Fredrick (Derick) Raal is the Director of the Carbohydrate and Lipid Metabolism Research Unit, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. After obtaining his MBBCh degree cum laude in 1981, he obtained his Master of Medicine in 1991, his Doctor of Philosophy in 2000 and his Doctor of Science in 2022. He is a National Research Foundation A-rated scientist, is recognized as a Web of Science highly cited researcher and has authored or co-authored over 350 original articles and book chapters. He is a committee member of the homozygous familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) International Collaborators registry and a steering committee member of the European Atherosclerosis Society FH Studies Collaboration (EAS FHSC). He is on the Editorial Board of Atherosclerosis, a co-editor for Current Opinion in Lipidology and is a board member of the International Atherosclerosis Society. Professor Raal is particularly interested in lipids and lipid disorders and has been integrally involved in the management of familial dyslipidaemia, particularly heterozygous and homozygous FH. The major focus of his research remains the clinical, biochemical, genetic and therapeutic management of this condition, and he continues to conduct studies with novel therapies such as ANGPTL3-inhibitors in this patient group.

Prof Ray is President of the European Atherosclerosis Society, Chair of the World Heart Federation Cholesterol Roadmap 2021-2022, Chair for Global Council for Heart Health, National Lead for CVD NIHR Academic research Collaboration, and Clinical Director for Research HDR UK Digital Innovation Hub DISCOVER Now. Listed in Clarivate Analytics' list of the top 1% Highly Cited Researchers in global medicine annually since 2018, he has an H index of 100, an i10 of 257 and 140,000 citations. Key contributions influenced European and American guidelines, his work on statins and diabetes risk having led to a global label change for statins by the FDA and EMEA. He is involved in 8 trials in lipids and diabetes and is PI for ORION 1, 3, 11 and BETonMACE. He initiated the EAS FH Studies Collaboration, the first global registry of FH with 70 countries and 62,000 cases, as well as multi-national European registries such as Da Vinci, Heymans and Santorini, all of which help to shape global health policy. He is also Senior PI for the TOGETHER study looking at cardiometabolic risk in vascular health checks in 250,000 people. His research focuses on preventing coronary disease, specifically lipids, diabetes, biomarkers, and risk prediction.

After graduating from Freiherr-vom-Stein Gymnasium in Muenster (2008-2016) Felix Remmersmann studied Medicine at the University of Freiburg, Hamburg, and Cape Town (2016-2023). In 2020 he joined the Research Group for Immunocardiology led by Ingo Hilgendorf studying the proliferation of macrophages in atherosclerosis.