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News from the Faculty of Health Sciences
Vitamin D Crucial to Activating Immune Defenses
2010-03-07
Scientists at the University of Copenhagen have discovered that Vitamin D is crucial to activating our immune defenses and that without sufficient intake of the vitamin, the killer cells of the immune system - T cells - will not be able to react to and fight off serious infections in the body.
For T cells to detect and kill foreign pathogens such as clumps of bacteria or viruses, the cells must first be ‘triggered' into action and ‘transform' from inactive and harmless immune ...
Breakthrough by Danish Scientists in Preventing Maternal Malaria
2010-02-04
Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have become the first in the world to synthesize the entire protein that is responsible for life-threatening malaria in pregnant women and their unborn children. The protein known as VAR2CSA enables malaria parasites to accumulate in the placenta and can therefore potentially be used as the main component in a vaccine to trigger antibodies that protect pregant women against the disease. The research team is now planning to test the efficacy of the pr...
New Brain Research: Hunger for Stimulation Driven by Dopamine in the Brain
2010-02-01
Our need for stimulation and dopamine's action upon the brain are connected, which explains why people who constantly crave stimulation are in danger of addictive behaviour such as drug abuse and gambling.
The urge to actively seek out new experiences is a personality trait that psychologists have known about for years, but up until now scientists have been unable to prove how this urge relates to hormonal activities in the brain.
Now, an international research team made up of scientists from the University of Copenhagen, University of Aarhus and University of Tokyo have been able to prove for the firs...
Profile: Ian Hickson - Cancer and Ageing: 2 sides of the same coin?
2010-01-26
At the Centre for Healthy Ageing, SUND's new professor of molecular ageing is studying the intimate relationship between cancer and ageing and how the body protects itself from both.
After graduating from secondary school, the young Ian Hickson had to make a career-choice. "At the time I d...
Postgraduates on Special Disaster Management Course Flown to Haiti
2010-01-21
A special postgraduate degree course in disaster management has been run jointly by the University of Copenhagen and University of Lund since 2008. The course was established after the experience of the Indian Ocean Tsunami and other recent catastrophic disasters, where some needs by aid agencies on the ground were oversupplied due to duplication, while other needs were unattended to. According to Lecturer and Course Leader Peter Kjær Jensen, the relief work often proved ineffectual in part because the organisations failed to coordinate their efforts o...
Blog: Master of International Health students in Velhore, India
2010-01-06
The American Nurses magazine "Advance" has published a blog, written by our resident science journalist, Malene Flagga. Malene travelled to Velhore, India to find out how students on the Faculty's Master of International Health programme fared during their five weeks of field work in India. The Master of International Health programme gives students the opportunity to apply their knowledge of public healt...
New Protein Center Opens
2009-06-04
On the 4th June, the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Copenhagen will open the doors of its new research center, The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research. The Center is the result of a historic donation from the Novo Nordisk Foundation, which in 2007 gave the University 80 million euros for its establishment.
The protein center, headed by director Michael Sundström, will be housed in three recently renovated floors of the Panum Institute in Copenhagen. With ...
Improving education may cut smoking in youth
2009-05-13
Although low socio-economic status is associated with an increased liability to smoke, performing well at school can mitigate this effect. A new study, published in BioMed Central's open access International Journal for Equity in Health, has shown that high-achieving schoolchildren, even those from poor backgrounds, are less likely to smoke.
Christina Schnohr led a team of researchers from the University of Copenhagen's Institute of Public Health who surveyed 20,399 schoolchildren from the UK, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland. She said, "Above average academic achievement was associated with lower risk of smoking. Teachers and politicians may find this information useful, and allocate resources to give higher priority to a supportive environment in schools especially for children and adolescents in lower social groups. Thi...
University of Copenhagen ranks 2nd in Best Places to Work for Postdocs
2009-03-08
The University of Copenhagen has been ranked 2nd in The Scientist's annual league table of best places to work for postdocs. The international survey (excluding the US) was carried out between October and December of 2008, with university respondents invited to assess their working environment according to 43 criteria in 11 different categories. Foreign Universities that scored well were, according to The Scientist, able to demonstrate support for ...
Faculty researchers at no. 42 in Discovery Magazine
2008-12-17
Earlier this year, Professor Hans Eiberg and Associate Professor Jesper Troelsen from the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine published their research on the origin of blue eyes. They linked blue eye colour to a single genetic mutation that originated in one individual, approximately 10,000 years ago. The discovery caused a veritable media storm at the time, with the research team interviewed on CBS News and extensive press ...
Researcher at the Faculty discusses new vaccine technology on BBC world
2008-12-09
Jan Pravsgaard, Associate Professor in Infectious Immunology at the University of Copenhagen discussed a new vaccine platform on the BBC radio programme Science in Action. The platform is being developed by Associate Professor Pravsgaard, Peter Holst, PhD and Professor Allan Randrup Thomsen from the Department of International Health, Immunology and Microbiology.
