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KMEB

Nina Wærling Hansen

MSc.

Email: nwhansen@health.sdu.dk

With a background in Nutrition and a history of working with stem cells, I am extremely pleased to be working in a multidisciplinary fashion comprising research of bone biology, energy metabolism, type 2 diabetes (T2D) and stem cells. My studies are focused on the effects induced by the incretin hormones GLP-1 and GIP on skeletal stem cells from T2D patients and healthy individuals.

The aim is to clarify if the cellular and molecular consequences of a slowdown in bone remodelling as seen in T2D, is related to an altered osteogenic response to the abovementioned hormones. Preclinical studies suggest a beneficiary effect of incretin hormones on bone metabolism and although this knowledge has been present for some time, it has not been further tested in vivo or in T2D patients. With my PhD-project I will apply a translational approach combining RNA sequencing and cellular analysis to investigate the effects of separate and simultaneously activation of GLP-1 and GIP receptors on bone metabolism in human subjects. It is our hypothesis that GLP-1 and GIP receptor activation promotes osteoblast differentiation of skeletal stem cells and that a combined GLP-1 and GIP receptor activation will increase the osteogenic differentiation capacity, leading to an increase in bone formation.

When not preoccupied with my PhD-studies, I spend my time with family and friends, trying to keep up with the world and just generally enjoying life and giving while living.

Nina Waerling Hansen