- Tickets: Student DKK 95 / Standard DKK 145
- A Hypochondriac Ticket gives you access to all three Evening Consultations at a healing discount (DKK 395). Buy a Hypochondriac Ticket here
- After the talks, we’ll offer a glass of sparkling wine (included in the ticket), and the museum’s exhibitions will remain open until 9 pm.
- The talks will be in Danish.
Evening Consultation: From Animal to Human
Human or animal – where do we draw the line? We humans share a long evolutionary history with the rest of the animal kingdom. We share ancestors with the furry primates living today, and although the differences between humans and animals may seem enormous, our biological kinship is still clear.
This Evening Consultation explores our genetic relationship with animals. Which diseases and ailments do humans and animals share? Why do different species develop some of the same diseases? And how can a small, colourful fish help lead to breakthroughs in medical research?
In many ways, humans and animals are still surprisingly similar. We share genes, biological mechanisms and, not least, diseases. This means that animals can also tell us something about our own bodies and the diseases that affect us.
Abdi Hedayat is Head of Collections and Conservation at the Medical Museion. After 23 years at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, he has now moved into the world of humans. But just how great is the difference, really? For this evening, Abdi has brought out both zoological and human specimens that reveal some of the diseases affecting animals and humans alike. Among them, we’ll meet a toothache-afflicted Tyrannosaurus and explore what its illness can tell us about ourselves.
Our close genetic relationship with animals is crucial to research into and our understanding of human health and disease. When we look at a chimpanzee, we can easily spot similarities with humans. But we don’t have to look alike to share genetics. One of the most widely used animals in medical research is a much smaller, more colourful and rather surprising creature: the zebrafish.
Humans share as much as 80% of their genetic makeup with zebrafish, making them a valuable model for understanding human disease.
Pia Rengtved Lundegaard is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Sciences with a background in molecular biology and genetics. She researches heart disease and uses zebrafish to investigate the genetic factors that influence heart function. This evening, she will explore what this small, colourful fish has in common with humans, and how this gill-bearing creature can help us understand the development, function and diseases of the human heart.
Speakers:
Abdi Hedayat, conservator and Head of Collections and Conservation at the Medical Museion
Pia Rengtved Lundegaard, Associate Professor of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen
Evening Consultations at the Medical Museion – Autumn 2026
We humans are constantly searching for new knowledge about ourselves. How can we treat disease? How does the body work? How can we heal our ailments? To develop new medicines and better understand human physiology, we often turn to the animal kingdom for answers. This season of Evening Consultations explores what animals can teach us about the human body, health and medicine.
We’ll go right inside researchers’ laboratories and explore how everything from ants to large marine mammals can help us understand ourselves. What do monkey testicles have to do with declining male fertility? Can mole fat and burnt viper cure disease and other ailments? Can a fish make the human heart beat in sync? Can ants help solve the problem of antibiotic resistance? Can you CT-scan a whale and learn more about how the human body heals? These are just some of the questions we’ll explore during this autumn’s Evening Consultations.
About Evening Consultations
The Evening Consultations at the Medical Museion are a series of talks in which experts and researchers explore and take the pulse of the past, present and future of health science. Evening Consultations are recommended for the incurably curious and anyone looking for a little food for thought.
The Evening Consultations take place in the 1787 auditorium, originally built as the Royal Academy of Surgery. After the consultation, we recommend enjoying a glass of sparkling wine and taking a stroll through the museum’s exhibitions.
Remember that a Hypochondriac Ticket gives you access to all three events at a healing discount.
