Jan Frystyk and Lars Uhrenholt from Aarhus have each received a scholarship worth DKK 200,000. The scholarship has been awarded by Frøknerne Anna and Dagny Hjerrilds Foundation and is for the abolition of animal testing in scientific research.

2014.01.09 | Anders Corydon Frederiksen

Jan Frystyk (left) and Lars Uhrenholt (right) were awarded the scholarship on Tuesday 17 December 2013. The scholarship is for ‘The abolition of animal testing in scientific research.’ Photo: Lars Kruse/AU Communication.

Scholarship recipient Jan Frystyk, Aarhus University, Department of Clinical Medicine and Aarhus University Hospital, Department of Endocrinology.

Scholarship recipient Lars Uhrenholt, Aarhus University, Department of Forensic Medicine. Photo: Sofie Nortvig Uhrenholt.

Each year the Frøknerne Anna and Dagny Hjerrilds Foundation awards the ‘Abolition of animal testing in scientific research scholarship.’ In 2012 the award, totalling DKK 400,000, went to Professor and Consultant Jan Frystyk from Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital, and Associate Professor and chiropractor Lars Uhrenholt from Aarhus University. The scholarship was awarded to the researchers for their research into insulin-like growth factors and traffic medicine, respectively.

Greater understanding of cancer

Jan Frystyk carries out research into the regulation of insulin-like growth factors. These are proteins that control the body’s ability to grow and regenerate, and an understanding of them is important because they are e.g. of significance for the development of cancer.

The hypothesis is that medically-speaking, things go badly for a cancer patient who has a tumour in a lung or abdominal cavity, if it is filled with liquid with large amounts of growth factors in the tumour. By using medicine to remove the growth factors at the right time it is possible to increase the patient’s chances of survival.

The scholarship provides Jan Frystyk and the research group with the opportunity to continue the important research into insulin-like growth factors in patients with cancer.

“We wish to repeat our experiment on larger groups of patients in order to be discover the potential of our discoveries for the treatment of cancer. The award contributes to furthering our research,” says Jan Frystyk.

Traffic medicine research

Lars Uhrenholt conducts research into injuries associated with traffic accidents, more specifically acute and chronic neck pain typically caused by whiplash. The research is e.g. of importance for clinical practice as well as in court cases, where doubt is present about the correlation between the damage to the vehicle and personal injuries.

“In court cases involving whiplash injuries my research group and I have been able to document that there is no correlation between the material damage to the vehicle and the injuries of the people involved, and this has been of great importance for the legal aftermath,” Lars Uhrenholt.

The scholarship from Frøknerne Anna and Dagny Hjerrilds Foundation provides Lars Uhrenholt with the opportunity to expand his research network at Health.

“Due to the scholarship we can open up for the possibility of initiating further research projects at the department of forensic medicine at Aarhus University. In this way the scholarship gives me an opportunity to expand my research network, which is locally embedded in the health sciences main academic area at Aarhus University, Health,” says Lars Uhrenholt.

The scholarship was presented on Tuesday 17 December 2013 at Aarhus University.

Further information

Professor, Consultant Jan Frystyk
Aarhus University, Department of Clinical Medicine and
Aarhus University Hospital, Department of Endocrinology
Direct tel. +45 7846 2001
jan.frystyk@ki.au.dk

Associate Professor, PhD, Chiropractor Lars Uhrenholt
Aarhus University, Department of Forensic Medicine
Direct tel. +45 8716 6314
lu@retsmedicin.au.dk