Andreas Brønden - University of Lille, France

PhD student Andreas Brønden has received an exchange travel grant of 22.000 DKK for his 4-week exchange visit at the lab of Professor Bart Staels located at Institut Pasteur de Lille, University of Lille, France.

Andreas Brøndens PhD project is based on the concept of bile acids as metabolic integrators. During his time at Center for Diabetes Research, Gentofte Hospital, he has performed human experimental studies using bile acid sequestrants in order to examine the effects of bile acids in relation to GLP-1 secretion and glucose metabolism. The hypothesis behind his studies is very much based on mechanisms involving the G protein-coupled receptor Takeda-G-protein-receptor-5 (TGR-5) and the intranuclear farnesoid X receptor (FXR) that both have been located in the GLP-1 secreting L cells of the gut.

Professor Staels is an unrivalled leader within the field of bile acids and metabolism and I have followed his group closely during the last couple of years. Last year Andreas Brønden had the pleasure of attending his lecture on FXR activation in L cells at ADA 2015 in Boston. Staels and his group have in the recent years published (e.g. in Nature Communications) several interesting results originating from their experimental work at Institut Pasteur de Lille.