Winners of the Leif C. Groop Award for Outstanding Diabetes Research

Justification for awarding 

Tune H Pers at the University of Copenhagen receives the Leif C. Groop Award for Outstanding Diabetes Research in 2024 for research that has increased the understanding of how specific brain areas and cell populations regulate glycemic control, energy homeostasis, and genetic predisposition to obesity. His groundbreaking research combines genetic data, single-cell technologies and machine learning and could lead to new treatments for patients with obesity or type 2 diabetes.
 

Justification for awarding

Tove Fall at Uppsala University is the recipient of the The Leif C. Groop Award for Outstanding Diabetes Research 2023 for her significant contributions in the field of molecular epidemiology and the identification of causal pathways contributing to diabetes and atherosclerosis. She has pioneered the field using innovative study designs for causal inference in population-based registry and omics studies.

Justification for awarding

Myriam Aouadi at Karolinska Institutet is the recipient of the The Leif C. Groop Award for Outstanding Diabetes Research 2022 for her major contributions in the field of targeted gene silencing and immunometabolism. Myriam Aouadi’s work has widened the understanding of macrophage heterogeneity, obesity-related inflammation and paved the way for the use of molecular approaches in finding new treatments for obese patients with type 2 diabetes and liver disease.

Justification for awarding

Stefano Romeo at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, has achieved what many aspire to – combining advanced research on disease mechanisms with a clinical career – these activities cross-fertilise each other. Professor Romeo’s groundbreaking work on the underlying genetic mechanisms in liver disease has emerged as highly relevant for diabetes and metabolic disorders, where liver engagement is a critical component. Liver disease, particularly non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), is now becoming a major focus for research as well as developments in the pharmaceutical industry, with the goal of preventing severe long-term morbidity in diabetes.

Justification for awarding

The 2020 recipient of the Leif C. Groop award is Niels Grarup at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research at University of Copenhagen. His research interests focus on genetic variation associated with type 2 diabetes. In this endeavor, he performs detailed pathophysiological characterisation of identified disease-associated genetic variants. The prize committee’s interest was particularly caught by the ground-breaking studies of the Inuit population on Greenland. Grarup and his colleagues identified a genetic variant in a crucial protein in insulin signalling, which creates a clinically relevant loss-of-function phenotype of insulin resistance. Rarely have such elegant studies formed the basis of such an intriguing and clinically relevant story.

Justification for awarding

Olov Andersson’s research at Karolinska Insitutet addresses one of the most important aspects of diabetes – how can we find new targets for effective and safe treatment of these diseases. One major approach Andersson has pursued is stimulation of the generation/regeneration of islet cells, thereby improving insulin secretion. Here, his work has been innovative and ground-breaking, in that he is employing zebrafish. These organisms are versatile and exhibit many physiological features that can be used to monitor and assess bodily functions relevant to diabetes. Thus, extensive screens of chemical compounds that could be used to target mechanisms involved in diabetes pathophysiology can be undertaken in zebrafish.       

Justification for awarding

Jorge Lira Ruas at Karolinska Institutet receives the The Leif C. Groop Award for Outstanding Diabetes Research in 2019. A meticulous molecular and physiological approach has allowed him to elucidate critical signaling pathways in skeletal muscle, liver and fat tissue. These include that of PGC1α, and are critical for cellular and whole body metabolic control. His most recent work, published in some of the most prestigious journals in the world, has identified kynurenines, a class of molecules made from the amino acid tryptophan, as important signalling molecules. The importance of kynurenines may not be restricted to type 2 diabetes but may also involve a plethora of other diseases in the gut, as well as in the central nervous and immune systems.

Professor Franks at Lund University receives the Leif C. Groop Award for Outstanding Diabetes Research for his excellent and inspiring work aiming to resolve how environmental and genetic factors jointly conspire to cause type 2 diabetes. This work has been made possible by his relentless efforts to organise and lead clinical studies, not only benefitting his own work, and creating an ambitious and highly competent research group, with the skill sets to tackle these difficult questions. He also pushes boundaries and aims to understand gene-environment interactions on a molecular level, setting him apart from the mainstream of the epidemiology field. Professor Franks is an outstanding speaker and teacher, and a strong and determined leader, who will make a difference for all the people who suffer from diabetes.   

Justification for awarding

Professor Charlotte Ling at Lund University has pioneered studies on epigenetic mechanisms in health and metabolic disease. Epigenetic modifications of our genome are one way in which the environment controls our genome. This is becoming an increasingly important topic in metabolic research, where it has long been understood that genetic and environmental factors conspire to trigger and sustain disease. Charlotte has examined this paradigm in insulin-secreting as well as sensing cell systems, always with a translational edge. This has led to several important breakthroughs, found in a number of high-profile publications, and a very busy travelling schedule to fulfil speaker obligations all over the world.  
 

