Professor Johan Gunnar Eriksson
Professor Johan G. Eriksson is full professor at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, programme lead for the Human Potential Programme at the SOM, deputy executive director and programme director for Human Development at SICS, A*STAR. He is in charge of the daily scientific oversight and planning of the GUSTO and S-PRESTO cohort studies.
Before moving to Singapore professor Eriksson was full professor at the faculty of medicine, University of Helsinki, and chief physician at Helsinki University Central Hospital in Finland. He holds clinical interests in diabetes, obesity and related metabolic diseases. He received his medical degree and specialist qualifications (internal medicine and general practice) from the University of Helsinki.
His research focuses on the early programming of health and disease, as well as on the prevention of gestational diabetes (GDM), type 2 diabetes and related metabolic outcomes by lifestyle interventions. In Finland he is in charge of the Helsinki Birth Cohort Study, a unique birth cohort study with a follow-up of over 20,000 individuals from birth until the age of over 80 years. Furthermore, he has been involved in the gestational diabetes prevention study RADIEL, in which a lifestyle intervention was shown to successfully reduce GDM and the Finnish Diabetes Prevention Study (DPS) – the first randomised study to show that lifestyle intervention is effective in the prevention of type 2 diabetes.
In 2018 he was recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate Analytics by ranking in the top 1% by citations for a field.
In 2021 he was awarded the J.W. Runeberg Prize the most prestigious prize awarded by the Finnish Medical Association for scientific research for his pioneering research on the importance of early life risk factors for health and disease.
He has co-authored several books and published over 800 original research articles.
Publications
- Bjerregaard, L. G., Wasenius, N., Nedelec, R., Gjærde, L. K., Ängquist, L., Herzig, K. H., Jensen, G. B., Mortensen, E. L., Osler, M., Overvad, K., Skaaby, T., Tjønneland, A., Sørensen, T., Järvelin, M. R., Eriksson, J. G., Sebert, S., & Baker, J. L. (2020). Possible Modifiers of the Association Between Change in Weight Status From Child Through Adult Ages and Later Risk of Type 2 Diabetes. Diabetes care, 43(5), 1000–1007. https://doi.org/10.2337/dc19-1726
- Koivusalo, S. B., Rönö, K., Klemetti, M. M., Roine, R. P., Lindström, J., Erkkola, M., Kaaja, R. J., Pöyhönen-Alho, M., Tiitinen, A., Huvinen, E., Andersson, S., Laivuori, H., Valkama, A., Meinilä, J., Kautiainen, H., Eriksson, J. G., & Stach-Lempinen, B. (2016). Gestational Diabetes Mellitus Can Be Prevented by Lifestyle Intervention: The Finnish Gestational Diabetes Prevention Study (RADIEL): A Randomized Controlled Trial. Diabetes care, 39(1), 24–30. https://doi.org/10.2337/dc15-0511
- Hovi, P., Andersson, S., Eriksson, J. G., Järvenpää, A. L., Strang-Karlsson, S., Mäkitie, O., & Kajantie, E. (2007). Glucose regulation in young adults with very low birth weight. The New England journal of medicine, 356(20), 2053–2063. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa067187
- Barker, D. J., Osmond, C., Forsén, T. J., Kajantie, E., & Eriksson, J. G. (2005). Trajectories of growth among children who have coronary events as adults. The New England journal of medicine, 353(17), 1802–1809. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa044160
- Tuomilehto, J., Lindström, J., Eriksson, J. G., Valle, T. T., Hämäläinen, H., Ilanne-Parikka, P., Keinänen-Kiukaanniemi, S., Laakso, M., Louheranta, A., Rastas, M., Salminen, V., Uusitupa, M., & Finnish Diabetes Prevention Study Group (2001). Prevention of type 2 diabetes mellitus by changes in lifestyle among subjects with impaired glucose tolerance. The New England journal of medicine, 344(18), 1343–1350. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJM200105033441801