Ingrid Wernstedt Asterholm at Sahlgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg is this year’s recipient of the Leif C. Groop Award for Outstanding Diabetes Research. She presented her award-winning work at the annual LUDC Diabetes Research Day on February 11.
“I am very happy and touched to receive this award. This award allows me to rest in the feeling that all the work I have done is good enough, at least for a short while,” said the awardee, a professor of physiology at University of Gothenburg.
Preventive treatments
Ingrid Wernstedt Asterholm receives the the Leif C. Groop Award for Outstanding Diabetes Research of SEK 100,000 for important discoveries about mechanisms in adipose tissue that can lead to preventive treatments of people who are at risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Bilal Mir from the Translational Muscle Research Unit at LUDC received this year’s Leif C. Groop Young Scientist Scholarship at the event.
He is awarded the scholarship of SEK 200,000 for his studies of a protein called MSS51, which may play a key role in muscle health and sugar metabolism.
In pursuit of new treatments
Bilal Mir and his colleagues have found that some people have a genetic variant that reduces the function of this protein, and these individuals tend to have higher levels of blood sugar, insulin and lipids but reduced insulin sensitivity, which are early signs of diabetes. An important goal with his research project is to determine whether this protein could be a target for future diabetes treatments.
“It is an incredible honor to receive the Leif C. Groop Young Scientist Scholarship. The funds will allow me to expand and continue my research project by conducting additional experiments. As an early career researcher, I am grateful for this support as it motivates me to pursue novel research directions and generate high-quality data that can contribute to advancing diabetes research,” says Bilal Mir.
The annual LUDC Diabetes Research Day is arranged by the LUDC Early Career Network. LUDC ECN awards PhD students grants to ambitious doctoral students with promising projects at this event.
Mathis Neuhaus, PhD student within the research group Glucose Transport and Protein Trafficking, received the LUDC ECN student grant this year. He presented his project at the event. Talks were also given by junior researchers at LUDC and key note speaker professor Per-Henrik Groop from University of Helsinki.
