The new professor wants to strengthen research in the fight against aggressive brain cancer

With the appointment, Helge Thisgaard wants to strengthen the link between basic research and clinical application and thus contribute to the development of future cancer treatment. His focus is on a new type of targeted radiation therapy, called Auger radioligand therapy, which has the potential to improve survival in patients with glioblastoma – one of the most aggressive forms of brain cancer.

Since 2019, Helge Thisgaard has led preclinical research at the Department of Nuclear Medicine, where he has built up an interdisciplinary research group that develops and tests radiopharmaceuticals in both cell experiments and animal models. The research is funded by several external foundation grants, where he and his collaborators have received more than DKK 30 million in project funding in recent years.

In 2024, Helge Thisgaard took a step further and founded the spin-out company GlioRay together with two research colleagues to bring glioblastoma treatment closer to clinical studies. GlioRay has received support through the BioInnovation Institute's Venture Lab program and is committed to accelerating the transition from the lab to patient care. By combining academic research with a commercial strategy, he hopes to shorten the path from the lab to the patients, thus increasing the chances that the new treatment will be available to those who need it most.

Helge Thisgaard, 48, is a trained physicist from the University of Copenhagen, where he also obtained his PhD degree with a focus on radioligand therapy of cancer. He began his career as a hospital physicist at OUH – first in the Department of Oncology and later in the Department of Nuclear Medicine. In 2014, he was appointed associate professor in a combined position between OUH and SDU, which marked the beginning of a rapidly developing research career.

Helge Thisgaard is married to nurse Lise and together they have three children living at home, aged 21, 19 and 10, respectively. He grew up in a small town outside Esbjerg but has settled in Middelfart since his student days in Copenhagen. In his spare time, he enjoys underwater hunting and angling – and enjoys travelling the world with his family.