[SOUND] Diabetes is a serious and fast growing health problem in most countries in the world, rich and poor. In this course you will get updated about diabetes research including biological, genetic, and clinical aspects, as well as prevention and epidemiology of diabetes, all provided by high-profile scientists from one of the world's leading universities in diabetes research, University of Copenhagen. My name is Jens Juul Holst. I am a professor of medical physiology, and deputy head of the Department of Biomedical Sciences and research director at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research also at the university of Copenhagen. Why do we offer this course? Diabetes is affecting more than 400 million people worldwide, and the number of patients is increasing tremendously, not least in the Southeast Asian regions including India and China. Approximately one in ten adults worldwide suffer from diabetes, and the half of them are not yet diagnosed. In addition to the burden of living with diabetes, diabetes is associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality, and therefore accounts for a large part of the public health care expenses. Intensified diabetes research if therefore required to improve our knowledge and ability to prevent and treat diabetes. Why do we have this increase in diabetes incidents? There is little doubt that the life style changes are responsible for the increase in prevalence of obesity, which again, is associated with an increased prevalence of type 2 diabetes. In the United States and many other Western countries, more than half of the population is overweight or obese, and the number of obese individuals worldwide is now projected to reach as much as 1.1 billion by the year 2030. However, the sensitivity of the individual to a Westernized lifestyle and development of diabetes appears to depend on genetic risk factors. This diabetes course will bring you up to date with respect to diabetes research. The faculty is a group of eminent scientists from the University of Copenhagen, where there is a strong tradition for diabetes research, since the days when Nobel Prize winner August Krogh started Scandinavian insulin production. The intense focus on diabetes therapy has been greatly facilitating for fringe diabetes research, making Copenhagen University a leading institution within this field. [MUSIC]