Allan Vaag was born in 1961 and graduated as an MD from the University of Southern Denmark in 1986. Since then, he has been engaged in various aspects of diabetes research with an emphasis on the pathophysiology of Type 2 diabetes. Allan Vaag holds clinical specialist recognition in Endocrinology and in General Internal Medicine. Allan Vaag wrote his ph.d.-thesis on the glucose-fatty acid cycle in humans including patients with Type 2 diabetes, based on a series of studies documenting for the first time that acute inhibition of lipolysis with a nicotinic acid derivative significantly improves insulin action in patients with type 2 diabetes (Vaag et al, JCI, 1991).

In continuation of his ph.d. thesis, and based on eight original publications, Allan Vaag wrote a Master of Science Thesis on the current state of art of the pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes. Based on series of studies in prediabetic subjects in cluding first degree relatives (Vaag et al, JCI, 1992, etc.) and monozygotic twins discordant for type 2 diabetes (Vaag et al, JCI, 1995, etc.),

Allan Vaag was among the first to describe early defects of both insulin action, including impaired muscle glycogen synthesis, as well as defective insulin secretion in pre-diabetic subjects, contributing substantially to our present knowledge of type 2 diabetes being not only a multi-factorial disease, but also a multiple organ disease involving muscle, beta cell, liver, adipose tissue, gut, and possibly also various other organ defects.

Allan Vaag has authored or co-authored more than 110 original papers and more than 40 review papers in the area of diabetes research in the leading international diabetes and medical journals including New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), JCI, PNAS, PloS Medicine, Circulation, BMJ, Lancet, Diabetes, Diabetologia, Journal of Physiology, American Journal of Physiology, JCEM and many others.

Allan Vaag has served as a reviewer on more than 28 international journals from New England Journal of Medicine and downwards. Allan Vaag is presently heading a research group at the Steno Diabetes Center in Copenhagen, including a total of 18 ph.d.-students, master students, post docs, technicians and a senior scientist, focusing primarily on studies conc. the impact of the prenatal environment versus genetics on the etiology and pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes.

Besides being a Chief Physician at the Steno Diabetes Center, Allan Vaag is adjunct professor of metabolism and clinical diabetes research at the Lund University in Sweden. Allan Vaag is Associate Editor of the European Journal of Endocrinology as well as Reviewing Editor of the Journal of Physiology, he is member of The Danish Strategic Research Council, and serves in referee panels in a number of other national and international research funding bodies and research councils including the Swedish and the Finish research councils.