Jorge in Lisbon, Portugal. Her research focuses on Familial Hypercholesterolemia (FH) diagnosis, genetic variant interpretation, cardiovascular risk estimation and pharmacogenetics of lipid therapy. She is also a member of the FH Variant Curation Expert Panel at the Clinical Genome Resource, where she works as scientific co-lead, curator trainer and reviewer.

Laura Gaita

An associate professor at “Victor Babes” University of Medicine and Pharmacy Timisoara, Romania and a clinician working in the field of diabetes, nutrition and metabolic diseases. Her research explores the interdisciplinary approach and prevention of cardiovascular disease in patients with diabetes with a focus on atherogenic dyslipidemia and on the cardio-reno-metabolic effects of GLP-1 receptor agonists and SGLT2 inhibitors.

Pelin Arabacilar Golforoush

A post-doctoral research fellow at The Hatter Cardiovascular Institute at UCL. Her research is focused on myocardial infarction and stroke. As part of her PhD project, she studied protein-protein interactions associated with myocardial infarction. During her role as a post-doc at Imperial College, she developed compounds to mitigate damage from myocardial infarction and anthracycline-induced toxicity. At UCL, she now targets ischaemia-reperfusion injury in models of atherosclerosis and other co-morbidities.

Maria Giovanna Lupo

A postdoc researcher in Cardiovascular Pharmacology at the Department of Medicine, University of Padua, Italy, where she investigates the role of PCSK9 and ANGPTL3 in cardiovascular diseases and beyond, with a particular interest on finding new pharmacological approach to treat CVD diseases. She is also focussing on the crosstalk between mitochondria and LDLR plasma membrane availability. Dr Lupo gained her BSc and MSc in Molecular Biology at University of Padua, and got her PhD in Pharmacological Sciences from the same university. Since 2020 is part of the EAS Social Media Ambassadors Team.

Sanne Maas

A researcher at Uniklinikum RWTH Aachen, Germany. Her work focuses on the molecular mechanisms driving atherosclerosis, with a particular interest in kinases, immune cell activation, and metabolic influences. She investigates organ crosstalk in the context of chronic kidney disease, diabetes, and atherosclerosis, as well as the gut-liver axis.

Krishnaraj Rathod

An Interventional Cardiology Consultant at Barts Heart Centre, London, and a Senior Clinical Lecturer at Queen Mary University of London. His research focuses on cardiovascular therapy cost-effectiveness, reperfusion injury treatment after myocardial infarction, long-term outcomes of percutaneous coronary intervention, and conducting translational interventional clinical trials, including phase II and III studies.

Javier Rodriguez-Carrio

An associate professor of immunology at the University of Oviedo (Spain) and researcher at the Health Research Institute of Principalty of Asturias (ISPA). His research focuses on cardiovascular risk in autoimmunity and chronic inflammatory diseases, with a special interest in the crosstalk between altered immune responses and atherosclerosis, as well as in lipidomic approaches. Javier is an EAS Social Media Ambassador and also serves as social media editor for Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (European Alliance for Associations of Rheumatology, EULAR).

Elena Rodriguez-Sanchez

An AHA postdoctoral fellow at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She completed her PhD at Hospital 12 de Octubre, Madrid, where she investigated cardiovascular disease risk biomarkers. Her current research focuses on epigenetic regulators involved in cholesterol metabolism, inflammation, and atherosclerosis.

Lynn Roth

An assistant research professor at the laboratory of Physiopharmacology (University of Antwerp, Belgium). She is involved in fundamental research to unravel pathophysiological mechanisms that drive vascular ageing and cardiovascular disease, with a main focus on autophagy. Her research aims at understanding the molecular pathways responsible for age-related autophagy decline, exploring the interplay between autophagy deficiency and vascular dysfunction, and translating these findings into the identification of novel drug targets and interventions.

Yusuf Ziya Sener

An internist and cardiologist currently doing PhD on advanced heart failure and left ventricular assist devices at Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. His research is mainly focused on heart failure, cardio-oncology, atherosclerosis, and hypertension.

Svetlana Stoica

MD, clinical cardiologist and researcher at the Institute for Cardiovascular Diseases Timisoara and Assistant Professor at “Victor Babes” University of Medicine and Pharmacy Timisoara, Romania. Her PhD research has focused on cardiovascular prevention strategies and her interest lies in cardiometabolic diseases, lipidology and obesity. She has been involved in numerous clinical trials. She is currently a core-group member of the European Association of Preventive Cardiology Young Community as well as Emerging Leader of the World Heart Federation.

Tatyana Storozhenko

A fellow in interventional cardiology at the Cardiovascular Center OLV Aalst, Belgium. During her doctoral studies, she focused on the integration of cellular biomarkers and coronary imaging techniques in patients with acute myocardial infarction. Her ongoing research is dedicated to exploring coronary physiology, different patterns of CAD, atherosclerotic plaque biology and the role of inflammation in cardiovascular disease.

Emiel van der Vorst

A research group leader at the Cardiology department of the Uniklinikum RWTH Aachen, Germany & at the Institute for Cardiovascular Prevention Munich, Germany. His research group focuses on the interaction between immune cells and lipids, particularly focusing on atherosclerosis.

A heartfelt thank you to all other contributors to AtheroTalk:

Ralph Kwame Akyea
Marion Mußbacher
Florentina Porsch
Antoine Rimbert

Our initiative in media outreach

Read the interview published online on TouchCardio by Touch Medical Media, where the EAS Young Fellows discuss the challenges of entering the field of cardiovascular medicine, the inspiration behind AtheroTalk, and their vision for the future.