Global Atopic Dermatitis Atlas (GADA)

Grantee: Carsten Flohr, King's College London

Amount: DKK 10,000,000

Grant category: Standalone grants

Year: 2023

Geography: United Kingdom

Atopic dermatitis, also called atopic eczema, or just eczema, is a non-contagious, chronic skin disease, causing dry, patchy, and itchy skin. It affects up to 20% of children and up to 10% of adults. Of all skin diseases worldwide, it is the most common type, with a burden that remains a significant challenge for the people affected, their families, and societies.

Despite progress made in treating severe forms of atopic dermatitis, there is a need for high-quality information showing how many people per country have atopic dermatitis and how severe it is. With strong data, atopic dermatitis can be better understood and treated.

With a grant from the LEO Foundation, the Global Atopic Dermatitis Atlas, or GADA, will help address gaps in current data by creating and maintaining a living online atlas, where the newest research-based knowledge and data on atopic dermatitis, its prevalence, severity, and treatment are available in one place – collected and analyzed in the same way for all countries.

About GADA

The Global Atopic Dermatitis Atlas (GADA) is a worldwide, long-term project. GADA is led by Professor Carsten Flohr (St John’s Institute of Dermatology, King’s College London, UK) and is an initiative established by the International League of Dermatological Societies (ILDS) in 2022 in collaboration with supporting stakeholders:

Visit GADA’s website

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Confocal laser scanning microscope

Grantee: Thomas Bjarnsholt, University of Copenhagen

Amount: DKK 5,894,893

Grant category: Standalone grants

Year: 2023

Geography: Denmark

The Costerton Biofilm Center (CBC) at Department of Immunology and Microbiology (ISIM), University of Copenhagen, is a world-leading interdisciplinary research center dedicated to exploring chronic infections caused by bacteria, including skin infections. The center runs two infrastructure facilities which are open to external users from basic, clinical, and industrial research. 

There is an urgent need in the center’s Biofilm Test Facility to replace an outdated confocal laser scanning microscope which can no longer be serviced. The grant from the LEO Foundation therefore hopes to provide this upgrade, the microscope a critical tool in the CBC’s pioneering work on understanding how the ability of bacteria to form biofilm is key to addressing antimicrobial resistance and developing novel antibacterial treatments.  

Global Psoriasis Atlas Phase III (2023-2026)

Grantee: Professor Chris Griffiths, University of Manchester

Amount: DKK 11,160,157

Grant category: Standalone grants

Year: 2023

Geography: United Kingdom

Psoriasis is a life-long and currently incurable immune-mediated skin disease affecting more than 60 million people worldwide. In addition to its cutaneous, stigmatizing manifestations, the disease is associated with other major medical conditions including depression, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, arthritis and cancer and can be construed as life-ruining. As such it represents a significant public health challenge. Despite remarkable advances in treatment options in some parts of the world, psoriasis continues to affect the quality of life of patients and impact health economics negatively.

GPA Phase III (2023-2026)

The GPA Phase III is focused on continued improvement of the understanding of the epidemiology of psoriasis and its incidence and prevalence at the global level. This third phase aims to build upon the previous achievements of the GPA Phase II. Here ambitions include:

  • An extensive update to the GPA’s large international dataset to create and launch edition 3 of the GPA.
  • To strengthen collaboration with the dermatology work stream of the Global Burden of Diseases (GBD).
  • To conduct new epidemiological studies to enhance the GPA.
  • To conduct new studies to improve knowledge about the comorbid disease burden of psoriasis.

Background

With a mission to ‘ensure that people with psoriasis, wherever they live in the world, have access to the best available care’, Professor Griffiths and the University of Manchester initiated the development of a Global Psoriasis Atlas in 2016. The GPA is a long-term iterative project, which was initiated in close collaboration with the WHO and international dermatology and psoriasis organisations. 

The LEO Foundation has been main funder of the development of the 1st edition of the GPA through a 3-year grant of DKK 6,370,000 from 2017 – 2020. The GPA project has in its first period (GPA Phase I) focused on research into the global prevalence and incidence of psoriasis – with the 1st edition of the GPA website launched on World Psoriasis Day 29 October 2019.

The LEO Foundation was also the main sponsor of GPA phase II, with a three-year grant of DKK 8,000,000 from 2020-2022. In this phase, the atlas-initiative has had a special focus on increasing its global outreach, including studies of psoriasis in Latin America, Malaysia, and Taiwan as well as on increasing and validating data on the association of psoriasis and cancer. Another important element of Phase II was to design and test a clinical diagnostic tool for health-care professionals globally, taking into account the different expressions of the disease, depending on skin colour. 

Visit the GPA website.