Research into mental disorders has received a major boost: Two researchers from the Health Science faculty at Aarhus University have been awarded a postdoc grant from the Lundbeck Foundation, and will each receive more than DKK 2 million.

The human brain and clinical practice are the focal points for the award of the Lundbeck Foundation’s research grants to postdocs in 2023. The grants support talented early-career researchers who have completed their PhDs and are pursuing projects of high academic quality in the field of neuroscience or clinical research.

The two researchers from Health at Aarhus University who have received grants are:

Postdoc Anne Bruun Rovsing of the Department of Biomedicine, who has received a research grant of DKK 2,286,700 for the project “Discovering variant-gene effects in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and the impact of lithium”.

Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are devastating mental disorders with high personal and social costs. New, large-scale genetic studies have revealed hundreds of genetic regions with variants that are strongly associated with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The goal of Anne Bruun Rovsing’s project is to identify both causal genetic variants and the genes that the variants affect. She will also study how lithium treatment, which relieves symptoms in 30% of patients, affects these genetic variants and the target genes.

Postdoc Linda Ejlskov of the Department of Clinical Medicine, who has received DKK 2,305,540 for the project “SocMenDis: Socioeconomic Context and Mental Disorders: quantifying the impact”.

One in three people experience a mental disorder in the course of their lives, but people with a lower socioeconomic position are disproportionately affected. Linda Ejlskov will use the unique Danish registers to establish a Danish socio-economic psychiatric cohort: a register-based year group of all children born in Denmark from 1980 onwards. The project will provide a more holistic view of the excessive mental health burden associated with growing up in a disadvantaged socioeconomic context. This knowledge is crucial for reducing the risk of mental disorders.

Six-figure grants to clinical researchers

The Lundbeck Foundation has introduced a new type of grant for clinical postdocs, known as Early-Career Clinician Scientists. Three of these grants have been awarded to researchers at Aarhus University Hospital who are also employed at Aarhus University.

Morten Krogh Herlin MD, PhD of the Department of Clinical Medicine and the Department of Clinical Genetics at Aarhus University Hospital has received DKK 2.5 million for the project “DanMRKH: Multidisciplinary studies of Mayer-Küster-Hauser (MRKH) syndrome in Danish women”.

Associate Professor Jakob Kirkegaard MD of the Department of Clinical Medicine and the Department of Surgery at Aarhus University Hospital has received DKK 1,775,000 for the project “Improving Survival for Pancreatic Cancer Patients”.

Sidsel Støy of the Department of Clinical Medicine and the Department of Hepatology and Gastroenterology at Aarhus University Hospital has received DKK 2,288,097 for the project “IL-22 as mediator of response to faecal microbiota transplantation in liver cirrhosis”.

A postdoc grant from Lundbeck Foundation is typically disbursed over a period of two to three years, while an Early Career Clinician Scientist grant is disbursed over two to five years.

This coverage is based on press material from the Lundbeck Foundation.