Oluf Borbye Pedersen

Pedersen was born in Randers, Denmark in 1945. He earned his MD from Aarhus University in 1972, where he received a Gold Medal for a thesis in nutritional physiology, and completed a Doctor of Medical Science (DMSc) in molecular and cellular biology in 1983. He obtained board certification (Danish Health Board authorization) as a specialist in internal medicine and endocrinology in 1989.

Academic and professional service

Pedersen has served as President of the Danish Diabetes Association (1995–2000), co-founded the Danish Diabetes Academy and the Danish Society of Molecular Medicine, and has been on boards and grant bodies in Denmark and internationally.

Following basic clinical training in medicine, neurology and cardiology (1972–1987) at Aarhus University Hospitals, Pedersen was Visiting Professor in molecular biology at the Joslin Diabetes Center, Boston (1986–1988). He served as Chief Physician and Research Director at the Steno Diabetes Center and Hagedorn Research Institute (1989–2010). He held personal chairs in molecular diabetology at the University of Copenhagen (1995–2000) and Aarhus University (2001–2011), and visiting professor positions at Harvard Medical School (2001–2002) and at Peking Union Medical College/Beijing Genomics Institute (2008–2010).

Pedersen founded the Lundbeck Foundation Centre of Excellence in Medical Genomics (LuCamp) (2007–2015) and co-founded the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research (CBMR) at the University of Copenhagen in 2010, where he later directed the Section for Metabolic Genetics (2010–2016) and led a research group (2017–2021). Since 2021 he has been Chief Research Physician and Principal Investigator at Herlev–Gentofte University Hospital and an affiliated senior investigator at CBMR; in 2022 he became Professor of Human Molecular Metabolism at the University of Copenhagen. In 2023 he founded GutCRINE Pharmabiotics where he serves as Chief scientific officer.

Diabetes care and the Steno-2 trial

Pedersen initiated and led the Steno-2 Study, a randomized trial of patients with type 2 diabetes and microalbuminuria that compared intensified, goal-oriented multifactorial intervention (lifestyle plus polypharmacotherapy) versus conventional care. The trial and long-term follow-up showed significant reductions in cardiovascular events and mortality, with benefits persisting years after the active intervention ended.

Key publications reported reductions in cardiovascular disease with intensive therapy (2003) and nearly halved all-cause mortality (2008). At 21 years of follow-up of 7.8 years of intensified, multifactorial, target-driven treatment of type 2 diabetes with microalbuminuria, median of 7.9 years of gain of life was shown (2016). Summaries and later overviews have highlighted Steno-2 as a landmark for comprehensive risk-factor management in high-risk type 2 diabetes.