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Åke Lernmark awarded for his epoch-making contributions to children with type 1 diabetes

The Swedish Society of Medicine has awarded post retirement professor Åke Lernmark at Lund University with the Oscar Medin Prize and SEK 25 000.

Åke Lernmark started his research career in type 1 diabetes in the 1970s.

He is responsible for the Swedish part of the TEDDY study and TrialNet, among others, in which he has studied why certain children develop type 1 diabetes while others do not.

How does it feel to receive this award?

“It was very unexpected but I felt very honoured”, he says about receiving the award.

Åke Lernmark was awarded for his epoch-making contributions to the understanding of the mechanisms that cause autoimmune (type 1) diabetes in children. He has mapped the immunological and genetic background of the disease as well as demonstrating important links and mechanisms in other autoimmune diseases in children such as coeliac disease.

In what way has your research affected children who develop type 1 diabetes?

“It has affected the lives of those children born in Skåne who became study participants in the DiPiS or TEDDY studies because it became possible to predict which children would develop type 1 diabetes or coeliac disease. This enabled the prevention of serious progression of the disease. For those 1000 children diagnosed with diabetes each year in Sweden, a reliable diagnosis for autoimmune (type 1) diabetes is now possible.”

What exciting research projects do you currently have underway?

“New methods to analyse our genes have made it possible to delve deeply into those genes that control the risk of the body’s own immune system attacking the beta cells. This knowledge, together with the TEDDY study’s analysis of environmental factors, has resulted in research projects on viral infections in children that we could only dream about a few years ago.”   

Read more in the press release from the Swedish Society of Medicine (in Swedish):

Sara Liedholm