The Lundbeck Foundation Appoints Thomas Qvistgaard Jepps and Tor Biering-Sørensen as Fellows
Assistant Professor Thomas Qvistgaard Jepps and Associate Professor Tor Biering-Sørensen from the Department of Biomedical Sciences are two of five researchers from the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences who have been named Lundbeck Foundation Fellows. The title comes with a research grant of DKK 10 million over five years.
It is the 13th time, the Lundbeck Foundation has awarded fellowships to younger, well-established researchers within various fields. The title comes with DKK 10 million for research over a five-year period and with ten researchers, this year's field of fellows is the largest to date.
Half of the new fellows are affiliated with the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen and two of them are part of the Department of Biomedical Sciences.
Thomas Qvistgaard Jepps, Assistant Professor at the Department of Biomedical Sciences
Thomas Qvistgaard Jepps will conduct research into what goes wrong when people develop hypertension, and how the treatment can be improved for those patients who do not respond to regular treatment.
In his research, Thomas Qvistgaard Jepps has already shown that the contraction of the blood vessels is regulated by proteins distributed on the surface of those muscle cells that control the diameter of the blood vessels.
The next step is to study how that mechanism contributes to hypertension, and whether a modified distribution of proteins on the muscle cells may improve the current treatments.
See video presentation with Thomas Qvistgaard Jepps at the Lundbeck Foundation website
Tor Biering-Sørensen, Associate Professor at the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Doctor and Research Director at Herlev and Gentofte Hospital
Tor Biering-Sørensen will investigate whether it is possible to avoid heart disease by offering preventative treatment to elderly people with a particular risk of developing heart disease.
As an expert in new cardiac measurement methods, he will investigate if some of the latest techniques might be used to predict heart disease, such as heart failure, blood clots and dangerous forms of arrhythmia.
In continuation, Tor Biering-Sørensen will look into whether it makes sense to offer an advanced ultrasound scan and eventual preventive treatment in every patient over the age of 65 who have already been diagnosed with high blood pressure or diabetes.
See video presentation with Tor Biering-Sørensen at the Lundbeck Foundation website