Dimitri P. Mikhailidis is Academic Head, Reader and Honorary Consultant in the Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Royal Free Hospital campus, University College London Medical School, University College London (UCL), UK. He also holds a joint appointment with the Academic Department of Surgery at the Royal Free, and is a Visiting Professor at Robert Gordon University (Aberdeen, Scotland) and the Medical School of the University of Ioannina, Greece. His clinical interest is vascular disease prevention, and his research interests are dyslipidaemias and thrombosis. He is a former Wellcome Trust fellow and has supervised 15 doctoral students (University of London).

Dr Mikhailidis has 882 entries on MEDLINE and 11,571 citations listed in the ISI index (H-factor = 50). He is editor-in-chief of several journals including Current Medical Research and Opinion, Current Vascular Pharmacology, Expert Opinion on Investigational Drugs and Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Targets (impact factors = 2.5 to 4.2). He has participated in several guideline committees. He is a member of the nucleus group for peripheral arterial disease, European Society of Cardiology (ESC). He is the lead for the Prevention Section of the European Society of Vascular Surgery (ESVS) Guidelines for the Management of Carotid Artery Disease. He has lectured in 46 countries.

He was awarded the Order of St. Mark (first class) for services to the Greek community outside Greece. He holds Honorary Doctorates from 3 Medical Schools in Greece (Athens, Ioannina and Thessaloniki).

Stephen Nicholls is Assistant Professor of Molecular Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. He is the Cardiovascular Director of the Cleveland Clinic Coordinating Center for Clinical Research, Medical Director of the Atherosclerosis Imaging Core Laboratories and Clinical Director of the Center for Cardiovascular Diagnostics and Prevention at the Cleveland Clinic. Following graduation from the University of Adelaide he completed his medical residency at the Royal Adelaide Hospital and advanced training in Cardiovascular Medicine at John Hunter Hospital. His doctoral studies focused on the anti-inflammatory properties of high-density lipoproteins at the Heart Research Institute. He proceeded to a postdoctoral fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic, prior to taking up his current faculty appointment in the departments of Cardiovascular Medicine and Cell Biology, where he leads a clinical and basic research group, respectively. He has authored more than 330 book chapters, meeting abstracts and original manuscripts in journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Lancet, Nature Medicine and Circulation. He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, ATVB and the European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation and is a member of the Diabetes Committee of the American Heart Association. His current research interests include the atheroprotective properties of high-density lipoproteins, the role of inflammation and oxidative stress in atherogenesis and the development of new imaging modalities to assess factors that influence the natural history of atherosclerotic plaque. He plays a lead role in clinical trials that investigate the impact of novel anti-atherosclerotic therapies and is the principal investigator of the SATURN (high dose statins), AQUARIUS (renin inhibition), Evacetrapib lipid study, ASSERT (apoA-I induction) and ASSURE (apoA-I induction) studies, study chair of VISTA-16 (sPLA2 inhibition) and serves on the steering committees of the DalOutcomes (CETP inhibition), ALECARDIO (PPAR a/g agonist) and AKKA (thyroid receptor agonist) studies.

Peter P. Toth, MD, PhD, FAAFP, FICA, FAHA, FNLA, FCCP, FACC
Director of Preventive Cardiology
CGH Medical Center
Professor of Clinical Family and Community Medicine
University of Illinois School of Medicine

Dr. Toth received his B.A. in Biochemistry from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Michigan State University. He graduated from Wayne State University School of Medicine and completed residency training in Family Medicine at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

Dr. Toth is a diplomate of the American Board of Family Practice and the American Board of Clinical Lipidology. Dr. Toth is a member of Alpha Omega Alpha, the American College of Cardiology Foundation Council on Cardiovascular Disease Prevention, and the American Heart Association’s Council on Lipoproteins, Lipid Metabolism, and Thrombosis.

Dr. Toth has authored and coauthored over two hundred twenty publications in medical and scientific journals and textbooks. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Year in Lipid Disorders (Atlas Publishing, Oxford, UK) and an Associate Editor for the Year Book of Endocrinology. He is coeditor with Antonio Gotto of the textbook, Comprehensive Management of High Risk Cardiovascular Patients (Taylor and Francis, New York) with Michael Davidson of Therapeutic Lipidology (Humana, Philadelphia), with Dominic Sica of Current Controversies in Dyslipidemia Management (Atlas Publishing, Oxford), with Kevin Maki of Practical Lipid Management (Wiley-Blackstone, London), with Christopher Cannon of Comprehensive Cardiovascular Care in the Primary Care Setting (Springer Humana, Philadelphia), and Domenic Sica of Clinical Challenges in Hypertension vols I and II (Clinical Publishing, Oxford, UK). New books in press include Lipoproteins in Diabetes Mellitus and Cardiac Lipoglucotoxicity. He has lectured on many topics in cardiovascular medicine throughout the United States.

Prof. Manfredi Rizzo, MD, PhD

Prof. Dr. Manfredi Rizzo was born in Italy. He studied medicine and got the training in Internal Medicine at the University of Palermo. He spent several years in the United States, working as a Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley under the direct supervision of Prof. Ronald M. Krauss, MD, from 1996 to 2002. There he was able to perform a number of studies on the pathophysiology, metabolism, atherogenicity and clinical properties of plasma lipids and lipoproteins, in patients with different metabolic disorders, including obesity, diabetes and the metabolic syndrome. In that period Dr. Rizzo also studied the metabolic properties of a number of different animal models, including transgenic rabbits. In the same period he also received strong training at the Lipid Clinic of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, still under the direct supervision of Prof. Ronald M. Krauss, MD.

In 2004 Dr. Rizzo became Assistant Professor in Internal Medicine at the University of Palermo, with a joint position in the Clinic of Internal Medicine at the University Hospital. Due to his long-standing research on metabolic disorders, he has been Invited as Visiting Professor at the Clinic of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Clinical Nutrition, University of Zurich, Switzerland and more recently at the Institute of Medical Biochemistry, University of Belgrade. Also, in 2011 Prof. Rizzo became Head, Unit of Atherosclerosis, Diabetes and Cardiovascular Prevention at the Euro-Mediterranean Institute of Science and Technology, Italy.

Prof. Rizzo is a member of national and international medical associations and sits on the editorial boards of 7 international journals. Further, he has been the recipient of national and international fellowships and awards, has done several invited lectures, and acted as reviewer for 72 scientific international journals. The research work of Prof. Rizzo combines translational research (focus on the effects and mechanisms of action of lipid-lowering and anti-diabetic agents) and basic research (focus on novel cardiovascular risk factors). He is very active in seeking international collaborations and his research work resulted in 273 scientific publications and 5 chapter books, with several highly-cited articles. For instance, he has been recently the Coordinator of a Panel of European experts who just published a Consensus Document on the pathophysiology, atherogenicity and clinical significance of low density lipoprotein (LDL) subclasses.