October 9, 2024
Kerstin was a warm and caring pediatrician, open minded, friendly and always focused on every child’s well-being. She was passionate about research, but she was also ahead of her time as a pioneer in many interdisciplinary fields. She was forward-thinking in establishing clinical trials alongside regular clinical practice. Her research covered a wide range from translational studies to basic and longitudinal studies on pubertal development. She followed multiple cohorts longitudinally from infancy to adulthood providing detailed descriptions of the daily variation of a range of hormones, optimizing puberty induction in healthy children as well as females with Turner syndrome and children with cancer, among others.
Kerstin started her research in a preclinical laboratory and was in 1981 promoted to Associate Professor of Physiology at the University of Gothenburg. After her decision to pursue a clinical career, she turned her interest to pediatric endocrinology and was in 1994 appointed as Professor in Pediatric growth research. She was one of the first to show the superior effect of daily GH injections when treating GHD and she conducted extensive investigations into the significance of spontaneous GH secretion in children. She also had made essential contributions as a long-term adviser to the international pharmaco-epidemiological survey KIGS. Thanks to a collaboration with NASA, she developed advanced equipment enabling children to be assessed in a physiological way with diurnal growth hormone curves. She created predictive models for tailored growth hormone therapy for children, along with decision support for detecting abnormal growth, all before AI was invented. Kerstin founded the Göteborg Pediatric Growth Research Center, where it became standard for most staff to be involved in both clinical research and preclinical projects. She established the Growth Laboratory, where highly sensitive methods for pediatric hormone measurement were developed for clinical use, based on several large, healthy pediatric cohorts from the region.
Kerstin was also a driving force to set up the Swedish GH registry which has been of great importance for analyzing effects and potential adverse actions of GH. It has also been an important resource for academic studies. Her results on GH secretion have made a great impact and she was asked to deliver data by the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare for creating national growth reference charts for children. Kerstin supervised more than 30 PhD students, many of whom later have pursued significant independent academic careers in Sweden, Island, Lithuania and Brazil. Kerstin´s research resulted in more than 400 peer-reviewed scientific publications. She also gave numerous presentations at ESPE meetings and arranged many symposia and workshops. Kerstin´s academic leadership was recognized by ESPE by awarding her the Andrea Prader Price 2017. The passing of Kerstin Albertsson-Wikland is indeed a significant loss. Her pioneering research and dedication to children’s growth have left a profound and lasting mark on the field.
On behalf of the European Society for Pediatric Endocrinology,
Anita Hokken-Koelega, ESPE President
Professor in Pediatrics, Rotterdam University, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Lars Sävendahl, Past ESPE Secretary General
Professor of Pediatric Endocrinology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
Jovanna Dahlgren, Former Member of ESPE Clinical Practice Committee
Professor in Pediatric Endocrinology, Göteborg Pediatric Growth Research Center, Gothenburg, Sweden
Martin Ritzén, Former ESPE Council Member
Professor emeritus, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
Olle Söder, Past ESPE Treasurer
Professor emeritus, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
Pierre Chatelain
Professor emeritus in Pediatrics, Université Claude BERNARD LYON, Lyon, France
Michael Ranke, Past member of ESPE Council
Professor in Pediatrics, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
Maithé Tauber, Past member of ESPE council
Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics, University of Toulouse, Toulouse, France
Cecilia Camacho-Hubner
Professorial Lecturer, Division of Pediatric Endocrinology, Mt Sinai School of Medicine, New York, US
Wayne Cutfield
Professor in Paediatric Endocrinology, University of Auckland, New Zealand