Karl Tryggvason

Karl Tryggvason (* 1947 ) is an Icelandic medic.

He is a professor of medicinal chemistry at the Karolinska Institute . He is also at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore (a collaboration between Duke University and the National University of Singapore).

He clarified the failure of the kidney filter function in the kidney corpuscles due to various hereditary diseases that can be attributed to proteins in the basement membrane . For example, in Alport syndrome, type IV collagen in the basement membrane is defective, as he discovered in 1990. While studying a congenital form of nephrotic syndrome , he discovered a new protein in the basement membrane, nephrin (1998), which also led to advances in understanding kidney function (especially podocytes ). With his team, he discovered many other proteins of the basement membrane (and cloned genes of important proteins of the basement membrane such as type IV collagen, laminin , perlecan ) and their role in genetic diseases. He found that epidermolysis bullosa junctionalis and congenital muscular dystrophy are due to defects in laminin.

Among other things, he researches susceptibility genes for diabetic kidney damage.

In 1996 he received the Louis Jeantet Prize . He is an external member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and has been a full member of the Academia Europaea since 2002 .

Web links

• Awarded the Louis Jeantet Prize , French

Individual evidence

1. ^ Website of Tryggvason at the Duke-NUS
2. ^ Membership directory: Karl Tryggvason. Academia Europaea, accessed on October 17, 2017 (English, with biographical and other information). 

Note: Icelanders are referred to by their first name or first and last name, but not just their surname. Further information can be found under Icelandic personal name .