Lundbeck Foundation Postdoc Fellowship
Dr Melvin Marzan has been awarded a prestigious three-year postdoctoral fellowship by the Lundbeck Foundation to lead ECHO-NEURO: Early Cardio‑Metabolic Health and Neuro Outcomes Study.
Pictured Dr Melvin Marzan
Department of Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Newborn Health researcher Dr Melvin Marzan has been awarded a prestigious three-year postdoctoral fellowship by the Lundbeck Foundation to lead ECHO-NEURO: Early Cardio‑Metabolic Health and Neuro Outcomes Study.
The project will investigate how gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) contributes to long-term neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative outcomes by analysing data from around 2.7 million births across Denmark, Norway and Australia. In addition to examining population-level associations, the study will evaluate how genetic liability interacts with clinical, health and socioeconomic factors to determine cardiometabolic and neurological outcomes following GDM.
Dr Marzan will be primarily hosted by the National Centre for Register‑based Research at Aarhus University, with secondments at the Dept OGN, University of Melbourne, and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. The fellowship includes advanced training in register-based epidemiology, statistical genetics and genetic epidemiology under the supervision under the supervision of A/Prof Xiaoqin Liu (Aarhus University), Prof Lisa Hui (University of Melbourne), Dr Maria Magnus (Norwegian Institute of Public Health), A/Prof Nhung Trinh (UiT – The Arctic University of Norway), and A/Prof Arianne Sweeting (University of Sydney).
The three‑year fellowship begins in August 2026 and is expected to strengthen register-based research capacity and cross-country collaboration on the long-term health consequences of gestational diabetes. The study’s multi-jurisdictional design and integration of genetic and socioeconomic data aim to provide new insights into prevention and targeted interventions for cardiometabolic and neurological disorders following GDM.