29. October 2018

Ane Fisker from CVIVA receives the Lundbeck Foundation’s Research Prize for Young Scientists 2018

Doctor and senior researcher at the DNRF’s Center for Vitamins and Vaccines (CVIVA) Ane Bærent Fisker has received the Lundbeck Foundation’s Research Prize for Young Scientists 2018.

Ane B. Fisker, who is a doctor and senior researcher at the basic research center CVIVA has received the Lundbeck Foundation’s Research Prize for Young Scientists 2018 for her extraordinary contribution to research within the field of vaccines and vitamin A. Part of Fisker’s research has shown how the World Health Organization’s recommendation to give vitamin A and vaccines together does not have the intended effect on death rates. This study is one of the main reasons that whether this recommendation should be abolished is now under discussion.

“Many health policies are based on assumptions about effects rather than actual data. Our research shows that this is inadequate. By testing these assumptions in the real world, we could see that children’s vaccines had a greater impact on general health than we’d suspected – and they also affect the risk of many other diseases. Besides this, we observed that their effect depends on many other factors, such as the child’s gender and whether he or she receives other interventions at the same time, for instance, vitamin A. This has provided us with new knowledge about vaccines, vitamins and the immune system that could have far-reaching consequences,” said Fisker.

Fisker’s research focuses on the best use of vaccines and their supplementation with vitamin A in low-income countries as well as the effect this approach has on diseases and mortality.

The prize includes a monetary award of 300,000 DKK.

Read more about the prize at the Lundbeck Foundation’s website here.

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