Board Members
D-tect includes an advisory board of international experts in addition to a representative from the National Food Agency, Denmark
Professor Elina Hyppönen, Centre for Paediatric Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Institute of Child Health, London, England. Elina Hyppönen has interdisciplinary academic experience and degrees in epidemiology, medical statistics, nutrition and public health, was the initial investigator in the new UK Cohort resource, and has spent more than two decades focusing on evaluating the short and long-term health effects of vitamin D, and the genetic and environmental inference on growth and disease, and furthermore was one of the first people, based on Finnish and British population studies, to propose a possible association between vitamin D in fetal life and later development of T1D.
Professor Cyrus Cooper, Director of the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit at the University of Southampton, England. Cyrus Cooper is a world expert in vitamin D and bone health, was the first to demonstrate developmental influences that contribute to the risk of osteoporosis and hip fracture in late adulthood, including that of maternal vitamin D deficiency
Professor Karen Walker, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences Monash University, Clayton, Australia. Karen Walker is an expert in the physiological roles of vitamin D, has an extended career in nutrition related disease development including obesity and diabetes
Professor John McGrath, Queensland Brain Institute, and Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research, University of Queensland, Australia. John McGrath is an epidemiologist with a longstanding interest in the health effects of developmental vitamin D deficiency, has, with his team, developed a reliable and sensitive assay for vitamin D based on neonatal DBSs. In collaboration with Danish researchers, he has demonstrated a significant association between neonatal vitamin D status and riskof schizophrenia.
Professor Jaakko Kaprio, Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki and Diabetes, Prevention Unit, Department of Chronic Disease Prevention, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland. Jaakko Kaprio is a world-leading expert in genetics and particularly genetic epidemiology including experience on analysis of genetic variation in vitamin D receptors in relation to health.
Head of department Else Molander, The Danish Food Agency, Denmark. Will contribute to the project as an advisor and to guarantee that the communication and dissemination of study results will quickly be picked up by Danish and international authorities.