Research areas

Carsten Dirksen is a Danish endocrinologist and chief physician at Department of Pulmonary Diseases and Endocrinology at Copenhagen University Hospital – Hvidovre. He is founder of the hospital’s clinic for Obesity and Nutrition that is the largest public center for bariatric surgery in eastern Denmark and also offers specialised non-surgical obesity management.

Carsten Dirksen is also a clinical research associate professor at Department of Clinical Medicine at the University of Copenhagen with more than 15 years of experience in clinical research within the fields of obesity, metabolism, and diabetes including several important papers on the mechanisms behind the efficacy of bariatric surgery.

Carsten Dirksen is currently the chief investigator of the Lighthouse Consortium on Obesity Management (LightCOM), which is a strategic international research consortium that includes research groups from Denmark and the United Kingdom and is supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation. The aim of the LightCOM project is to develop and test novel obesity management programmes in a series of clinical trials.

Current research

LightCARE: NCT06321432

LightWAY: NCT06321458

LightBAR: NCT06309238

Potential conflicts of interest

Carsten Dirksen has research funding from the Novo Nordisk Foundation, including being the main applicant and chief investigator for the Lighthouse Consortium on Obesity Management (LightCOM) research project (NNF22SA0080921).

Carsten Dirksen has research collaboration with NUPO Aps, SENS Innovation Aps, Abbott GmbH and Dexcom International Limited.

Carsten Dirksen is an investigator on clinical trials conducted on behalf of Novo Nordisk A/S (sub-investigator) and Amgen AB (primary investigator).

Carsten Dirksen has within the last 3 years served as consultant for Novo Nordisk Denmark A/S, and as lecturer and/or chairperson at meetings organized by Novo Nordisk A/S, Novo Nordisk Denmark A/S, Novo Nordisk France, AstraZeneca A/S, Eli Lilly Danmark A/S, and has for this work received personal fees from Novo Nordisk Denmark A/S and AstraZeneca A/S. I the same periode, Carsten Dirksen has received support for attending meetings from Novo Nordisk Denmark A/S.