Listen to the broadcast here
The interview was also aired on the British radio programme, ...
New type of vaccines delivers strong and fast immune response
2008-11-24
- could protect against previously untreatable, deadly viruses and cancers
A new vaccine principle is being developed by scientists at the University of Copenhagen which - if it works to its full expected potential - could help to save millions of lives and revolutionise current vaccine technology. The ‘InVacc' platform, as it is known, represents an advance on the original DNA vaccines and generates new vaccines with greatly enhanced properties. The platform consists of a chain of amino acids attached to a gene of the virus being vaccinated against. This genet...
Researchers crack final part of the immune system's codes
2008-07-10
A group of researchers at the Technical University of Denmark and the University of Copenhagen have developed models of neural networks that make it possible to simulate how the body protects itself from disease and predict the immune system's access codes. The human body has its own natural inbuilt defence mechanism which uses access or "pincodes" to stop microorganisms that invade the body from discovering how the entire human immune system works. Every human being on the planet ha...
New research refutes myth of pure Scandinavian race
2008-06-03
A team of forensic scientists at the University of Copenhagen has studied human remains found in two ancient Danish burial grounds dating back to the iron age, and discovered a man who appears to be of arabian origin. The findings suggest that human beings were as genetically diverse 2000 years ago as they are today and indicate greater mobility among iron age populations than was previously thought. The findings also suggest that people in the Danish iron age did not live and die in small,...
Researchers block the transmission of malaria in animal tests
2008-06-02
By disrupting the potassium channel of the malaria parasite, a team of researchers has been able to prevent the malaria parasites from forming in mosquitoes and has thereby broken the cycle of infection during recent animal tests.
By genetically altering the malaria parasite through gene knock-out technol-ogy, a research team consisting of scientists at the University of Copenha-gen and John Hopkins University, Baltimore, has prevented the parasite from going through the normal stages of its life cycle and developing a cyst (egg-like structure or occyst), which spawns new infectious parasites." As it is exclusively the parasites from these oocysts that can infect new individu-als, we were able to prevent the diseas...
The eyes have it: scientists can ascertain date of birth by looking into the lens of the eye
2008-02-20
Researchers have discovered that the lens of the eye can reveal the date of birth of a human being. This can be determined by measuring the level of the carbon isotope C-14 in the lens of the eye. The technique provides a useful tool for forensic scientists with which to date an unidentified body and may also have further implications for health science research.
In the first 2 years of life, cells in the lens of the eye build tiny transparent proteins, which allow light to pass through the eye so that we can see. These special proteins, known as lens crystallines, remain essentially unchanged for the rest of our lives and are the only part of the human body apart from teeth that do so. This immutable quality of the lens crystallines is a fact that scientists can now put to good use. By measuring the amount of C-14 trapped in the eye lens, scienti...
HIV drugs, Abacavir and Didanosine, increase the risk of heart attack
2008-02-07
A study to assess the adverse effects of anti-retroviral drugs shows that two of the widely used HIV drugs are associated with an increased risk of heart attack/the formation of blood clots in the heart. With the use of Didanosine; the risk of developing a heart attack increases by 49%, with Abacavir; the increased risk is 90%. The effect is most pronounced in patients with a high underlying cardiovascular risk. The research findings also show that the adverse effect is reversible, if patients d...
Blue-eyed humans have a single, common ancestor
2008-01-28
New research shows that people with blue eyes have a single, common ancestor. A team at the University of Copenhagen have tracked down a genetic mutation which took place 6-10,000 years ago and is the cause of the eye colour of all blue-eyed humans alive on the planet today.
What is the genetic mutation
"Originally, we all had brown eyes", said Professor Eiberg from the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine. "But a genetic mutation affecting the OCA2 gene in our chromosomes resulted in the creation of a "switch", which literally "turned off" the ability to produce brown eyes". The OCA2 gene codes for the so-called P protein, which is involved in the production of melanin, the pigment that gives colour to our hair, eyes and skin. The "switch...
Professor of Glycomics on WIRED's top 10 list of scientific breakthroughs for 2007
2008-01-14
Professor Henrik Clausen from the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine appears in 4th place on Wired's top ten list of scientific discoveries for 2007. Professor Clausen was nominated for his discovery of a technique to convert blood type A, B and AB into type O - the blood type that everyone can tolerate during a blood transfusion.
During the Autumn of 2007, the American National Institute of Health faced a critical shortage of blood type O. Thanks to Profes...
Largest PhD school in the country celebrates its opening
2007-12-21
On the 13th December at 3pm, the Copenhagen Graduate School of Health Sciences will formally open for the first time. The graduate school will bring PhD students together under one roof, creating a central administrative body to unify the different departments, clusters, centres and offices relevant to the PhD programme. This brings an end to the previous, more eclectic system, which saw doctoral students apply for funding through 11 separate researcher schools and bui...