Professor Emanuele Di Angelantonio

Emanuele Di Angelantonio

Professor

ed303@medschl.cam.ac.uk

PA Email: emanueledapa@medschl.cam.ac.uk

Twitter: @Di_Angelantonio

Biography

I trained as a physician in cardiovascular medicine, in Italy and France, and I am registered with the UK General Medical Council as a specialist in general internal medicine. After completing my specialist training, I gained an MSc in Medical Statistics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 2005 and a PhD in Epidemiology at the University of Cambridge in 2009. In 2010, I was appointed as University Lecturer in the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at the University of Cambridge, and in 2017 to a Readership in Translational Epidemiology. Since 2018, I am Professor of Clinical Epidemiology and Donor Health, Director of the NIHR Blood and Transplant Research Unit in Donor Health, and Deputy-Director of the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge.

Research Approach:

A key approach of my research has been powerful, systematic, and detailed analysis of large-scale data, which often entails setting-up and leading complex international collaborations and devising and implementing novel methods appropriate for data sharing and analysis. My research to date has principally focused on two main areas: (i) prediction and prevention of cardiovascular diseases (CVD), and (ii) safety and efficiency of blood donation.

My team has made many seminal observations addressing major clinical and public health priorities in cardiovascular disease (CVD) and transfusion medicine.

Our CVD research has helped resolve important controversies and heavily influenced prevention strategies worldwide. Specifically, our work has demonstrated that:

(i) CVD risk prediction tools can be developed to estimate risk more accurately for contemporary populations across diverse global regions, helping to save lives by better matching interventions with clinical risk;

(ii) overweight and obesity are unequivocally associated with higher mortality worldwide, supporting guidelines to combat the entire spectrum of excess adiposity.

Our research related to safety and efficiency of blood donation has helped resolve longstanding debates and influenced national and international policy. Specifically, we have:

(i) provided reliable evidence that now underpins blood donation policy in the UK and beyond by conducting the first-ever randomised trial of blood donation frequency;

(ii) identified superior methods to screen potential donors for haemoglobin status and advocating their adoption, directly resulting in the prevention of anaemia and iron deficiency for ~100 donors each day in England.

Current projects:

My team is leading several studies and global consortium such as:

i) the Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration and the Global BMI Mortality Collaboration which have elucidated the relevance of CVD risk factors;

ii) the Blood Donors Studies BioResource (INTERVAL, COMPARE and STRIDES): ~160,000 healthy volunteer consented for genomic studies, linkage to electronic health records and invitation to future medical studies;

iii) the BELIEVE study: the largest prospective cohort study in Bangladesh (~75,000 participants) to elucidate the relevance of local risk factors to non-communicable diseases.

Selected Publications

Hageman S …[171 authors]... Di Angelantonio E. SCORE2 working group and ESC Cardiovascular risk collaboration. SCORE2 risk prediction algorithms: new models to estimate 10-year risk of cardiovascular disease in Europe. Eur Heart J. 2021;42(25):2439-2454.
Kaptoge S, …[98 co-authors]…, Di Angelantonio E. World Health Organization cardiovascular disease risk prediction charts: revised models to estimate risk in 21 global regions. Lancet Global Health. 2019:7(10),e1332-e1345.
Wood AM, …[117 co-authors]…, Di Angelantonio E, Danesh J. Risk thresholds for alcohol consumption: combined analysis of individual-participant data for 599 912 current drinkers in 83 prospective studies. Lancet 2018;391(10129):1513-1523.
Di Angelantonio E, Thompson SG, Kaptoge S, Moore C, Walker M, Armitage J, Ouwehand WH, Roberts DJ, Danesh J, INTERVAL Trial Group. (2017) Efficiency and safety of varying the frequency of whole blood donation (INTERVAL): a randomised trial of 45 000 donors. Lancet 2017;390(10110):2360-2371.
Di Angelantonio E, …[62 co-authors]…, Hu FB. Body-mass index and all-cause mortality: individual-participant-data meta-analysis of 239 prospective studies in four continents. Lancet 2016;388(10046):776-786.

Affiliations

Study at Cambridge

About the University

Research at Cambridge