Aarhus University Aarhus Graduate School of Health Sciences PHD DAY 13 JANUARY 2012 1 Contents Welcome 3 Practical information 4 Program 5 The Skou Lecture 7 Aarhus Graduate School of Health Sciences 8 The PhD Association 9 The Society for Medical Student Research 10 The Student Counsellor 11 The International Centre 12 The Library of Health Sciences 13 Session Chairman 14 Session Overview 16 Abstracts 44 Index of Authors 335 2 Welcome It is our pleasure to welcome students, faculty and guests to the PhD Day 2012. A special welcome to all PhD students and their supervisors as this year’s theme is ‘Successful supervision – a two‐ way process’. Good supervision is essential for a successful degree programme. It is our belief that a positive and productive collaboration between supervisor and PhD student is one of the most important aspects of research education. As a pioneer in research education Health has more than 30 years of experience, and central to the consistent quality of the education offered here at Health are our supervisors. These are researchers employed at Health or Aarhus University Hospital recognized internationally for their results and academic knowledge. Similarly, the importance of dedicated and ambitious PhD students prepared to take the initiative in the collaboration can not be underestimated. To speak on ‘Successful supervision – a two‐way process’ we have invited Professor Emeritus Gunnar Handal from Oslo University and Associate Professor Gitte Wichmann from the Centre for Teaching Development and Digital Media here at Aarhus University. Gunnar Handal is behind several publications on supervision in research education as is Gitte Wichmann, who is also a former PhD study counsellor at Health. Moderator will be Professor Berit Eika, vice‐dean of education at Health. Skou lecturer will be the esteemed Professor Sir Andrew McMichael, an expert on the immune system response to viruses such as HIV, and Director of the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine at Oxford University. As a PhD in immunology from 1974 and a knight from 2008 for his contribution to medical science, he has been invited to speak of supervision, describing also his own career. As is evident from the abstracts presented in this programme book the Graduate School of Health, Aarhus University provides a vibrant scientific environment ready to meet new challenges and offering many opportunities. The PhD projects are an important part of the research activities at Health, and we hereby acknowledge the contribution of the PhD students to the high quality research done here. Last but not least, we warmly thank all those who have taken the time to participate and help make this PhD Day a leading event. Professor Kimmo Jensen Professor MSO Lise Wogensen Bach Chairman of the Organizing Committee Vice‐dean and Head of Graduate School Health, Aarhus University Health, Aarhus University Professor Allan Flyvbjerg Dean Health, Aarhus University Practical Information Practical information: Lunch will be held in the Lake Auditorium Building. Posters will be shown in the Lake Auditorium Building, the Bartholin Building Posters should be hung between 4.30pm and 8pm on January 12th or between 7.30am and 8am on January 13th. All posters must be taken down immediately after the closing of the conference. Oral presenters for sessions O1-O5 must meet in the auditorium concerned between 7.30am and 8am on January 14th to save their presentation onto the auditorium hard disk. Organizing committee: Claus Gravholt, Department of Endocrinology, Institute of Clinical Medicine Grethe Elholm, PhD student, Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, School of Public Health Martin Skøtt, PhD student, Institute of Biomedicine Kristina Laut, PhD student, Institute of Clinical Medicine Kimmo Jensen, Department of Physiology and Biophysics Søren Gregersen, Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Institute of Clinical Medicine Thomas Vorup-Jensen, Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology Lene Birkegaard Pedersen, PhD Administration Tanja Hansen, PhD Administration 4 Programme 08.15 Welcome by Allan Flyvbjerg, Dean of Aarhus Faculty of Health Sciences (Lake Auditorium) 08.20 Welcome by Anna Sellmer Sørensen, Chairman of the PhD Association (Lake Auditorium) 08.25 Welcome by Kimmo Jensen, Chairman of the Organizing Committee (Lake Auditorium) 08.30 Invited speakers on “Successful supervision – a two way process” (Lake Auditorium) Moderated by Berit Eika, Vice‐dean for education, Aarhus Faculty of Health Sciences Gunnar Handal, Professor Emeritus, Oslo University Gitte Wichman, Associate Professor, PhD, Aarhus University 09.45 Poster session part 1 and oral presentations (Lake Auditorium & Bartholin Building) Poster session