Meet the students (2021-2022)
Anna Sophie Lebech Kjær
DARE-Fellow & Medical Student, University of Copenhagen.
Anna Sophie Lebech Kjær will conduct research and study at Stanford University. Her research revolves around insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) – a growth factor, a so-called peptide hormone, which has several functions in humans. “I want to investigate whether you follow a genetically determined IGF-I level throughout your life. In other words, if a high IGF-I level in childhood, all other things being equal, also remains relatively high in the more mature years - and if a low level in childhood correspondingly remains relatively low throughout life.” Anna Sophie will have professor and IGF-I expert Andrew Hoffman as her mentor at Stanford University.
Rasmus Reeh
DARE-Fellow & Medical Student, University of Copenhagen.
Rasmus Reeh will conduct research and study at the University of California, San Francisco. His research revolves around how blood sugar can affect our circadian rhythm. "All the cells of the body are equipped with a 'clock'. This means that the cells are timed and prepared to take action when they have to solve their tasks at an appropriate and anticipated time. This applies, for example, to the insulin-producing cells.” There is some evidence that sugar can help fine-tune the cells' clocks. Professor Louis Ptácek at UCSF, who is Rasmus’ American mentor, has demonstrated such a connection in cell experiments. Rasmus will thus investigate whether there is a connection between high blood sugar and disturbances in the circadian rhythm.
Cathrine Korsholm
DARE-Fellow & Medical Student, University of Copenhagen.
Cathrine Korsholm will conduct research and study at the University of California, San Francisco. Her research focuses on a very rare and very serious liver disease that can affect infants and newborns - biliary atresia. The disease is annually diagnosed in 5-10 Danish children, and it is typically detected a few weeks after birth because the child develops jaundice. 85 percent of all children who get the disease have a liver transplant before they turn 20 - and worldwide, biliary atresia is the most common cause of child liver transplants. "I need to investigate whether factors in the fetal stage may be contributing to the development of the disease." Cathrine will have pediatric surgeon Amar Nijagal as her mentor at UCSF.
Rasmus Hagn-Meincke
DARE-Fellow & Medical Student, Aalborg University.
Rasmus Hagn-Meincke will conduct research and study at Stanford University. His research revolves around the development of a system that can predict what stage a patient with chronic pancreatitis is in, based on a blood sample. “If you succeed in developing such a blood sample, you will be able to spare some of the X-ray-based examinations, such as CT scans, which are normally used to get answers to this question - and this will be an advantage for several reasons. The scans are a burden on the patient's health in the long run, and they are very expensive and far more cumbersome than a blood sample.” Rasmus will have associate professor Aida Habtezion as his Mentor at Stanford University.
Sofie Nyholm Henrichsen
DARE-Fellow & Medical Student, Aalborg University.
Sofie Nyholm Henrichsen will conduct research and study at Stanford University. Her research revolves around the treatment of rectal cancer, where patients often receive a combination of chemotherapy and radiation therapy before the cancerous tissue is removed by surgery. “Somewhere between 15 and 20 percent of patients with rectal cancer are radiation-resistant. They do not benefit from the radiation treatment at all, and the question is what is behind this resistance.” More specifically, Sofie will investigate whether there is a genetic background for the majority of patients with rectal cancer reacting positively to the mix of chemo and rays - while a minority of 15-20 percent do not. Sofie will have cancer specialist Maximilian Diehn as her mentor at Stanford University.
Mustafa Ghanizada
DARE-Fellow & Medical Student, University of Copenhagen.
Mustafa Ghanizada will conduct research and study at Stanford University. His research revolves around triggering autoreactive antibodies in a human in vitro model (tonsil organoids) of the adaptive immune system. “Since Paul Ehrlich -a hundred years ago- first posed the question about “Horror autotoxicus” that is, how does the immune system typically prevent pathologically self-reactivity. We, in the field of immunology, have wrestled with understanding how this works; and why it fails in millions of individuals resulting in autoimmune diseases“. Mustafa will primarily work on generating autoreactive antibodies and identify the precise mechanisms that prevent autoreactive antibodies from emerging: Mustafa will use a human tonsil organoid model developed at Stanford; a model, which enables the study of the adaptive immune system in great detail. Mustafa will have Professor Mark M. Davis at Stanford Institute for Immunity, Transplantation, and Infection and Professor Soren Buus, at the University of Copenhagen, Department of Immunology and Microbiology as his mentors
Freja Tang Severinsen
DARE-Fellow & Medical Student, Aalborg University.
Freja Tang Severinsen will conduct research and study at Stanford University. Her research revolves around therapy-related infections in patients with hematologic malignancies: a focus on differences between conventional autologous transplantation and engineered T-cell therapies. “The aim is to provide data that helps inform appropriate therapy selections between HDT/ASCT andCAR-T together with patient monitoring and antibiotic prophylaxis following one of the two treatments.” Freja will have Assistant Professor of Medicine, hematologist, Dr. Surbhi Sidana as her mentor at Stanford University.
Johan Anker Chrom Allerup
DARE-Fellow & Medical Student, University of Copenhagen.
Johan Anker Allerup will conduct research and study at Stanford University. His research revolves around atopic dermatitis, its environmental risk factors, genetics, and the use of digital approaches to conducting innovative decentralized dermatological research. The research will utilize digitally obtained data from patients' smartphones to investigate the association between exposure to environmental factors, and changes in objective and subjective severity of atopic dermatitis along with the possible effect modification of filaggrin (FLG) loss-of-function mutations in a Danish and US study population. Johan will be mentored by Professor Simon Francis Thomsen and Dr. Zarqa Ali from the Department of Dermatology, Bispebjerg Hospital, and Professor Justin M Ko from Stanford University.
Line Louise Jensen
DARE-Fellow & Medical Student, Aarhus University.
Line Louise Jensen will conduct research and study at Stanford University. The aim of her research is to develop human cortical and hippocampal organoids as a model system for studying neuronal and synaptic phenotypes of fragile X syndrome (FXS). “We will generate human brain organoids derived from human fragile X mental retardation 1(FMR1) gene cKO ES cells and from Fragile X syndrome patient-derived iPS cells with mutations in the fragile X mental retardation 1 gene, and perform a series of histological and functional assays to probe for synaptic defects in the developing neural circuits.” Line will have Professor Dr. Lu Chen, School of Medicine as er mentor at Stanford University.
Mette Krabsmark Borbjerg
DARE-Fellow & Medical Student, Aalborg University.
Mette Krabsmark Borbjerg will conduct research and study at the University of California, San Francisco. Her research revolves around the utility of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) in the inpatient pediatric setting. “For clinical and treatment purposes it is critical to gather full and continuous information about the extent of hyper- and hypoglycemia in children with diabetes. With CGM clinicians hope to capture significant hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia that would be missed with standard POC BG monitoring.” Mette hopes to assess the benefits of CGM in hospitalized children and build prediction models that will help clinicians make informed decisions concerning the use of CGM in pediatric patients with type 1 diabetes. Mette will have Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, Dr. Jenise Wong as her mentor at the University of California, San Francisco.