Professor Andreas Fritsche is a diabetologist at Tübingen University Hospital, Internal Medicine IV, where he is Professor (W3) for Prevention and Nutritional Medicine and head of the Department of Prevention and Therapy of Diabetes Mellitus at the Institute for Diabetes Research and Metabolic Diseases (IDM) of Helmholtz Zentrum München at the University of Tübingen.

His research focuses on the prevention of type 2 diabetes mellitus through lifestyle intervention, insulin therapy of diabetes mellitus and the regulation of the metabolism by the brain. Another focus is the research and treatment of diabetes during pregnancy and its consequences for mother and child.

The prize was awarded to Professor Fritsche for his work on the causes, prevention and treatment of severe hypoglycemia in diabetes patients. Severe hypoglycemia can be life-threatening for diabetics. With increasing duration of diabetes and frequency of hypoglycemia, these become more and more difficult to recognize.

More information on the Heinz Bürger-Büsing Foundation can be found at http://www.diabetesstiftung-buerger-buesing.de