Alongside fellow student Shamkant Patkar, she discovered an enzyme capable of removing microscopic strands of cotton that pill up on clothing from repeated wear.
[7] After this project, Knudsen joined full-time as part of a research group at Novo Nordisk that aimed to identify new treatments for diabetes, by developing small molecule drugs targeting specific metabolic pathways.
[8][9][verification needed] Knudsen's team screened numerous chemical compounds to identify whether they could bind to the GLP-1 receptor sufficiently to stimulate insulin secretion.
[12] Knudsen’s team, specifically Jesper Lau and Thomas Kruse, then worked on what became semaglutide, which had greater stability and affinity to albumin, lengthening its duration of action further to a once-weekly drug.
[16][17][needs update] Martin Müller and Alexander Preker, writing for Der Spiegel in January 2024, have referred to Knudsen discovery in inventing the semaglutide weight-loss injections as "revolutionary", with the "drug Wegovy... [having] changed the world," and having made Novo Nordisk "Europe's most valuable company, [more valuable] than Daimler, Bayer, Lufthansa and BMW combined".