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Jeanette Wahlberg

Position: Senior Lecturer School/office: School of Medical Sciences

Email:

Phone: No number available

Room: X1222

Research subject

About Jeanette Wahlberg

Jeanette Wahlberg is docent in endocrinology and internal medicine and senior lecturer at Örebro University since 2020, with a combined employment as chief physician in Region Örebro County. Her research focus is mainly diabetes and endocrine diseases.

While training as a biomedical analyst, Jeanette Wahlberg began research in transplant biology at Uppsala University at the age of 19 under Professor Olle Korsgren. After her first article on islet cell transplantation, she studied medicine at Karolinska Institute with a specialty in endocrinology and diabetology as well as internal medicine. Her doctoral thesis is on risk factors in children for developing type 1 diabetes.

Research

One project deals with the significance of exposure to infections and antibiotics before the onset of diabetes in childhood (PhD student Malin Belteky) and complications in type 1 diabetes with onset in childhood (PhD student Evangelia Baldimtsi and post doc researcher Nektaria Papadopolou).

Jeanette Wahlberg also researches sex hormones and their importance in various conditions treated with estrogen or testosterone replacement. These studies involve testosterone when used as doping substance, estradiol when used medically in women with hypogonadism and in women who lack one X chromosome (Turner syndrome), and testosterone when used in the treatment of hypogonadism in men.

Another project (PhD student Kajsa Lethin) is about improving hormone treatment  for individuals with gender dysphoria. Testosterone is given to those who are biological women but have a male gender identity (female to male transsexualism). Estradiol is given to people who are biological men but have a female gender identity (male to female transsexualism).

Another area of research is the abuse of anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS), which is spread even outside elite sports. Testosterone is an AAS that is frequently abused, as shown by urine analyses performed by the National Board of Forensic Medicine (RMV) in Linköping. There is therefore a great need to develop reference values for testosterone to enable comparison with results from doping with high doses. There is also a need for developing new methods (PhD thesis Yvonne Lood, 2021) to measure testosterone in saliva (using, among other things, LC MS/MS, liquid chromatography-tandem mass-spectrometry).

Further research involves pituitary diseases and includes a national and international project to study aggressive pituitary tumors and Cushing's disease (PhD thesis Daniel Bengtsson, 2021). Jeanette Wahlberg also researches the effect of the pituitary hormone prolactin on, among other things, the immune system and quality of life.

Jeanette Wahlberg uses artificial intelligence, AI, to develop a decision support system for treatment choices for patients with hyperthyroidism, that is, when the thyroid produces too much hormone. The results show that an AI model could lead to increased quality of life.

She also studies how the rate of sick leave and morbidity in patients with hyperthyroidism varies with treatment method and how this affects the outcome socioeconomically.

In addition to her main lines of research, Jeanette Wahlberg participates in several clinical research projects and registry studies at regional, national and international level. These involve immunological and clinical aspects of Addison's disease, Turner syndrome, pituitary diseases, gestational diabetes, growth hormone therapy and long-acting hydrocortisone therapy.

Teaching

Jeanette Wahlberg teaches primarily in endocrinology/diabetes and medical science within the Professional Development components on the Programme of Medicine at Örebro University.

She has extensive experience of teaching at undergraduate and master’s levels. Currently, she is the main supervisor of 4 PhD students. She has had two PhD students who defended their theses in 2021. She also supervises master's theses.

Collaboration and assignments

Jeanette Wahlberg is clinically responsible for the theme group NME (nutrition, metabolism and elimination) and responsible for medical science within the Professional Development group on the Programme of Medicine.

Jeanette Wahlberg collaborates with Linköping University (guest lecturer), the National Board of Forensic Medicine, the National Forensic Centre, Karolinska Institute, the Swedish Pituitary Group, and the Swedish Addison Register. She also has several international collaborations (USA, Greece, Norway).

Publications

Articles in journals |  Articles, reviews/surveys |  Conference papers |  Doctoral theses, comprehensive summaries | 

Articles in journals

Articles, reviews/surveys

Conference papers

Doctoral theses, comprehensive summaries