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Karl Oberdisse Award 2012 Goes to Scientist from the DZD

Julia Szendrödi, MD, PhD, of the Institute for Clinical Diabetology at the German Diabetes Center in Düsseldorf (DDZ), a partner in the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD), is this year’s recipient of the Karl Oberdisse Award. She was honored by the North Rhine-Westphalian Society for Endocrinology and Diabetology for her research paper on the interaction of lipids, blood circulation and the effect of insulin in humans.
In her prizewinning paper “Lipid-induced insulin resistance is not mediated by impaired transcapillary transport of insulin and glucose in humans”, Dr. Szendrödi explored possible effects of dietary fats on blood flow to the muscles. Furthermore, she determined the effect on the development of insulin resistance in muscle (reduced responsiveness of muscle cells to the hormone insulin). The results show that elevated blood lipids directly inhibit insulin action in muscle.
Since 2008 Dr. Julia Szendrödi has been deputy head of the research group Energy Metabolism at the DDZ and resident physician in the Department of Metabolic Diseases of the Heinrich Heine University Hospital. Prior to this position, she worked in the Clinical Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism of the University of Vienna in the research group of Professor Roden and then became resident physician in the Department of Internal Medicine at Hanusch Hospital and at the Karl Landsteiner Institute for Endocrinology and Metabolism in Vienna.
The award, endowed with 5000 euros and funded by Janssen Cilag GmbH, Neuss, goes in equal parts to Dr. Szendrödi and Jan Giebelstein, Medical Clinic I, BG University Hospital Bergmannsheil GmbH in Bochum. The award is conferred each year for the best clinical-experimental research paper in endocrinology and diabetology, mainly carried out in North Rhine-Westphalia. The award is named after Prof. Dr. Karl Oberdisse (1903-2002), who in 1965 founded the Diabetes Research Institute (DFI) at the University of Düsseldorf, now the German Diabetes Center (DDZ).