In the Final Evaluation of the Linnaeus program carried out by, the Swedish Research Council and Formas (Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning), Lund University Diabetes Centre (LUDC) was identified as one of the three best research environments in the medical sciences together with centres from Karolinska Institutet and Umeå University. The environments were evaluated in two areas, research performance and societal relevance. The main conclusion from the evaluation was that the 10-year Linnaeus Grant has resulted in successful research environments that have contributed to breakthrough research and are characterized by interdisciplinary research and have enhanced the national and international competitiveness.
- The Linnaeus Grant has been fundamental for the establishment of a sustainable research environment. With its focus on excellence, flexibility and, in particular its long-term perspective, the Linnaeus funding has enabled more bold, “high risk / high gain” research. It has also been instrumental for the recruitment and training of a new generation of very strong researchers and leaders. The Linnaeus programme has definitely strengthened Sweden's position as one of the leading research nations in diabetes, says Maria Gomez.
"Scientific impact that cannot be overestimated"
The report describes LUDC as a centre with a scientific impact that "cannot be overestimated". No other Linnaeus environment has published as many scientific publications and with an increased impact over time[MG1] . The scientific success of the LUDC has developed and it continues to function as a Centre of Excellence just as intended by the programme. The LUDC is an exemplary collaborative effort and a best practice example of team science both nationally and internationally.
- This was particularly fun to read, says Maria Gomez, who believes that the long evaluation process gave the evaluators an opportunity to see where LUDC stands today.
- The Linnaeus Grant ended 2016 and the evaluation went on until end of January 2020.
Worldwide epidemic
Diabetes has increased to epidemic proportions in societies with a western, sedentary lifestyle and poor nutritional habits. According to the Linnaeus report, LUDC has challenged the historical classification of diabetes into autoimmune type 1 diabetes and insulin resistant type 2 diabetes. Research at LUDC has effectively combined various disciplines with analyzes of large and well-characterized patient cohorts and their detailed molecular, genetic and clinical data. A direct outcome of the work is a more refined diabetes classification into groups with different disease progression and severity of complications. The complexity is still far from fully elucidated, but this result is an internationally praised prerequisite for the development of new diagnosis and treatment strategies, representing an important step towards precision medicine in diabetes.
- The new diabetes classification can help us identify and provide treatment to those who have the highest risk of developing serious complications. It also means that we can now develop and test new drugs and treatments in specific groups of patients, says Maria Gomez.
Increased quality of life for the patient
The evaluators conclude in the report that through the results of the LUDC, the eventual goal of individualized healthcare offering prevention, disease interception, early intervention and outright cure for most or all affected patients has come closer, and promises significant impact on the quality of life of diabetes patients, and thereby a significant reduction of the human suffering. The LUDC findings should eventually also contribute to reducing the economic burden of the diabetes epidemic for society.
