Research areas

Carsten Dirksen is a Danish endocrinologist and Chief Physician at Department of Endocrinology at Copenhagen University Hospital – Hvidovre. He leads the Endocrine Research Unit and is co‑founder of the Obesity and Nutrition Unit, the largest public clinic for the management of complex and severe obesity in eastern Denmark, offering both bariatric surgery and specialised non‑surgical obesity care.

Carsten Dirksen is the Chief Investigator of the Lighthouse Consortium on Obesity Management (LightCOM), a strategic international research consortium involving research groups from Denmark and the United Kingdom and supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation. LightCOM aims to develop and test novel obesity management programmes in a series of clinical trials.

Main research areas

The overarching aim of Carsten Dirksen's research is to improve care for people living with obesity and adiposity-related diseases through clinical and translational research projects.

Main research topics include:

Bariatric surgery

• Physiological and metabolic effects (gut hormones, gastrointestinal motility, bile acid metabolism)
• Complications (post-bariatric hypoglycemia, neuropathy)
• Quality of life

Clinical management of obesity

• Weight loss treatments in patients with multimorbidity
• Weight loss treatments in hypothalamic obesity
• Surgical vs. non-surgical weight loss treatments
• Intensive non-surgical weight loss interventions
• Weight neutral interventions

Current research

Obesity Management

• LightCOM Programme: A large international series of randomised controlled trials (LightCARE/NCT06321432, LightWAY/NCT06321458, and LightBAR/NCT06309238) comparing a 2‑year intensive weight‑loss intervention (IWL) with usual care, and, in LightBAR, with bariatric surgery. The RCTs examine effects on body weight, metabolic health, physical functioning, and quality of life across more than 1,500 planned participants. In addition, a 6‑month feasibility trial (NCT06922630) testing a novel weight neutral intervention (WIN).
• LightKEEP Project: A digital “weight‑coaching avatar” developed to support long‑term weight‑loss maintenance after intensive interventions. The intervention will be tested in a randomised clinical trial over 12 months among participants from the LightCOM trials who achieve >5% weight loss.
• FIT‑HF Trial: A 52‑week randomised study investigating how weight loss affects physical capacity and cardiac performance in patients with heart failure.

Post‑Bariatric Care and Complications

• The BARICARE project: A project focusing on patient‑centred care after bariatric surgery by combining quantitative and qualitative approaches to evaluate post‑operative care, including a cohort study of more than 2,000 patients assessing changes in quality of life after bariatric surgery.
• The NovaBAR study: A clinical study examining the prevalence of neuropathy before and after bariatric surgery to better understand the neuro-metabolic complications of bariatric surgery.

Basal Obesity Research

• The Glucavag study: A study investigating the vagus nerve’s role in pancreatic hormone secretion and effects under hypoglycemic conditions.
• The BileBAR study (NCT06925997): A mechanistic clinical trial evaluating how bile acids contribute to metabolic improvements after gastric bypass using a bile acid sequestrant.
• A translational project examining changes in muscle mass and function after weight loss, with a specific focus on Rho GTPase signalling and AI‑assisted integration of patient-derived proteomics data.
• A project exploring the complement–insulin axis, including the metabolic roles of MASP‑2 and Factor D, using clinical samples before and after bariatric surgery in collaboration with national and international research partners.

Potential conflicts of interest

Carsten Dirksen has over the past three years received funding for research projects from the Novo Nordisk Foundation, served as principal investigator on clinical trials conducted by Novo Nordisk and Amgen, received personal honorarium (lecturer, consultancy, committee member) from Dagens Medicin, Dansk Lægemiddel Information, Empros Pharma, Novo Nordisk, AstraZeneca, and Amylyx, and served in unpaid roles (meeting organiser or chairperson) for Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly.