Ray A. and Robert L. Kroc Lecture

The annual Kroc lecture at the medical faculty, Uppsala University, was originally financed by a donation from The Kroc Foundation, Santa Barbara, California, USA. In 1954 Ray A. Kroc (1902-1984) started the well-known hamburger chain McDonald’s, which soon made him one of the wealthiest entrepreneurs in USA. His desire to donate some of the profit to charity was realized in 1965 by the establishment of Ray A. Kroc Foundation in Chicago. The aim of the Foundation was to support research on chronic diseases including diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and multiple sclerosis. The following 20 years Ray’s brother Robert L. Kroc (born 1907; originally working with endocrine research within the drug industry) was chairman of the foundation. During this period about 370 million SEK were distributed to research groups within USA but also to some foreign groups, one of which were at the Department of Medical Cell Biology, Uppsala University. The latter support focused on research on treatment of diabetes by transplantation of insulin producing cells.

After Ray A. Kroc’s demise the foundation was dissolved in April 1985. On this occasion several donations were awarded including 3 grants to Professorships (1 million USD each) and 84 grants to annual lectures (50 000 USD each) at different universities and research centres. Five of those were awarded to countries outside USA (Canada, England and Sweden). The donation to Sweden went to Uppsala University and the purpose was that the revenue should support an annual lecture about diabetes research. All lecturers have been internationally leading scientists in the diabetes field and the donation has played an important role to develop an international network for diabetes research in Uppsala.

Kroc lectures

2019 Matthias v Herrath
New and sometimes surprising
insights into the pathology of human
type 1 diabetes and therapeutic
avenues

La Jolla Institute for Immunology
Div. of Developmental Immunology
La Jolla, California, USA

2018 Pirjo Nuutila
Lessons from metabolic disorders
and Type 2 diabetes using imaging

Turku PET Centre,
University of Turku and
Dept. of Endocrinology,
Turku University Hospital
Turku, Finland

2017 Mark A Atkinson
Recent Lessons from the Human
Pancreas – Re-writing the Textbooks
on How Type 1 Diabetes Develops

University of Florida
Dept of Pathology, Immunology
and Laboratory Medicine
Gainesville, Florida, USA

2015 Harry Heimberg
Reprogramming Pancreatic
Exocrine to Beta Cells

Diabetes Research Center
Vrije Universiteit Brussels
Bryssel, Belgien

2014 Andrew F Stewart
Obstacles and advances in human beta cell proliferation for diabetes

Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism Institute
Mount Sinai Scool of Medicine
New York, USA

2013 Ezio Bonifacio
Shaping pre-type 1 diabetes

Preclinical Stem Cells / Diabetes Center for Regenerative Therapies,
Dresden, Germany

2012 Susumo Seino
Cell signaling in insulin secretion - interplay of glucose metabolism, cAMP, and sulfonylurea

Department of Physiology and Cellular Biology, Kobe University,
Kobe, Japan

2011 Gordon Weir
The Challenge of ß-cell Replacement for Diabetes

Joslin Diabetes Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

2010 Steven E. Kahn
The Critical Role of ß-cell Function and Mass in Glucose Regulation?
Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology and Nutrition, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA

2009 Timo Otonkoski
Remaking human beta-cells

Children’s Hospital and Biomedicum Stem Cell Center, University of Helsinki,
Helsinki, Finland

2008 Frances M Ashcroft
K-ATP channels and neonatal diabetes: from molecule to novel therapy

Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford,
Oxford, UK

2007 Nicholas J Wareham
Genes and lifestyle factors in the aetiology of type 2 diabetes

MRC Epidemiology Unit and Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK

2006 Susan
Bonner-Weir
Neogenesis occurs : direct evidence of pancreatic progenitors by lineage tracing

Joslin Diabetes Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

2005 Patrik Rorsman
Glucagon secretion : A sadly neglected component of diabetes?

Division of Diabetes, Metabolism and Endocrinology, University of Lund,
Lund, Sweden

2004 Jean-Phillipe Assal
Diesease centered and patient centered: Can these two dimensions of care really live together?

University of Geneva,
Geneva, Switzerland

2003 Anne Clark
The beta cell defect and type 2 diabetes: lessons from biophysics, cell biology and microscopy

Diabetes Research Laboratory,
University of Oxford, UK

2002 Lois Jovanovic
Modern management of gestational diabetes

Sansum Diabetes Research Institute,
Santa Barbara, USA

2001 Ray V Rajotte
Islet transplantation – past, present, future

Surgical Medical Research Institute, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

2000 Mikael Knip
Type 1 diabetes: From genetic susceptibility to clinical disease

Department of Pediatrics, Medical School, University of Tampere, Finland

1999 Claes B Wollheim
Role of mitochondria in metabolism secretion coupling in the pancreatic beta-cells

Division of Clinical Biochemistry and Experimental Diabetology, Department of Medicine, Geneva, Switzerland

1998 Oluf Pedersen
Molecular genetics of non-autoimmune diabetes mellitus – short cuts to rational therapy and prevention

Steno Diabetes Center,
Copenhagen, Denmark

1997 Ole D Madsen
Pluripotent islet tumours – tools to study aspects of diabetes and islet cell diferentiation

Hagedorn Research Institute,
Gentofte, Denmark

1996 Hannele Yki-Järvinen
Insulin resistance as defence mechanism in diabetes

University of Helsinki,
Helsinki, Finland

1995 Danny Pipeleers
A beta-cell biologist’s view on clinical diabetes

Vrije Universiteit,
Brussels, Belgium

1994 Robert C Turner
Treatment of type 2 diabetes – Lessons from the UK Diabetes Prospective Study

University of Oxford,
Oxford, UK

1993 Donald F Steiner
Thebiosynthesis of islet hormones – New insights from molecular biology

University of Chicago,
Chicago, USA

1992 C Nicholas Hales
Insulin secretion in type 2 diabetes

University of Cambridge,
Cambridge, UK

1991 Eleuterio Ferrannini
Insulin sensitivity in health and disease

University of Pisa,
Pisa, Italy

1990 David ER Sutherland
Transplantation in diabetes mellitus

University of Minnesota School of Medicine, Minneapolis, USA

1989 Philip E Cryer
Hypoglycemia: The limiting factor in the management of insulin dependent diabetes mellitus

Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, USA

1988 Norbert Freinkel
On honeybees and neural tubes: The spectrum of fuels-mediated teratogenesis

Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, USA

1987 Jörn Nerup
On the pathogenesis of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus

Steno Memorial Hospital,
Copenhagen Denmark

1986 Paul E Lacy
Islet transplantation – present status

Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, USA