Ruth Loos wins the Erhoff Prize 2026 for her research into the genetics of obesity
Professor Ruth Loos of the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research (CBMR) at the University of Copenhagen receives the Erhoff Prize 2026 and DKK 300,000. The prize honours more than two decades of work on how genes shape a person's risk of obesity and its related diseases.
In their announcement of this year's Erhoff Foundation Prizes, they note that the global rise in obesity and chronic diseases poses a challenge to public health. Research on how to identify people at risk of disease is therefore critically important. For this reason, they award the 2026 Erhoff Foundation Prize to Ruth Loos, Professor and Vice Executive Director at CBMR.
“Ruth Loos receives the award for an extraordinary and internationally recognized effort in uncovering the importance of selected genes for the development of obesity. For more than two decades, she has been a leader in her field and has shed light on the importance of the brain in relation to the development of obesity. She has developed a model that can predict obesity in children, as well as a model that can identify people with overweight who have a low risk of developing comorbidities. Her research has thus had a far-reaching impact on our understanding of risk factors for obesity and secondary diseases, including type 2 diabetes,” they write.
Professor Ruth Loos’ early work helped map the genetic landscape of body weight. As a leading member of the international GIANT Consortium, she helped run a 2015 study of almost 340,000 people, published in Nature, that found 97 regions of the genome linked to body mass index. The results pointed to the brain as a key player in obesity. Her research has also shown that physical activity can blunt a genetic predisposition to obesity.
More recently, she has asked why obesity makes some people ill but not others. In 2021, her group, then at Mount Sinai in New York, identified 62 genetic regions that raise body fat while lowering the risk of heart and metabolic diseases. Many of the genes involved act in fat tissue. Building on these findings at CBMR, she has developed a genetic score that identifies people who are prone to obesity but have a low risk of complications such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease. She has also developed a genetic test that can predict, before the age of five, whether a child is likely to develop obesity later in life.
Her group is now building a precision health cohort, DELPHI, to find out why people respond differently to the same diet and exercise. The aim is lifestyle advice tailored to each person’s biology, rather than one-size-fits-all recommendations.
“It is a great honour to receive the Erhoff Prize. When I started out, we knew only a handful of genes linked to obesity. Today we know more than a thousand, and we understand that the brain plays a central role in who gains weight. The next step is to use that knowledge so that each person gets the prevention and treatment that works for them. I share this prize with the many talented trainees and collaborators who have been part of that journey,” says Ruth Loos.
Talent Prize to University of Copenhagen colleague
The Erhoff Foundation's Talent Prize 2026 of DKK 100,000 goes to Clinical Professor, Consultant, PhD Nicolai W. Albrechtsen of the University of Copenhagen and Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg Hospital. He receives the prize for his work on the hormone glucagon in health and disease. He has shown that glucagon matters for cognitive ability, described how some people become insensitive to the hormone (glucagon resistance), and developed a clinical test for the condition. Glucagon resistance is linked to disturbed sugar metabolism, such as type 2 diabetes, as well as infectious diseases and liver diseases.
Both prizes are presented at a ceremony in Copenhagen on 25 September 2026.
About Director Thor O.A. Erhoff's Family Foundation
The foundation was founded in 2007 by director Poul Erhoff as a charitable foundation in memory of Poul Erhoff's father, whose name the foundation bears. Thor O.A. Erhoff was born in Copenhagen on 15 May 1878 and at the age of 20 he became a recruit in the Life Guards. He had a military career and in 1916 was appointed captain in the artillery. He left the military in 1924 and became a director of the company Dansk Gasaccumulator, a branch of a large Swedish company, which later changed its name to AGA. Thor Erhoff died in 1939 and his son, Poul Erhoff, was also for a period director of AGA.
The purpose of the foundation is to honour one or more persons or institutions who have made particularly commendable work and/or an exceptionally significant contribution to the research or treatment of diseases.
The Board selects the recipients of the Foundation's awards on the basis of invited nominations. Two honorary awards are awarded:
The Erhoff Prize of DKK 300,000 is awarded to a person who has made a pioneering scientific contribution at a high international level.
The Erhoff Foundation's Talent Prize of DKK 100,000 is given to a young researcher who has performed independent research in a class of its own.