Tiltrædelsesforelæsning for professor Allan Vaag

Tidligere i år blev Allan Vaag udnævnt til professor på Biomedicinsk Institut. Det skal nu fejres med en tiltrædelsesforelæsning den 3. december 2021 kl. 15:00 i Faculty Club (16.6). Efter forelæsningen vil der blive afholdt reception samme sted. Forelæsningen har titlen ”Developmental Programming of Type 2 Diabetes”.

Om Allan Vaags forskning

Allan Vaag has been engaged in translational research within type 2-diabetes (T2D) and its associated cardiometabolic complications since 1986 when he shortly after his graduation as MD was employed as registrar at Hvidøre Hospital (now integrated into Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen (SDCC)). He defended his PhD thesis about the role of the “glucose fatty acid cycle” in humans in 1993, and subsequently he defended his Doctor of Medical Science degree on the pathophysiology of T2D in 1999.

Allan Vaag's research has contributed substantially to the understanding of T2D being both a multifactorial as well as multiple organ disease. Since he together with his team in 1997 discovered among twins that low birth weight (LBW) is associated with T2D in a non-genetic manner, he has focused his research on building the understanding of the role and mechanisms through which an adverse intrauterine environment (including offspring of mothers with diabetes in pregnancy) increases the risk of T2D and associated diseases. His translational research strategy has for more than 3 decades been to integrate multiple complementary research fields and innovative technologies to address key questions in the fields of integrative physiology, ex vivo multi omics, muscle and adipose tissue biology, genetics, epigenetics, epidemiology, register research, clinical trials etc. Together with his team and collaborators, he has taken advantage of unique Danish cohorts and registries (ex. Twin Registry, Birth Registry, National Birth Cohort, Inter99 cohort etc.) to perform state-of-the-art deep phenotyping studies of distinct subgroups with or at risk of developing T2D.

After finishing his postgraduate training to become bord certified specialist of endocrinology and internal medicine, Allan Vaag in the period between 2000 and 2011 was employed at consultant and research leader at SDCC. Allan Vaag has been adjunct professor of Metabolism and Diabetes Research at Lund University, Sweden, in the period between 2005 and 2014, and he served as guest professor at the Institute of Metabolic Science, Cambridge University, UK, between 2007 and 2008. In 2011, Allan Vaag was appointed full professor (chair) of endocrinology at Copenhagen University, as well as consultant at the Department of Endocrinology at Rigshospitalet. Between 2016 and 2019, Allan Vaag was Vice President in AstraZeneca, and acted as global head of early clinical development within cardiovascular, renal and metabolic diseases. Allan Vaag returned to SDCC as consultant and research leader to head the Translational Type 2 Diabetes Research Group in 2019. Allan Vaag has for many years served in different national as well as international research boards including the Danish Strategic Research Council and the Danish National Free Research Foundation.