Professor Raal is a Distinguished Professor in the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, as well as Director of the Carbohydrate and Lipid Metabolism Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
He is a NRF A rated scientist and has authored or co authored over 350 original articles and book chapters and has reviewed for several international journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, the Lancet, Circulation, and Atherosclerosi. 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 familial hypercholesterolaemia (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 PCSK9 inhibitors and ANGPTL3 inhibitors in this patient group.
Alberico Catapano is Director of the Center for the Study, Prevention and Therapy of Atherosclerosis of the University of Milan at the Bassini Hospital, Director of Cardiovascular Research Unit at Multimedica IRCCS Sesto San Giovanni (MI), President of the SISA Foundation, President of the Italian Society for the Study of Atherosclerosis (SISA), President of the Italian Society of Clinical and Experimental Therapy (SITeCS), Past President of the European Atherosclerosis Society (EAS), Coordinator of the EAS Lipid Clinics Network, and Co-Chairman of the EAS/European Society of Cardiology (ESC) guidelines for the treatment of dyslipoproteinaemias and lipid consensus papers. In March 2021 he received from the President of the Republic the honour Commendatore of the Italian Republic for scientific research.
Professor Catapano interests in the study of atherosclerosis, lipids, lipoproteins and genetic dyslipidaemias, and he has made landmark observations regarding heat shock proteins and pentraxins in atherogenesis, on high-density lipoproteins in the modulation of the immune response, and on the identification of possible therapeutic targets by exploiting genetic information. He is currently co-editor of Atherosclerosis and Associate Editor of other scientific journals including the EHJ, he has authored more than 650 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals (average career I.F. 10.929) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/alberico+catapano and he has more than 110.000 citations from 2018 and a total of more than 198.000 in his career https://bit.ly/CatapanoAL-GoogleScholar and is among the highly cited scientists in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 according to Clarivate.
Dr. Cuchel is a translational scientist with a longstanding research interest in rare disorders of lipoprotein metabolism and the development of novel therapeutic strategies. Specifically, as PI or co-Investigator on several University, FDA, and NIH-funded grants, she has designed and conducted deep phenotyping studies and multi-site international clinical trials in cohorts of patients with Mendelian disorders. These studies have had a significant impact in the development and regulatory approval of novel treatments for homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia.
She appreciates the importance of natural history studies and registries as tools necessary to facilitate the understanding of factors that affect outcomes and the development of novel treatments for rare disorders. She is one of the founders of an investigator-initiated international registry for homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia that currently contains data from about 1000 patients from about 40 countries worldwide. She is the principal investigator of a natural history study enrolling patients with LCAT deficiency with the goal of identifying reliable biomarkers of disease severity and progression.
Dr. Cuchel has authored or co-authored over 90 original articles, including in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Lancet, Circulation, Nature Medicine, and Science.
Miriam Larouche is a young scientific professional at ECOGENE-21, a non-for-profit clinical and translational research center in Canada where she coordinates the rare lipid disorders division. She completed her Master’s degree in 2018 during which she developed skills in the genetics and epigenetics of complex traits. In 2022, she began a PhD in lipidology at Université de Montréal.
In the recent years, she has been involved in the design or coordination of clinical trials and academic research projects and has authored or co- authored original articles and presented results at national or international meetings. She is the scientific coordinator of SMASH and as such, is gradually establishing collaboration with several networks of clinicians, researchers and patients affected by rare lipid disorders worldwide.
Dr. Gaudet is a clinician-researcher in lipidology at the department of medicine of the Université de Montreal (U de M). He coordinates the U de M community gene medicine center in Chicoutimi and its clinical lipidology and rare dyslipidemia unit. He founded the lipid clinic at the Chicoutimi Hospital and now heads ECOGENE-21, a non-for-profit clinical research organization dedicated to access to diagnostic or therapeutic innovation for patients with unmet needs.
His main academic activities aim at investigating the natural history of rare or severe lipid disorders, translating new knowledge issued from extreme lipid phenotypes to more common forms of diseases and facilitating access to innovative diagnosis or treatments. In collaboration with his team, he has coordinated or conducted nearly 250 clinical studies over the years. To date, he authored >300 scientific publications in peer- reviewed journals as well as >550 scientific communicati ons or book chapters.
Raul D. Santos is a preventive cardiologist and lipidologist from Sao Paulo, Brazil. He is a researcher at Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, director of the lipid clinic, and associate professor at the Heart Institute of the University of Sao Paulo Medical School Hospital.
His main research interests include genetic dyslipidemias, imaging in atherosclerosis, and novel lipid-modifying therapies. He has been a highly cited researcher in cross-field since 2021, according to Clarivate Analytics, and a former president of the International Atherosclerosis Society (IAS).
Professor Marianne Abi Fadel is the Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy at Saint Joseph University of Beirut USJ since 2013, and the director of the Biochemistry and Molecular Therapeutics laboratory (LBTM) at the USJ School of Pharmacy. Born in Beirut, she holds a Doctor of Pharmacy degree, a Clinical Biochemistry Specialization Diploma, a PhD in Molecular Genetics and the French accreditation to supervise research (HDR) from the University of Paris-Descartes. She is a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology in Lebanon, an invited researcher at INSERM in Paris and the director of the USJ Rodolphe Mérieux Laboratory in Lebanon since 2018.
Her main scientific achievement is the discovery of the implication of PCSK9 in familial hypercholesterolemia by identifying its first mutations (Abifadel et al., Nature Genetics, 2003). This was the seminal research linking PCSK9 to cholesterol metabolism and the starting point of the PCSK9 story from a gene discovery in familial hypercholesterolemia to a new therapeutic class: the anti-PCSK9.
Comprising researchers, clinical experts, healthcare professionals, and visionary leaders, our founders are united by a common goal: to shape care for those with rare lipid disorders. Each member brings a wealth of experience, unique insights, and a strong commitment to our mission.
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SMASH founders are united by a common goal: to improve access to healthcare for those with rare or severe lipid disorders regardless of their environment and socioeconomic status.
From novel research, to advocating for patient access, to accurate diagnosis and innovative treatments, the SMASH team works across continents to bridge gaps in healthcare ensuring that the approach is holistic, patient-centered, and globally impactful.
Discover the founders below:
