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Professor Dag Bratlid (1944-2025)–a tribute

Pediatric Research (2025)Cite this article

Professor emeritus Dag Bratlid died unexpectedly on September 30, 2025. He was 81 years old and, until his sudden passing, as vital and active as we had always known him. Dag was born in Oslo on July 18, 1944, and graduated from the Oslo Cathedral School in 1963. He received his Doctor of Medicine from the University of Oslo in 1969, followed immediately by research training at the Pediatric Research Institute, Oslo University Hospital, Rikshospitalet.

He completed his PhD thesis in 1973, which was focused on bilirubin and mechanisms of its toxicity in newborns. His thesis adviser at the outset of this work was Jørgen Fog, known for his work on bilirubin structure and other aspects of bilirubin chemistry and analysis. The first paper in his thesis addressed the toxic effects of bilirubin on human fibroblasts and how toxicity could be modulated by albumin. In the second paper, he used another cell model—rat hepatoma cells. The latter five papers included in his thesis dealt with bilirubin binding to erythrocytes in vitro and how such binding could be affected by endogenous factors and drugs.

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References

  1. Hansen, T. W., Oyasaeter, S., Stiris, T. & Bratlid, D. Effects of sulfisoxazole, hypercarbia, and hyperosmolality on entry of bilirubin and albumin into brain regions in young rats. Biol. Neonate. 56, 22–30 (1989).

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  6. Soligard, H. T., Bratlid, D., Cao, C., Liang, A. & Nilsen, O. G. Displacement of bilirubin from albumin in plasma from jaundiced newborns. An in vitro study of purified Chinese herbal constituents and sulfisoxazole. Phytother. Res. 25, 1068–1072 (2011).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Thor Willy Ruud Hansen

  2. Division of Newborn Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Jon F. Watchko

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  1. Thor Willy Ruud Hansen
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  2. Jon F. Watchko
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Correspondence to Thor Willy Ruud Hansen.

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Hansen, T.W.R., Watchko, J.F. Professor Dag Bratlid (1944-2025)–a tribute. Pediatr Res (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-025-04746-y

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