LECTURE: Peter Bergsten

TOPIC: Tackling Childhood Obesity – Cellular and Patient Perspectives

PLACE: 

Zoom link：https://uu-se.zoom.us/j/65946432072

TIME: April 11th at 2：00 pm

Peter Bergsten

Peter Bergsten obtained his medical training at Uppsala University, Sweden. In parallel he conducted cellular research focusing on development of type 2 diabetes. After receiving his PhD he was an International Fellow at the NIH, USA, and also spent a postdoctoral stay in Cambridge, UK.

In 2008 he was appointed full professor at Uppsala University. At this time, he had combined mechanistic cellular work with clinical studies conducted at the Uppsala University Children’s Hospital, where he is adjunct professor.

The translational studies were prompted by the rise in type 2 diabetes among children with obesity and also included clinical trials. The difficulty to treat childhood obesity prompted the prevention initiative Ending ChildHood Obesity (ECHO) zone. In ECHO zones the environment around the child is directed towards promoting healthy choices by long-term engagement of multiple actors in society. Evidence on what effectively and sustainably halts childhood obesity is built by collecting data on societal parameters and health parameters of individual children. Thereby causes for why some children benefit from an intervention and others not are identified, paving the way for personilized health approach.

As of 2021 he is the coordinator of the Swedish national initiative ECHO. He is engaged both in scientific (>120 publications) and public (debates and workshops) contexts promoting health among children.

Hyperinsulinemia, elevated insulin levels, during fasting and after meals are observed in persons with overweight or obesity and have been implicated in development of obesity-related complications including type 2 diabetes mellitus. In the lecture we will see how a cellular model of hyperinsulinemia in obesity, the isolated human islet exposed to elevated fatty acid levels, can help us understand mechanisms contributing to hyperinsulinemia. Also, we will address mechanisms of pharmacological interventions addressing hyperinsulinemia and, in patients with obesity and different degrees of glucose intolerance, see to what extent the cellular studies can be translated to clinical work. Finally, we will introduce the society-based work of prevention of childhood obesity.