Leading Swedish diabetes researcher joins Alberta Diabetes Institute
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Leading Swedish Diabetes Researcher Joins Alberta Diabetes Institute
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Patrik Rorseman, PhD
One of the world’s top diabetes researchers has joined the team at the Alberta Diabetes Institute. Dr. Patrik Rorsman, an award-winning expert in Type-2 diabetes, holds the University of Alberta’s newest Canada Excellence in Research Chair (CERC).
A native of Sweden, Dr. Rorsman has made significant advances in the study of how pancreatic islet cells produce insulin and glucagon. In Type-2 diabetes, beta cells in the pancreas fail to produce enough insulin (which lowers blood glucose levels), while alpha cells produce too much glucagon (which raises blood glucose levels).
Highly recognized by his peers, Dr. Rorsman has been elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Science and received numerous awards, among them the Minkowski Prize of the European Association for The Study of Diabetes, a Wolfson-Royal Society Merit Award Fellowship, and the Knud Lundbrek Award from the Scandinavian Diabetes Society.
By joining Edmonton’s world-renowned diabetes research institute (with its comprehensive human islet procurement program), Dr. Rorsman hopes to boost his work to identify and understand pancreatic islet cell function. “It is a fantastic opportunity and a great honour to be invited to be part of such a vibrant and dynamic research community,” he says.
In return, the institute’s researchers and students will benefit greatly from interaction with such an outstanding scientist. Dr. Rorsman will collaborate especially closely with ADI Director Dr. Peter Light (Charles A. Allard Chair in Diabetes Research) and Dr. Patrick Macdonald (Canada Research Chair in Diabetes) who previously worked as a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Rorsman.
In addition to his work on pancreatic islet cells, Dr. Rorsman and his collaborators will examine links between diabetes and obesity, insulin secretion, and gene expression, with the goal of developing new approaches to diabetes prevention and treatment.
Please visit Express News for more information about Dr. Patrik Rorseman.
