- I am thankful and honoured. The grant has an important role in the feasibility of the quantity and quality to make the studies succeed, Marju Orho-Melander says.
The project has the potential to significantly advance the frontiers of the research field and is expected to generate new research areas. The unique material, the focused studies and a first-rate project leader in an excellent environment makes this project feasible, goes the motivation from the Swedish Research Council.
Marju Orho Melander’s research group studies the complex mechanisms behind type 2 diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease. They focus on identification of genetic and other biomarkers that increase the risk of these so called cardiometabolic diseases.
Earlier the research group has found biomarkers that increase the risk of both cardiometabolic diseases and breast cancer.
Biomarkers are used in screening and to diagnose a disease. Markers can be an indication of a certain state, a biological process or a response to a medical treatment. They can be genetic and found e.g. in the human gene pool, the dna, or consist of proteins or hormones and be found in tissues, blood and urine for instance.
Another part of the research is the studies on satiety hormone levels in the blood and how these are regulated by diet and by our genes, and how the affect gut microbiota.
The studies are based on unique population cohorts, like the Malmö Diet and cancer study and the Malmö Offspring Study, which offer a wonderful possibility to investigate interactions between genes and environmental factors like diet, and to study links between different diseases, which is important to take into account in prevention and treatment of human diseases.
Text: Sara Liedholm
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