Meet your colleague: Kim Brøsen

Can you tell us about your work?

I am a clinical pharmacologist, and my research area is pharmacogenetics—the science of how genes influence the desired and undesired effects of drugs.

Forty years ago, I began researching CYP2D6, an enzyme in the liver that plays a crucial role in breaking down drugs effectively. Seven to eight percent of the Danish population lack this enzyme.

My most significant contribution to this research has been demonstrating that non-genetic factors can also have a major impact.

How long have you been employed at SDU? Have you been here in multiple periods?

I have been continuously employed at Odense/Syddansk University since 1 March 1985. Before that, I was a visiting researcher for 3.5 years. Since August 2023, I have been employed at 10%.

What is the best thing about your job?

My research has brought me the greatest professional joy—but also the greatest frustration when things didn’t go as planned. For more than 40 years, I have had the privilege of choosing my own research projects freely.

Almost as great a privilege has been the freedom to engage in many other activities that my research brought me into contact with. For instance, I have served as president of both a European and an international pharmacology congress, and for more than 20 years, I have been editor-in-chief of both a Danish textbook and a scientific journal.

Could you share a work task you've completed that you're particularly proud of?

I have always worked with others, and none of my achievements are entirely my own. I have always been good at building strong teams around me, and that might actually be my greatest accomplishment.

What is your educational background—how did you end up in this job?

I graduated as a medical doctor from the University of Copenhagen in January 1981 and became a specialist in clinical pharmacology in 1996.

I qualified at a time when there was high unemployment among young doctors, so I had to go to the excellent Fredericia Hospital for my internship. I spent 17 months in Fredericia, and I think that was the happiest time of my medical career. It was during this period that I began doing research at Odense University in my spare time.

After a few years on Zealand, I was hired as a clinical assistant at Odense University on 1 March 1985, and I have been here ever since.I was a salaried consultant in clinical pharmacology at OUH for exactly 25 years, from 1996 to 2021.

Have you considered other career paths?

I thought I was going to be an anaesthetist.

What do you do in your spare time?

After almost 40 wonderful years in Odense, my wife and I decided to move back to Copenhagen, where we are originally from. We bought a flat on Amager.

We go for walks, take care of our grandchildren, spend time with our children, friends, and acquaintances, and go to the cinema and theatre.

Have you watched, read, or listened to anything recently that you would recommend?

As a student, I went on two expeditions to Greenland—one in West Greenland in the winter of 1976, where we skied and travelled by dog sled, and one in East Greenland the following summer, where we hiked with full packs.

 Although I haven’t returned since, I have followed Greenland with great interest. Only recently have I begun reading Kim Leine’s books about Greenland.

 First, I read the excellent historical novel The Prophets of Eternal Fjord, followed by the autobiographical novel Kalak. He is a brilliant writer, and Kalak is shockingly raw in its self-exposure. His novels provide a vivid and truthful depiction of everyday life in Greenland, both past and present, making them especially relevant today.

What is your favourite travel destination?

Our house in F-34480 Laurens in southern France, which we bought in 2006.

 I was a visiting professor at Hôpital Saint Antoine in Paris while my children attended Lycée International in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, just outside Paris. We became francophiles—and in my family's case, also francophones—so we simply had to own a place in France.

 We live in one of the world’s largest wine-producing regions, so we taste, buy, and drink wine, cook indoors and outdoors, or go out to eat. We often have friends and family visiting, go hiking in the mountains or vineyards, or simply relax with a glass of chilled rosé and a good book.

Do you have a special talent that others might not know about?

Unfortunately not—only diligence and ambition.