18 November 2018
LEO Foundation supports establishment of new center for skin research at the University of Copenhagen with DKK 400m.
Copenhagen will be the next focal point for the best international research in skin, skin diseases and immunology. The new LEO Foundation Skin Immunology Research Center at the University of Copenhagen shall pave the way for better understanding, prevention and treatment of skin diseases. The LEO Foundation will fund the center with DKK 400m over 10 years.
“At any given time, one in four of us will suffer from a skin disease, and at present we are unable to treat many of these diseases in an adequate way. This is why we need to raise the bar in dermatological research,” says Jesper Mailind, CEO, LEO Foundation and continues:
“The LEO Foundation supports the best international research in skin and skin diseases and the new center will provide unique opportunities to better understand the skin and its diseases.”
The LEO Foundation Skin Immunology Research Center will conduct top-level international research into the skin’s immune system and its diseases. The aim is to make new breakthroughs in skin immunology which over time may lead to better diagnoses and more effective treatments of some of the 3000 skin diseases known today, such as psoriasis and eczema.
The center will be headquartered on the 12th floor of the new Maersk Tower at the University of Copenhagen and the researchers will contribute with basic, translational and clinical research expertise. Collaboration will be a key driver, and the center will work closely together with hospitals and many different research environments all over the world. Having a center makes it possible to routinely involve specialists within many different areas and create true innovative breakthroughs.
“For Danish research, it is a great privilege to be able to open the doors to the new center. Together with our strong research environments in one of the world’s leading regions for biomedicine, we can put Danish research in skin, skin diseases and immunology on the world map”, says Dean Ulla Wewer, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen (UCPH).
The center will also provide the best possible framework for education, training and talent development for students and will create generations of specialists within dermatology. Thus, the center will strengthen the pipeline of future expert researchers in skin and skin diseases.
Further information
Film about the LEO Foundation Skin Immunology Research Center here