part 1 P01, P03, P05, P07, P09, P11, P13: Lake Auditorium P15, P17, P19, P21, P23, P25, P27: Bartholin Building Oral presentations Session O1: Auditorium 1 Per Kirkeby, Lake Auditorium Session O2: Auditorium 2 Merete Barker, Lake Auditorium Session O3: Auditorium 3 Jeppe Vontillius, Lake Auditorium Session O4: Auditorium 4 Eduard Biermann, Lake Auditorium Session O5: Auditorium 101 Samfundsmedicinsk, Bartholin Building 11.15 Lunch 11.45 Poster sessions part 2 and coffee Poster session part 2 P02, P04, P06, P08, P10, P12: Lake Auditorium P14, P16, P18, P20, P22, P24, P26, P28: Bartholin Building 13.15 Skou Lecture by Professor Sir Andrew McMichael Chaired by Allan Flyvbjerg, Dean of Aarhus Faculty of Health Sciences 14.15 Fogh Nielsen Prize Competition Chaired by Søren Kragh Moestrup, Chairman of the Fogh Nielsen board, and Anna Sellmer Sørensen, Chairman of the PhD Association 15.00 Hanstedgaard Fund Prize and Misses Anna and Dagny Hjerrild scholarship for the elimination of animal testing in scientific research Chaired by Allan Flyvbjerg, Dean of Aarhus Faculty of Health Sciences 15.30 Closing remarks by Lise Wogensen Bach, Head of Graduate School 18.00 Dinner and presentation of prizes in ‘Stakladen’. 22.00 Band and dance The Skou lecture Sir Andrew McMichael qualified in Medicine from Cambridge and St Mary’s Hospital Medical School in 1968 and obtained a PhD in Immunology at NIMR supervised by Ita Askonas and Alan Williamson in 1974. He first showed that virus specific CD8 T cells were HLA restricted and, later, Alain Townsend in his group demonstrated that influenza virus derived peptides were presented to T cells by MHC class I molecules. In recent years he has studied the T cell response to both influenza virus and HIV, with a particular interest in HIV escape from T cell recognition during acute infection. He has also focussed on HIV vaccines and pandemic influenza. His group has also been involved in developing novel methods for measuring T cell responses, such as HLA tetramer staining. He is Director of the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine in Oxford University and founded the Medical Research Council Human Immunology Unit. He was knighted in 2008 for services to medical sciences and is a Fellow of both the Royal Society and the Academy of Medical Sciences. Professor Sir Andrew McMichael FRS, FAcMedSci, Director, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine The John Radcliffe Hospital Headington Oxford OX3 9DS Tel: 01865 222336 Email: [email protected] Aarhus Graduate School of Health Sciences Aarhus Faculty of Health Sciences is one of the four main academic areas at Aarhus University and comprises a number of pre-clinical departments within biomedicine and public health, a department of odontology, and a department of clinical medicine located at the Aarhus University Hospital – a collaboration between the Faculty of Health Sciences and the health care region of central Denmark. The Aarhus Graduate School of Health Sciences was established in 1996, and was based on a tradition of providing quality postgraduate courses started in the 1970s. The Aarhus Graduate School of Health Sciences is headed by the Vice-dean of Talent Development in close collaboration with the PhD committee and the graduate programme leaders. The school has about 600 PhD students shared between the 12 graduate programmes and 100 research year students. Research training at both pre- and postgraduate level at the Faculty falls under the Aarhus Graduate School of Health Sciences – a multidisciplinary graduate school with long-standing traditions for recruiting students from the entire health science area. The graduate school aims to give the individual students broad knowledge of scientific theories, methodologies and tools required for health science research, and to develop their ability to independently address scientific issues. Across departmental boundaries 12 graduate programmes help ensure that all PhD students at the faculty are part of a relevant and challenging environment: Membrane Transporters and Receptors, Molecular Metabolism and Endocrinology, Public Health, Haematology, Inflammation and Infection, Cardiovascular, Laboratory Medicine, Neuroscience, Oncology, Translational Molecular Medicine, Odontology, Orthopaedics and Rheumatology, and Clinical Medicine. A unified approach at graduate school level ensures a consistent level of quality of the PhD education, while thematic and cross-disciplinary graduate programmes guarantees the availability of cross-disciplinary resources. The graduate school offers three-year PhD programmes as well as four-year and five-year integrated MD/PhD programmes. In addition, the school offers PhD programmes for combination with clinical work or a specialist training