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Professor Michael Roden Receives the 2018 Morgagni Gold Medal

Professor Michael Roden, board member of the German Diabetes Center (DDZ) – Leibniz Center for Diabetes Research, director of the Department of Endocrinology and Diabetology at Düsseldorf University Hospital and board member of the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD) has been awarded the 2018 Morgagni Gold Medal. With the award named after Giovanni Battista Morgagni, Italian physician, anatomist and founder of modern pathology, the University of Padova Medical School (Italy) has been honoring leading international researchers in the field of human metabolism for more than 30 years.

Winner of the 2018 Morgagni Gold Medal, the most prestigious European award for metabolic research, Professor Michael Roden with Professor Antonio Tiengo. Source: DDZ

Roden received the prize at the Morgagni Symposium 2018 in Venice, the biennial scientific symposium of the University of Padova Medical School. "This award is a special recognition for the long-standing cooperation with young scientists and for the continuous research of my working groups," said Professor Michael Roden, board member at the DDZ. In his lecture "Metabolic Signals as Regulators of Energy Homeostasis in Humans", Roden illuminated processes that trigger the disturbances of cellular metabolism in humans. These findings provide a better understanding of the development and course of diabetes, including its complications. In the long term, as the head of the German Diabetes Study, he hopes to be able to provide diabetes patients with answers on how to avoid complications of the disease.

Brief Biography:
Roden completed his Habilitation (postdoctoral qualification) at the University of Vienna with a thesis on  the "Modulation of Hepatic Insulin Sensitivity". After a research stay as Max Kade Fellow at Yale University, USA, he returned to Vienna, where from 2004 on he headed the 1st Medical Department and was study coordinator of the teaching hospital of the Medical University of Vienna at the Hanusch Hospital. He was also director of the Karl Landsteiner Institute for Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases. In 2008 he accepted the position of W3 professor at  the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf and took on the role of speaker of the board of the DDZ. Since 2009 he has also been a board member of the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD). He contributes his experience in diabetes and endocrinology in an advisory capacity to the Federal Government as a member of the German Council of Science and Humanities and chairman of the Medical Committee.

His research areas include the energy metabolism of healthy people, and in particular patients with diabetes mellitus and obesity. In recent years, his work has focused on the function of mitochondria in muscle and liver tissue, and together with his group, he contributed new methods of non-invasive measurement by means of magnetic resonance spectroscopy. His latest research has shown that mitochondrial function significantly influences the course of  diabetes complications such as NAFLD.

The Prize
The Morgagni Prize was initiated in 1984 by a group of renowned researchers of the Medical School of the University of Padova, one of the oldest universities in Europe. The award is named after the famous anatomist Giovanni Battista Morgagni (1682-1771). In the medical terminology, a number of diagnostic findings are named after Morgagni, including the Morgnani syndrome. The award honors scientists with proven expertise in the medical field of human metabolism. Previous prizewinners include Lelio Orci (Switzerland), Claes Wollheim (Switzerland), H. H. Parving (Denmark) and J. Tuomilehto (Finland). The prize is awarded every two years. Further information can be found at: https://www.morgagni-prizes.com/