The young researcher Dr. Kálmán Bódis was awarded the German Diabetes Association (DDG) doctoral prize for his doctoral thesis investigating the effects of lipid and energy metabolism disorders on subcutaneous adipose tissue associated with recently diagnosed type 2 diabetes. The award ceremony took place on May 18 during the DDG congress in Berlin.

In his doctoral thesis, Kálmán Bódis investigated the role of fat and energy metabolism in the various layers of subcutaneous adipose tissue in the onset of type 2 diabetes. The findings of his study indicated that disorders affecting fat and energy metabolism in the subcutaneous adipose tissue in people recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes promote insulin resistance and fat storage in the liver.

Dr. Kálmán Bódis (center) after receiving the German Diabetes Association (DDG) doctoral prize.
Also in the photo: Dr. Tvrtko Karuza (Sanofi Aventis Deutschland GmbH), sponsor of the prize, and presenter Dr. Stefan R. Bornstein (University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus, Dresden).
Photo: ©DDG / Deckbar

As a researcher at the Institute for Clinical Diabetology at the German Diabetes Center, Bódis focuses on deciphering the fundamental mechanisms in the onset of type 1 and type 2 diabetes “….to help develop and ultimately establish new care and treatment approaches for diabetes and the complications of diabetes”. “This award motivates me to continue working on clinical translational research projects alongside my clinical work to contribute to improving care for people with diabetes mellitus,” says the award winner. Professor Michael Roden, Director of the Department for Endocrinology and Diabetology at the University Hospital of Dusseldorf and Director of the German Diabetes Center, categorized the findings: “The findings presented by Mr. Bódis show that the deep subcutaneous adipose tissue layers may play a special role in the onset of insulin resistance and diabetes.”

The award ceremony took place on May 18 as part of the “Lipid metabolic disorders in diabetes patients” symposium at the Diabetes Congress of the German Diabetes Association in Berlin. The DDG doctoral prize is awarded for exceptional dissertations in the field of diabetology. The award has been sponsored by Sanofi-Aventis Deutschland GmbH since 2010 and is awarded to German-speaking doctoral candidates up to a maximum of two years after receiving their doctorate. This is already the fourth DDG doctoral prize in a row awarded to researchers from the DDZ pool of talented young researchers.  

Personal Details:
Kálmán Bódis studied human medicine from 2007 until 2017 at Heinrich Heine University Dusseldorf. Since 2014, he has been a research assistant at the Institute for Clinical Diabetology at the German Diabetes Center. In 2018, he also assumed a position as a resident physician at the Department for Endocrinology and Diabetology at the University Hospital of Dusseldorf under Professor Roden. This is also where Bódis successfully completed his training as a specialist for internal medicine, endocrinology, and diabetology, which he completed in April 2023. The award winner’s main research topics are glucose, lipid, and energy metabolism, diabetic foot syndrome, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Press contact:
Isabelle Keller 
Press officer DDZ
isabelle.keller(at)ddz.de  
+49 (0)211 3382-450 

The German Diabetes Center (DDZ) serves as the German reference center for diabetes. Its objective is to contribute to the improvement of prevention, early detection, diagnosis and treatment of diabetes mellitus. At the same time, the research center aims at improving the epidemiological data situation in Germany. The DDZ coordinates the multicenter German Diabetes Study and is a point of contact for all players in the health sector. In addition, it prepares scientific information on diabetes mellitus and makes it available to the public. The DDZ is part of the Leibniz Association (Wissenschaftsgemeinschaft Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, WGL) and is a partner of the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD e.V.). www.ddz.de/en 

The German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD) is a national association that brings together experts in the field of diabetes research and combines basic research, translational research, epidemiology and clinical applications. The aim is to develop novel strategies for personalized prevention and treatment of diabetes. Members are Helmholtz Munich – German Research Center for Environmental Health, the German Diabetes Center in Düsseldorf, the German Institute of Human Nutrition in Potsdam-Rehbrücke, the Paul Langerhans Institute Dresden of Helmholtz Munich at the University Medical Center Carl Gustav Carus of the TU Dresden and the Institute for Diabetes Research and Metabolic Diseases of Helmholtz Munich at the Eberhard-Karls-University of Tuebingen together with associated partners at the Universities in Heidelberg, Cologne, Leipzig, Lübeck and Munich. www.dzd-ev.de/en