Klaus Bønnelykke
Head of Research, Professor of Pediatrics, Senior Hospital Physician, MD, PhD
Klaus Bønnelykke is Head of Research at COPSAC. He has been affiliated with COPSAC for more than 20 years and been involved in all steps of research, including designing, and directing the COPSAC2010 cohort. Klaus received his medical degree from the University of Copenhagen in 2002 and finished his PhD entitled “Intrauterine and genetic factors in early childhood sensitization” at COPSAC in 2010. He has been Clinical Research Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen and Herlev-Gentofte University Hospital since 2016, visiting Associate Professor at the Department of Human Genetics, University of Chicago from 2016-17, and Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Copenhagen and Herlev-Gentofte University Hospital since 2019.
Klaus’ research area can be described as clinical translational research combining clinical data from birth cohort studies with basic research methodologies. The main focus is early origins and functional subtypes of asthma, allergy and eczema with a particular emphasis on genetics and with the overall aim to allow prevention of disease and improve treatment. This has resulted in novel discoveries of susceptibility genes and other risk factors for asthma, eczema and allergy and novel potential preventive interventions, including fish oil and vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy for improved health in the offspring. He has authored or co-authored more than 200 peer-reviewed articles in international medical journals.
He has been the recipient of several international research awards including the European Respiratory Society Romain Pauwels Research Award (2019), the Lundbeck Foundation Fellowship (2014), the Klosterfrau Research Award for Outstanding Research in Pediatric Pulmonology (2014) and the ERS Best Publication Maurizio Vignola Award for Innovation in Pneumology (2014).
