The grant of 50 million SEK over a period of ten years will allow Charlotte Ling to develop the research environment within epigenetics and diabetes at Lund University Diabetes Centre (LUDC).
“I am very grateful for the distinguished professor grant and would like to express my gratitude towards former and current colleagues in my research group. My colleagues at Lund University Diabetes Centre and collaborators have also contributed in a significant way,” says Charlotte Ling, professor of epigenetics and diabetes at Lund University and a research group leader at Lund University Diabetes Centre.
An important objective with the distinguished professor grant is to create conditions for the most prominent researchers to conduct long-term and innovative research with the potential to achieve scientific breakthroughs.
Charlotte Ling’s research group will continue its studies of the epigenetic mechanisms that may cause type 2 diabetes and metabolic disease. An important long-term goal is to translate the epigenetic findings to biomarkers and new treatments.
“The grant will give our research a long-term perspective. It will also allow me to keep staff and researchers with an in-depth knowledge of epigenetics and type 2 diabetes,” says Charlotte Ling.
Recently, the research group discovered a combination of biomarkers that can predict which patients will benefit from metformin treatment and which patients should receive an alternative drug. This work is now continuing in order to confirm the results in a larger patient group, with the intention of developing a test for clinical use.