Justification for awarding

Professor Per-Ola Carlsson at Uppsala University receives the prize for his truly translational studies on diabetes. Few scientists in the field have been able to test concepts derived from islet research in a clinical setting in the way that Per-Ola Carlsson has done. His efforts to improve the efficiency and effect of islet transplantation in patients with insulin-dependent diabetes may prove to have a great impact on future treatment strategies in type 1 diabetes.
 

Justification for awarding
 

Professor Anna Krook at Karolinska Institutet is awarded the prize for her groundbreaking work in the area of insulin action in skeletal muscle. The rationale for these important studies is that most of the carbohydrates ingested with a meal are transported into skeletal muscle cells. This process is perturbed in insulin resistant individuals – a crucial aspect of type 2 diabetes. Professor Krook's work has been particularly important since she has studied these mechanisms both in elegant animal models and in human skeletal muscle. This translational approach has revealed the importance of transcription factors and cytokines as well as DNA methylation for insulin action.

Justification for awarding

The mechanism for how obesity, lipid disturbances and cardiovascular disease develop are still largely unknown. Marju Orho-Melander at Lund University has studied genetic factors associated with these disorders and made very important discoveries that contribute to new insight in the pathogenesis of these diseases as well as opening new areas of research.
 

Justification for awarding

True translational research marries mechanistic detail with clinical relevance. The 2012 recipient of the DPLU/LUDC Nordic Prize for an Outstanding Young Diabetes Investigator – Dr Filip Krag Knop at Gentofte Hospital in Denmark – embodies these aspects of metabolic research. Dr Knop is awarded the prize for his groundbreaking studies on the effects of incretin hormones on insulin and glucagon secretion in humans. His recent interest in the role of incretins in the resolution of diabetes after gastric bypass surgery will be an exciting new prospect in diabetes research.
 

Justification for awarding

The notion that changes in gut microbiota could underlie, to some extent, the pandemic increases in obesity, is novel and exciting. Fredrik Bäckhed at Sahlgrenska University Hospital carries out innovative studies addressing these possibilities. His pioneering efforts may pave the way for a new paradigm in diabetes research.
 

Justification for awarding

Anders Tengholm at Uppsala University is awarded the 2009 DPLU/LUDC Nordic Prize for an Outstanding Young Diabetes Investigator for his groundbreaking studies on signal transduction mechanisms in pancreatic beta-cells. Through the development of a method allowing recordings of cAMP oscillations, these studies have expanded our understanding of cAMP dynamics in response to various stimuli and how the spatio-temporal regulation of this second messenger affects insulin secretion and beta-cell function. 
 

Justification for awarding

Malin Flodström Tullberg at Karolinska Institutet is awarded the 2008 DPLU/LUDC Nordic Prize for an Outstanding Young Diabetes Investigator for her groundbreaking studies on how beta-cells in the pancreatic islets react to viral infections. These responses may be both beneficial and harmful to beta-cells. Consequently, this research addresses fundamental mechanisms in pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes.
 

Justification for awarding

The 2008 DPLU/LUDC Nordic Prize for an Outstanding Young Diabetes Investigator is awarded to Hindrik Mulder at Lund University for his innovative and fundamental studies of molecular mechanisms underlying beta-cell dysfunction. Of particular importance is his research on metabolism in the pancreatic beta-cells, the role of hormone-sensitive lipase in beta-cells, and his studies of diabetes in an animal model of Huntington’s disease, which has resulted in novel insights into the association between neurodegenerative and endocrine disorders. Together these studies have and will continue to increase our understanding of the molecular mechanisms that ensure adequate beta-cell mass and beta-cell function, which in turn will allow the development of better diagnostic and therapeutical tools for the treatment of diabetes.
 

Justification for awarding
 

The 2007 DPLU/LUDC Nordic Prize for an Outstanding Young Diabetes Investigator is awarded to Pål Njølstad at University of Bergen for his innovative and fundamental studies of the molecular genetics of monogenic diabetes and pancreas development. Of particular importance is his translational research of elastase deficiency and the discovery of mutations in the carboxyl-ester lipase (CEL) gene VNTR, which has resulted in original insights into the interaction between exocrine and endocrine cells. Novel pathways of the diabetes phenotype have been defined to provide a better understanding of genetic and developmental heterogeneity of hyperglycemia.
 

Justification for awarding

Outi Vaarala at Linköping University is focusing on environmental factors that may cause type 1 diabetes in children. She has made seminal contributions to the understanding of the risk of type 1 diabetes in children exposed to large quantities of cow’s milk early in life. Outi Vaarala has shown that the presence of insulin in the milk can stimulate the development of antibodies. This may lead to an increased risk to develop autoimmunity against the child’s own beta-cells.
 

Justification for awarding

Helena Edlund at Umeå University is honored for her research to uncover the mechanisms by which the mixed exocrine and endocrine gland develop and differentiate. Her studies have been crucial to our knowledge of the basic mechanisms that underlie the formation of the pancreas and the homeostasis of this organ. The novel understanding of the development of the pancreas and of the islets and how these two tissues talk to each other has resulted in new approaches to uncover the mechanism that cause diabetes.