Two KI researchers receive award for their research in diabetes
KI researchers Niklas Mejhert and Zhichao Zhou are among the 4 European grantees receiving 5 million DKK each for 5 years from the European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes (EFSD)/Novo Nordisk Future Leaders Award program in 2022.
This highly competitive grant supports young and promising researchers of excellence who wish to further develop their career in Europe to investigate the mechanisms of diabetes and its complications.
Niklas Mejhert, principal researcher at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge, received the grant for the project "Determinants of adipocyte lipid turnover in type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease". The funded project aims to dissect how alterations in adipocyte lipid turnover promote the development of cardiovascular disease and metabolic complications in people with type 2 diabetes.
“As the award covers five years, it will allow us to study this important question using a translational approach where we combine both clinical and pre-clinical approaches,” says Niklas Mejhert.
Zhichao Zhou, Assistant Professor at the Department of Medicine, Solna, received the grant for the project “Functional role of erythrocyte-derived non-coding RNAs in diabetes-associated vascular complications”. The project aims to characterize the function of non-coding RNAs that are abundantly expressed in erythrocytes and study the implications of alteration of erythrocyte-derived non-coding RNAs in type 2 diabetes-associated vascular complications.
“Using unbiased methods and translational approaches, this prestigious grant will allow us to identify top changed non-coding RNAs in erythrocytes as novel disease mechanisms and potential therapeutic targets for type 2 diabetic patients suffering from cardiovascular complications,“ says Zhichao Zhou.
About the award
The Future leader award aims to support young investigators conducting outstanding research in the field of diabetes at a European university. The award is given by the European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes (EFSD) and the Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF) and will be announced at the 58th EASD Annual Meeting in Stockholm in September.