The two ATLAS researchers Professor Maja Thiele and Professor Jonas Heilskov Graversen, Faculty of Health Sciences have been honored with the 2025 Innovation Award at SDU.
They receive the award for their pioneering and sustained ability to make research breakthroughs with potential for practical application. In the framework of the ATLAS Center of Excellence, they have made groundbreaking discoveries of great importance for the ability to detect fatty liver disease at an early stage before patients risk developing liver cirrhosis or cancer. Based on this work, a simple blood sample with specific biomarker levels as readout may reflect an integrated state of the liver health, and a condition such as MASH (Metabolic dysfunction-Associated Steatohepatitis) can thus potentially be detected without an invasive needle biopsy.
Center Director of ATLAS, Prof. Susanne Mandrup, is proud of this achievement of ATLAS researchers in collaboration with FLASH – Center for Liver Research at OUH. She says, “This is a beautiful example of how discoveries in basic science, driven purely by curiosity, ends up having immediate and profound applications.”
In her role as Chief Consultant, Professor and Deputy Director of FLASH, Maja Thiele has made an outstanding effort to bring state-of-the-art technologies, including AI and big data, into point-of-care clinical practice. She has also led the development of AI-based solutions that enable early detection of patients at risk of severe liver disease.
Jonas Heilskov Graversen has a 20-year career in innovation in the biotech and pharma industry and at SDU. He is co-inventor on more than 15 patents and co-founder of four biotech companies within medical therapies for atherosclerosis, inflammation, and cancer.
Maja Thiele and Jonas Graversen are shining examples of researchers translating basic research into practical improvements in diagnostics and patient treatment - through innovation and co-creation of products in collaboration with industry.
The Innovation Award recognizes role models in innovation and community engagement and reflects the University’s mission to create value for and with society.