Partners
Berit L Heitmann, Professor & PhD
Has 25 years of experience in research in nutritional epidemiology with a particular focus on the dietary determinants of obesity and will be in charge of the study. She has extensive experience in project management and has initiated, conducted and led several large projects, including the recently concluded Healthy Start project, a primary intervention study initiated in 2008 to prevent obesity that included 1000 children and their families. Since 2000, she has been responsible for the diet part of both the European Youth Heart Study and the school-based intervention called The Copenhagen School Child Intervention Study. She has also initiated, developed and led the Research Unit for Dietary Studies, which was established with a highly competitive grant from the National research Council’s FREJA program. In existence since 1998, the unit currently hosts approximately 20 researchers and has an international network comprising more than 200 mainly European researchers.
Bo Abrahamsen, Professor & Dr. Med Sci.
An expert in vitamin D and fracture risk, is responsible for register-based studies under the auspices of the Odense Patient Data Exploratory Network (OPEN) at the University of Southern Denmark. He also leads the international DIPART research collaboration on vitamin D trials and fractures, whose collaborators include the Women’s Health Initiative. Abrahamsen Programme Commission on Health, Food and Welfare also collaborates extensively with osteoporosis research groups in the U.K., Canada, Norway and Sweden
Allan A. Vaag, Professor & Dr. Med Sci.
An expert in diabetes, integrative physiology and the developmental programming of metabolic diseases. He has a longstanding interest in the fields of clinical diabetology as well as the developmental programming of metabolism including adiposity, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Vaag was co-founder of the Danish Strategic Research Center for Foetal Programming and heads a research group at RH dedicated to studying the molecular mechanisms involved in the developmental programming of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.
Rikke Andersen, Senior Researcher
An expert in vitamin D, human randomized controlled trials (RCT), cross-sectional studies, and vitamin D food fortification. Other main scientific focus areas are risk-benefit analysis of food, dietary assessments and biomarkers. She has 20 years’ experience as an advisor for the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration within a broad area of subjects, for example food additives, micronutrients, fortification, and health claims.