Biography

Peter Willeit is Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health and the Director of the EpiCenter Innsbruck. He trained in epidemiology at the University of Cambridge in the UK (MPhil in Epidemiology 2010, PhD in Public Health and Primary Care 2013) and holds a medical degree from the Medical University of Innsbruck. Before returning to Austria in 2016, he worked as a University Lecturer in Medical Epidemiology at the University of Cambridge. Peter Willeit is a recipient of a FWF Erwin Schrödinger Fellowship and has been leading scientifically the population-based Bruneck Study and international consortia, such as the Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration and the Proof-ATHERO consortium involving a total of 200 cohort studies with 2.6M participants. Professor Willeit acts as a Senior Collaborator of the Global Burden of Disease consortium, a Professor of the Ignaz-Semmelweis Institute (i.e. an Interuniversity Institute for Infection Research connecting five Austrian universities), and as an Honorary Research Fellow of the School of Medicine, University of Cambridge.

Selected publications

• Willeit P, Kaptoge S, Welsh P, Butterworth AS, Chowdhury R, Spackman SA, Pennells L, Gao P, Burgess S, Freitag DF, Sweeting M, Wood AM, Cook NR, Judd S, Trompet S, Nambi V, Olsen MH, Everett BM, Kee F, Ärnlöv J, Salomaa V, Levy D, Kauhanen J, Laukkanen JA, Kavousi M, Ninomiya T, Casas JP, Daniels LB, Lind L, Kistorp CN, Rosenberg J, Mueller T, Rubattu S, Panagiotakos DB, Franco OH, de Lemos JA, Luchner A, Kizer JR, Kiechl S, Salonen JT, Goya Wannamethee S, de Boer RA, Nordestgaard BG, Andersson J, Jørgensen T, Melander O, Ballantyne ChM, DeFilippi Ch, Ridker PM, Cushman M, Rosamond WD, Thompson SG, Gudnason V, Sattar N, Danesh J, Di Angelantonio E. Natriuretic peptides and integrated risk assessment for cardiovascular disease: an individual-participant-data meta-analysis. Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol 2016;4(10):840-9.
• Willeit P, Ridker PM, Nestel PJ, Simes J, Tonkin AM, Pedersen TR, Schwartz GG, Olsson AG, Colhoun HM, Kronenberg F, Drechsler C, Wanner C, Mora S, Lesogor A, Tsimikas S. Baseline and on-statin treatment lipoprotein(a) levels for prediction of cardiovascular events: individual patient-data meta-analysis of statin outcome trials. Lancet 2018;392(10155):1311-1320.
• Willeit P, Tschiderer L, Allara E, Reuber K, Seekircher L, Gao L, Liao X, Lonn E, Gerstein HC, Yusuf S, Brouwers FP, Asselbergs FW, van Gilst W, Anderssen SA, Grobbee DE, Kastelein JJP, Visseren FLJ, Ntaios G, Hatzitolios AI, Savopoulos C, Nieuwkerk PT, Stroes E, Walters M, Higgins P, Dawson J, Gresele P, Guglielmini G, Migliacci R, Ezhov M, Safarova M, Balakhonova T, Sato E, Amaha M, Nakamura T, Kapellas K, Jamieson LM, Skilton M, Blumenthal JA, Hinderliter A, Sherwood A, Smith PJ, van Agtmael MA, Reiss P, van Vonderen MGA, Kiechl S, Klingenschmid G, Sitzer M, Stehouwer CDA, Uthoff H, Zou ZY, Cunha AR, Neves MF, Witham MD, Park HW, Lee MS, Bae JH, Bernal E, Wachtell K, Kjeldsen SE, Olsen MH, Preiss D, Sattar N, Beishuizen E, Huisman MV, Espeland MA, Schmidt C, Agewall S, Ok E, Aşçi G, de Groot E, Grooteman MPC, Blankestijn PJ, Bots ML, Sweeting MJ, Thompson SG, Lorenz MW. Carotid Intima-Media Thickness Progression as Surrogate Marker for Cardiovascular Risk: Meta-Analysis of 119 Clinical Trials Involving 100 667 Patients. Circulation 2020;142(7):621-642.
• Priesemann V, Balling R, Bauer S, Beutels P, Valdez AC, Cuschieri S, Czypionka T, Dumpis U, Glaab E, Grill E, Hotulainen P, Iftekhar EN, Krutzinna J, Lionis C, Machado H, Martins C, McKee M, Pavlakis GN, Perc M, Petelos E, Pickersgill M, Prainsack B, Rocklöv J, Schernhammer E, Szczurek E, Tsiodras S, Van Gucht S, Willeit P. Towards a European strategy to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Lancet 2021;398(10303):838-839.
• Seekircher L, Bánki Z, Kimpel J, Rössler A, Schäfer H, Falkensammer B, Bante D, Forer L, Schönherr S; Shieldvacc-2 Study Group; Harthaller T, Sacher M, Ower C, Tschiderer L, Ulmer H, Krammer F, von Laer D, Borena W, Willeit P. Immune response after two doses of the BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccine and risk of SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough infection in Tyrol, Austria: an open-label, observational phase 4 trial. Lancet Microbe 2023;4(8):e612-e621.