Editorial introductions

Abstract

Current Opinion in Lipidology was launched in 1990. It is part of a successful series of review journals whose unique format is designed to provide a systematic and critical assessment of the literature as presented in the many primary journals. The field of lipidology is divided into six sections that are reviewed once a year. Each section is assigned a Section Editor, a leading authority in the area, who identifies the most important topics at that time. Here we are pleased to introduce the Section Editors for this issue. Section Editors Anton F. StalenhoefAnton F. StalenhoefDr Anton F. Stalenhoef is Professor of Medicine in the Department of Internal Medicine, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, and Head of the Section Vascular Medicine of the Department of Internal Medicine. Anton Stalenhoef received his MD degree at the Radboud University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands in 1974. He trained in internal medicine at the University Medical Centre Nijmegen, and qualified as internist in 1979. Following his clinical training, he received his PhD in lipid metabolism in 1982. Dr Stalenhoef continued his research as Visiting Professor at UCSF, San Francisco in 1982–1983. Since 1984 he has been on the faculty of the University Medical Center St. Radboud, Nijmegen, Department of Medicine, first as associated professor and from 1997 as Professor of Medicine. He was named as the first Clinical Investigator of the Dutch Heart Foundation (1988–1992). His research is in the area of atherosclerosis, lipoprotein metabolism, hyperlipidemia, cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus and cytokines and inflammation. Dr Stalenhoef has (co-) authored over 300 peer-reviewed publications in international journals. He has been member of several Dutch and European scientific societies, Dutch Health Council and a variety of scientific advisory councils, including Dutch Heart Foundation and Dutch Research Council. He was member of the Executive Committee of the European Atherosclerosis Society (2005–2008) and has been the Chairman of the EAS 2007 Helsinki Scientific Program Committee. In June 2006 he was named Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. He was Editor-in-Chief of the Netherlands Journal of Medicine (2005–2008). John J.P. KasteleinJohn J.P. KasteleinJohn J.P. Kastelein, M.D. Ph.D is Professor of Medicine and Chairman of the Department of Vascular Medicine at the Academic Medical Center (AMC) of the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where he holds the Strategic Chair of Genetics of Cardiovascular Disease. He received his medical degree in Amsterdam in 1980 where he subsequently received specialty training in internal medicine. Then he was trained in medical genetics, lipidology and molecular biology at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver under the guidance of Prof. Dr M.R. Hayden. Upon his return to the Netherlands was awarded a doctorate (Cum Laude) and he founded the Lipid Research Clinic at the Academic Medical Centre in Amsterdam, which is currently serving as a tertiary referral centre for over five thousand patients each year. In 1997 and 1998 he served a visiting professorship at the Center for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. Since then, he has set up a foundation for the active identification of patients with classical familial hypercholesterolaemia in the Netherlands, for which he currently holds a position in the board of directors. He is President of the Dutch Atherosclerosis Society (DAS) as well as the National Scientific Committee on Familial Hypercholesterolemia (EHC). He is a member of the Royal Dutch Society for Medicine & Physics, the Council for Basic Science of the American Heart Association and the European Atherosclerosis Society. He also is a board member of the International Task Force for CHD Prevention. He was also awarded an Established Investigatorship of the Dutch Heart Foundation. Besides the scientific programmes aimed at the etiology of atherogenesis, Dr Kastelein also serves on a number of executive and steering committees of large intervention studies, including the IDEAL, TNT, CAPTIVATE, ENHANCE, ILLUMINATE, JUPITER, RADIANCE and numerous others. Prof. Kastelein has published over 580 research papers in peer reviewed journals. Studies on the TNT (2005), RADIANCE 1 (2007), ENHANCE (2008) and JUPITER (2008) are published in the New England Journal of Medicine, IDEAL (2006) in JAMA and RADIANCE 2 (2007) in the Lancet. Professor Kastelein's major research interests lie in the molecular basis of hypertriglyceridaemia, hypercholesterolaemia and low/high HDL cholesterol. He and his team have in especially in collaboration with Prof. Dr M.R. Hayden, been personally involved in the identification and characterization of patients with mutations in the LDL receptor, apoB, apoAI, ABCA1, LCAT, CETP, and LPL.