Prize winner 2018

Prize winner

Jorge Lira Ruas
Associate Professor of Molecular Physiology at Karolinska Institute

This year´s recipient of the Leif C. Groop award for outstanding diabetes research is Assistant professor Jorge Ruas. In Jorge´s work, a meticulous molecular and physiological approach has allowed him to elucidate critical signalling 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.