Thomas Rolf Mandrup-Poulsen was born on April 22, 1955, in Hellerup, Copenhagen, Denmark, to Rolf and Hanne Windfeld-Hansen Mandrup-Poulsen. He developed his medical career in Denmark, where specialist training in internal medicine and endocrinology led to clinical and research appointments in Copenhagen and Gentofte.
Mandrup-Poulsen studied medicine at the University of Copenhagen, receiving the Doctor of Medicine degree in 1981 and the Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1988. The University of Copenhagen, founded in 1479, is Denmark's oldest university and a major center for medical education and biomedical research.
His graduate work coincided with the expansion of modern diabetes research, including investigations into immune mechanisms, pancreatic islet biology, and inflammatory mediators. He later held academic appointments at the University of Copenhagen and the Karolinska Institute, where clinical medicine was closely connected with molecular and translational research.
Mandrup-Poulsen began his clinical career as an intern at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen from 1988 to 1990. Rigshospitalet is Denmark's principal national teaching hospital and a major center for specialized clinical care, medical education, and research. He then served as senior registrar at Hillerød Hospital from 1990 to 1991, at the Steno Diabetes Center in Gentofte from 1991 to 1992, and at Hvidovre Hospital in Copenhagen from 1992 to 1994.
He became chief physician at the Steno Diabetes Center in 1995 and also served as the center's medical director from 1997 to 2000. Steno developed as a specialized institution for diabetes treatment, education, and research, and his work there combined clinical endocrinology with investigations into the immune and inflammatory mechanisms of diabetes. He was research chief physician at the Hagedorn Research Institute from 2009 to 2011; the institute was associated with diabetes research and the development of translational biomedical knowledge.
Mandrup-Poulsen joined the University of Copenhagen as a professor of medical research methodology in 2007. He also held adjunct professorships in immunodiabetology at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm from 2000 to 2006 and from 2009 onward. The Karolinska Institute is a leading Swedish medical university whose research environment emphasizes biomedical science, clinical investigation, and links between laboratory findings and patient care.
His research established that inflammatory cytokines, particularly interleukin-1, can impair pancreatic beta-cell function and contribute to beta-cell destruction. His work included studies of cytokine-mediated islet injury, the role of inflammation in type 1 and type 2 diabetes, oxidative stress, iron metabolism, and clinical cytokine-blockade strategies. He was a contributor to the 2007 clinical trial of interleukin-1-receptor antagonist in type 2 diabetes, which reported improved glycemia and beta-cell function, and he has continued research on immuno-metabolism, cellular stress, and circadian regulation.
Mandrup-Poulsen's research demonstrated that inflammatory cytokines can impair pancreatic beta-cell function and viability, contributing to understanding the immune and inflammatory mechanisms involved in diabetes.
He contributed to translational diabetes research linking laboratory studies of interleukin-1 and beta-cell injury with clinical investigation of cytokine antagonism in patients with type 2 diabetes.
He co-founded the Øresund Diabetes Academy, strengthening Danish-Swedish cooperation in diabetes research and training.
(Co-authored New England Journal of Medicine clinical tria...)
2007(Co-authored Science article identifying human interleukin...)
1986(Co-authored research showing that cytokine-rich immune-ce...)
1985(Co-authored Lancet study examining hereditary haemochroma...)
2001(Single-author review in Diabetologia synthesizing evidenc...)
1996(Review discussing immune mechanisms of pancreatic beta-ce...)
2003(Co-authored review examining nicotinamide as a possible p...)
1993Mandrup-Poulsen's scientific work reflects a translational view of medicine in which molecular mechanisms, clinical observation, and therapeutic testing should inform one another. His research has treated inflammation and metabolic stress as interconnected processes in diabetes and has pursued interventions that move from cellular and animal models toward clinical trials.
Mandrup-Poulsen has held leadership and advisory roles in professional and research organizations concerned with internal medicine, diabetes, endocrinology, and biomedical science. He served as president of the Danish Society for Internal Medicine and the Scandinavian Society for the Study of Diabetes, and participated in the Danish Study Group for Diabetes in Childhood, the Danish Diabetes Association's medical research activities, the EASD Standardization Committee, and international research-review and advisory bodies.
He also co-founded the Øresund Diabetes Academy, a Danish-Swedish collaboration intended to strengthen diabetes research and training across the Øresund region. His organizational work connected clinical medicine with experimental research, professional standards, research funding, and international cooperation.
Board member from 1992 to 1997 and president from 1995 to 1997.
Danish Society for Internal Medicine , Denmark
1992 - 1997
Executive board member from 1994 to 1998 and president in 1998.
Scandinavian Society for the Study of Diabetes , Scandinavia
1994 - 1998
Executive board member.
Danish Study Group for Diabetes in Childhood , Denmark
1995 - 2001
Member of the Medical Research Fund Council.
Danish Diabetes Association , Denmark
1995 - 2002
Co-founder and president from 2007 to 2009.
Øresund Diabetes Academy , Denmark and Sweden
2003 - 2009
Chairman from 2005 to 2007.
EASD Standardization Committee , Europe
2005 - 2007
Executive board member.
Interleukin Foundation , United States
2010 - present
Member during 2001–2004 and 2005–2008, with later ad hoc service.
JDRF Medical Science Review Board , United States
2001 - 2008
Member of the scientific advisory board.
INSERM Scientific Advisory Board , France
2004 - 2009
Mandrup-Poulsen married Eva Susanne Pohl on September 5, 1987. They have two children, Christian and Peter.
