Gitte Moos Knudsen


Gitte Moos Knudsen is a Danish translational neurobiologist and clinical neurologist, and Clinical Professor and Chief Physician at the Department of Clinical Medicine, Neurology, Psychiatry and Sensory Sciences, at Copenhagen University Hospital. She graduated from Lyngby Statsskole, just north of Copenhagen, before gaining entrance to medicine, where she received her MD from University of Copenhagen in 1984, and became a Board certified user of radioisotopes in 1986. She sat the FMGEMS exam in 1989. She became Board certified in neurology in 1994 and received her DMSc from University of Copenhagen in 1994. She currently resides in Copenhagen, and is married to Tore Vulpius. She has 3 children.

Career

Knudsen is one of the leading figures in the neurosciences, assisting various European Union nations to prioritize research and grants. In addition, her research into the brain and its chemistry during depression, Alzheimer's Disease, and states induced by drugs such as GHB and ecstasy is at the forefront of world knowledge, and she is a noted scholar in these areas, publishing many papers on each topic. Her interest in brain imaging has led to a deeper understanding of how many receptors act within the brain, and she has produced studies using SPECT, PET, and MRI results to interpret these. A key issue is that the latest brain research not only contributes to increased understanding of brain functions, but is also used to attempt to explain what it means to be human.

CIMBI

The Lundbeck Foundation, created in 1954, donated one of the largest amounts ever given toward the development of medical knowledge, listing a total of DKK 504 million to various institutions in 2011. With a 40 million grant from this program, Knudsen, together with a team of researchers from the Center for Integrated Molecular Imaging of the Brain, University of Copenhagen, are concentrating on investigating the neural bases of personality that predispose individuals to various disorders, using PET and MRI technology. She is currently the Center Director of The Lundbeck Foundation Centre for Integrated Molecular Brain Imaging.

Research focus

Regarding her research, Knudsen states:
I am a translational neurobiologist and clinical neurologist with interest in advanced methodological developments that I subsequently apply in my research to address pertinent neurobiological and clinical issues. My scientific interests have fallen in three sequentially separated categories: