Professor Zirlik is Professor for Cardiology and Chief of the Department of Cardiology at the LKH University Hospital of the Medical University of Graz, Austria. He practices interventional cardiology with a focus on percutaneous coronary and mitral valve repair, interventional hypertensiology and advanced heart failure medicine. His research interests focus on inflammatory mechanisms in atherogenesis and at the interface of cardiovascular disease, metabolic disease, and thrombosis. He is past president of the German Atherosclerosis Society (DGAF), past chairman of the working group of Heart and Diabetes of the German Cardiac Society (DGK), and current member of the managing board of the Austrian Society of Cardiology (ÖKG). He is a member of various editorial boards including Cardiovascular Research, Atherosclerosis, PlosOne, and Case Reports in Cardiovascular Medicine.