Education Series

The Particle Problem began as an investigation into a measurement gap in cardiovascular medicine: the difference between the cholesterol we routinely measure and the apoB-containing particles that actually drive atherosclerotic risk.

This education series translates that investigation into structured lessons for clinicians, scientists, students, and serious learners who want to understand the biology beneath the lipid panel.

The central idea is simple: cholesterol does not travel through blood by itself. It travels inside particles. LDL cholesterol measures cargo. ApoB counts vehicles. In many patients, those two measurements track together. In others, especially in insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, obesity, hypertriglyceridemia, or treated low-LDL states, they can diverge.

That divergence is the particle problem.

The goal of this series is to make the framework teachable: one production line, two ends, and a risk signal that depends on particle number over time.

What the series will cover

The first lectures will introduce the core framework:

  1. Why the standard lipid panel can miss risk

  2. How VLDL, IDL, LDL, remnants, and apoB fit into one continuous production line

  3. Why LDL cholesterol and apoB can disagree

  4. How insulin resistance and triglyceride-rich lipoproteins reveal the upstream problem

  5. What modern guidelines now acknowledge — and why routine practice has not yet caught up

The first interactive lecture is currently being built in Articulate Rise. As modules are released, they will be linked here.