Dr. Folkert W. Asselbergs is professor in cardiovascular genetics and consultant cardiologist at the department of Cardiology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Programme Lead Cardiovascular Genetics at the Institute of Cardiovascular Science, University College London, adjunct professor at the department of epidemiology, Dartmouth Medical College, Lebanon, United States, and chief scientific officer of the Durrer Center for Cardiogenetic Research, Netherlands Heart Institute.

 Professor Asselbergs published more than 145 scientific papers in the field of cardiovascular disease and his work has been funded by the Netherlands Heart Foundation, Netherlands Heart Institute, EU FP7, European Society of Cardiology, BBMRI, National Institutes of Health, and ZonMw. His research program in complex genetics focuses on the discovery of genes influencing susceptibility to cardiovascular disease; the application of these findings for the validation of drug targets; and the use of genetic tests for treatment targeting (stratified medicine). Dr Asselbergs is member of a large number of consortia and (co-) founded several consortia of which igenetrain (www.igenetrain.net), and genius-chd (www.genius-chd.org) are the most prominent and recent ones. In line with his scientific work, Dr Asselbergs aims to facilitate collaboration at an international level through his work at the Durrer Center of Cardiogenetic research. The Durrer Center is a national multidisciplinary collaboration that aims to provide expertise, infrastructure and services for collecting, comparing, harmonizing and merging results from individual cardiovascular studies (www.durrercenter.nl).