Description

Cardiovascular disease is the most common cause of death. The main underlying condition is atherosclerosis: plaques formed in the arteries which can cause complications as stroke or myocardial infarction. Our research aims to prevent complications by identifying clinical methods to detect patients with high-risk plaques to personalize treatment strategies as well as novel mechanisms to use as therapeutic targets or disease markers. A particular interest is also to understand how plaque biology is affected by major clinical risk factors such as diabetes. Our research strategy combines state of the art imaging, RNA sequencing, C14 dating and mechanistic studies with follow-up studies in human cardiovascular disease cohorts. Our growing biobank - today one of the largest of its kind - includes over 1500 patients which have undergone surgical removal of carotid or femoral plaques and makes up the foundation for our unique research, aiming to reduce mortality and morbidity due to atherosclerosis.