John J. P. Kastelein, M.D., Ph.D., is Professor of Medicine and Chairman of the Department of Vascular Medicine at the Academic Medical Centre (AMC) of the University of Amsterdam, where he holds the Strategic Chair of Genetics of Cardiovascular Disease and is the Director of the Atherosclerosis Research Group. He is the president of the Dutch Atherosclerosis Society as well as the National Scientific Committee on Familial Hypercholesterolemia.

He is an internationally recognized expert on the diagnosis and treatment of lipid and lipoprotein disorders, in particular, familial hypercholesterolemia, and research in the area of molecular biology of cholesterol transport. He is a member of the Royal Dutch Society for Medicine and Physics, the Council for Basic Sciences of the American Heart Association, and the European Atherosclerosis Society. He is also a board member of the International Task Force for CHD Prevention.

He has published over 300 research papers in peer-reviewed journals including: Nature, Genetics, Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, and Circulation, and was awarded an Established Investigatorship of the Dutch Heart Foundation. He also serves on a number of executive and steering committees of lipid-lowering intervention trials, including the IDEAL, TNT, CAPTIVATE, ENHANCE, and Torcetrapib imaging and morbidity and mortality studies.

Dr. Kastelein received his medical degree from the University of Amsterdam in 1980 and was subsequently trained in internal medicine at the Academic Medical Center of the University of Amsterdam. Dr. Kastelein was also trained in lipidology and molecular biology at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. He is the founder of the Lipid Research Clinic at the Academy Medical Center in Amsterdam. Dr. Kastelein has set up a foundation for the active identification of patients with classical Familial Hypercholesterolemia in the Netherlands, of which he holds the Medical Directorship.