Professor Per-Henrik Groop, MD, DMSc, FRCPE, graduated from the University of Helsinki in 1982. It was here that he defended his thesis on ‘The relationship between GIP and beta-cell function in man’ in 1989. Following post-doctoral studies at Guy’s Hospital, University of London, under Professor Giancarlo Viberti, Professor Groop returned to Helsinki as Consultant of Nephrology. He served as Professor of Nephrology (Chair) 2010-2015 and is currently Professor of Internal Medicine (Chair) at the University of Helsinki. He is also Chief Physician at the Abdominal Center Nephrology, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital and Principal Investigator of the Finnish Diabetic Nephropathy (FinnDiane) Study at the Folkhälsan Research Center in Helsinki, Finland. He is Adjunct Professor at the Department of Diabetes, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
His research is focused on the dissection of the pathogenesis of diabetic complications with special emphasis on diabetic nephropathy. In order to provide a unique set of clinical resources with high power to identify genes and genetic variants associated with diabetic complications, Professor Groop initiated the large, nationwide FinnDiane Study in 1997. To date, this landmark study comprises 8400 patients with type 1 diabetes and their family members, recruited via a comprehensive network of 92 hospitals and healthcare centres throughout Finland. His FinnDiane Research Group represents an inter-disciplinary team of 45 scientists, post-graduate students and personnel.
Professor Groop served as Associate Editor of Diabetologia from 2005 to 2007, and as a member of the advisory board from 2008 to 2011. He served as Associate Editor of Kidney International and International Diabetes Monitor from 2007 to 2011. He was Chairman of the EASD Scientist Training Course, 2007–2013, President of the European Diabetic Nephropathy Study Group (EDNSG), 2008–2010, Honorary Secretary of EASD, 2013-2016, and has been Chairman of the Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation since 2011. He was awarded the prestigious EASD Castelli Pedroli Prize – 24th Camillo Golgi Lecture in 2009 as well as the Novo Nordisk Foundation Lecture in 2012.
Professor Groop has published more than 320 peer-reviewed original articles in high-impact journals, 30 reviews and book chapters, and 45 papers in his native languages of Swedish and Finnish, as well as more than 540 abstracts.