ADA Recognizes Work in Gestational Diabetes
Gernot Desoye, PhD, was chosen to receive the American Diabetes Association (ADA) 2017 Norbert Freinkel Award, which honors the memory of Norbert Freinkel, who was a talented researcher and writer.
Gernot Desoye, PhD, was chosen to receive the American Diabetes Association (ADA) 2017 Norbert Freinkel Award, which honors the memory of Norbert Freinkel, who was a talented researcher and writer.
Dr Desoye will receive the award during the ADA’s 77th Scientific Sessions and will deliver the Norbert Freinkel Award Lecture, “The human placenta in maternal overnutrition: Friend or foe?,” on Saturday, June 10.
The Norbert Freinkel Award is granted to researchers who have made substantial contributions—such as publications and presentations—that have revealed valuable information in understanding and treating pregnant patients with diabetes.
Dr Desoye is a research director and associate professor of Medical Biochemistry in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the Medical University of Graz, Austria.
Dr Desoye focuses on working to understand the regulation of placental glucose and lipid transport, placental metabolism, and angiogenesis, according to the ADA. This has led to a better understanding of how the placenta plays a role in high birth weight for infants born to mothers with diabetes or obesity.
More recently, Dr Desoye’s research has focused on the placenta’s molecular and cellular response to fetal signals, which causes the placenta to adapt to diabetes-related changes.
Dr Desoye has coordinated a project about vitamin D and lifestyle intervention to prevent the development gestational diabetes. The project includes multiple centers across Europe.
Dr Desoye is also working to integrate information from basic and clinical research to provide a better understanding of the maternal-placental-fetal interaction in terms of maternal overnutrition.
“Congratulations and thank you, Dr Desoye, for your exceptional work in understanding, treating and preventing gestational diabetes,” said Brenda Montgomery, RN, MSHS, CDE, the Association’s President of Health Care and Education. “Your work has provided new understandings of diabetes in pregnancy, as well as vital tools to treat and prevent diabetes in pregnant women around the world.”
