How weight reduction surgery and diabetes drugs impact bacteria
“Being chosen as a Wallenberg Scholar gives me enormous freedom. I can undertake a high-risk project, and it won’t be the end of the world if the result isn’t exactly what I expected. After all, if I knew the answer to my questions, I wouldn’t need so much time to get to the bottom of them.”
The program focuses on Sweden’s leading senior researchers One key principle is that the grants can be freely used for research for five years with no restrictions. After the end of the grant period, the research is evaluated by an international panel of experts, and the best researchers are awarded a further five-year grant.
Both therapeutics and weight loss surgery can alleviate type 2 diabetes – but both can also cause adverse events. Could those effects, positive as well as negative, be due to changes in gut microbiota? Fredrik Bäckhed at the University of Gothenburg intends to find out.
Read the commentary about Wallenberg Scholar Fredrik Bäckhed by KAW Foundation: