Course Clinical assessment of insulin resistance and other metabolic parameters

The course B112 Clinical assessment of insulin resistance and other metabolic parametres is being offered by the Graduate School of Health, Aarhus University, 2025.

Criteria for participation: University degree in medicine, dentistry, nursing, or Master’s degree in other fields and/or postgraduate research fellows (PhD students and research-year medical students).

Requirements for participation: Prior to the course, participants are required to provide a short description of their research project and how it relates to the topic of the course (maximum ½ page)

Aim: Insulin resistance plays a pivotal factor in the pathogenesis behind dysmetabolic conditions like diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The aim of this course is to introduce state of the art understanding of various aspects of human insulin resistance, and to introduce methods and techniques used to assess insulin resistance and related metabolic parameters in clinical research.

Learning outcomes: 

• - Understanding for the use and limitations of state-of-the-art methods in metabolism research
• - Insight into tissue-specific mechanisms underlying dysmetabolic conditions
• - Understanding for the signaling mechanisms linking insulin receptor to glucose uptake
• - Introduction into animal models and in vitro models for dysmetabolic conditions
• - Introduction into novel methods to assess substrate metabolism in humans

Workload: The full workload of the course is expected to be 20 hours

Content: 

Day 1

• - Registration and introductory remarks
• - Measurements of insulin sensitivity in humans (basic concepts and definitions)
• - Insulin resistance in diabetes
• - Insulin resistance in animal models
• - Workshop – design an experiment
• - Keynote presentation: Exercise and insulin resistance in skeletal muscle

Day 2

• - Insulin sensitivity in adipose tissue
• - Measures of morphology and single cells techniques
• - Indirect calorimetry
• - Metabolic tasks and lab-visit
• - PET imaging
• - Measures of cellular metabolism – site visit

Instructors: 

• - Esben Søndergaard (course leader), Associate Professor
• - Nikolaj Rittig, Clinical Researcher
• - Niels Jessen, Professor
• - Jean Farup, Associate Professor
• - Emma Börgeson, Associate Professor
• - Lars Christian Gormsen, Professor
• - Mikkel Vendelbo, Associate Professor

Venue: Steno Diabetes Center Aarhus, Aarhus University Hospital

Participation in the course is without cost for:

• PhD students, Health Research Year students from Aarhus University
• PhD students enrolled at partner universities of the Nordoc collaboration
• PhD students from other institutions in the open market agreement for PhD courses

Course dates:

• 30 October 2025 09:00 - 15:30
• 31 October 2025 09:00 - 16:00