The awards were presented on 5 October 2026 at a ceremony for two postdocs from Aarhus University's Faculty of Health Sciences. Both researchers study disease processes that cross the usual boundaries between medical fields.
Each received the Bagger-Sørensen Foundation's Young Researcher Award, worth DKK 100,000.
Together, the two Young Researcher Awards represent DKK 200,000, with DKK 100,000 awarded to each recipient.
Research on diet, activity and metabolism
Mette Glavind Bülow Pedersen is a medical doctor and postdoc at the Department of Clinical Medicine. Her research looks at the biological links between diet, physical activity and metabolism.
The work has added to knowledge of how the body controls energy. Over time, it could support more targeted ways to prevent and treat diabetes and other metabolic disorders. An Avisen.dk report also lists nutrition, physical activity and metabolism as the main areas of her research.
Her award puts metabolic regulation at the heart of research with a direct connection to diabetes prevention.
Oral health in the wider disease picture
Fernando Valentim Bitencourt is a postdoc at the Department of Dentistry and Oral Health. He received the second award for studying the relationship between oral health and diabetes.
Using large population-based studies, he has examined links between diseases of the oral cavity, diabetes and other diseases elsewhere in the body. The findings could help dental services and the wider healthcare system bring prevention and treatment closer together.
The ceremony also included a major award for diabetes research, while the two Aarhus researchers received DKK 100,000 each for their Young Researcher Awards.
The foundation gives its Young Researcher Award to early-career researchers who have made an exceptional contribution to diabetes or oral health. This year, both awards went to researchers from Aarhus University's Faculty of Health Sciences.
The two awards cover separate but closely connected areas: metabolic regulation and the relationship between oral disease and conditions elsewhere in the body. Their research brings dental care and wider healthcare into the same discussion, with diabetes prevention and treatment at the center.
