07 October 2025
Unexpected findings made in the course of LEO Foundation funded skin research inspire broader scientific exploration.
The LEO Foundation has awarded six new Serendipity grants worth a total of DKK 22 million to international researchers who have made surprising discoveries while working on a LEO Foundation-funded research project.
Launched in 2023, the Serendipity program supports grantees and awardees who encounter unexpected results or form new hypotheses outside the scope of their original project.
From rare diseases to regeneration
This year’s Serendipity grants span a broad range of unexpected findings in dermatology.
- Assistant Professor Cory Simpson (University of Washington, USA) will investigate a newly observed role of JNK signaling in Hailey-Hailey disease.
- Professor Francesca Capon (University of British Columbia, Canada) will explore how mutations in the transcription factor TCF3 may link severe atopic dermatitis with inflammatory bowel disease.
- Associate Professor Mariaceleste Aragona (Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Medicine, Denmark) will study how mechanical skin expansion can alter nerve function and sensation, with possible benefits for patients undergoing reconstructive surgery.
- Assistant Professor Joshua Moreau (Oregon Health & Science University, USA) will examine the role of olfactory receptors on immune cells in relation to inflammatory diseases such as hidradenitis suppurativa and pyoderma gangrenosum.
- Fellow Sofia Ferreira Gonzalez (University of Edinburgh, UK) will investigate the unexpected discovery that fibroblasts from ’spiny mice’ are able to re-differentiate into a multitude of other cell types and that they can positively modulate human dermal fibroblasts.
- And finally, Professor Thomas Sicheritz-Pontén (University of Copenhagen, Denmark) will study bacteriophages that encode two distinct endolysins, potentially paving the way for new strategies against bacterial skin infections.
Supporting curiosity-driven research into unexpected discoveries
Serendipity grants seek to enable active LEO Foundation grantees to perform explorative investigations of novel and unexpected, also known as serendipitous, ideas or discoveries, which have emerged as a consequence of investigations performed during a current LEO Foundation-funded project.
The Serendipity program is designed to give researchers the freedom to pursue unexpected discoveries or new ideas – even those that fall outside their current projects or research fields. Unlike traditional grants, it does not require a hypothesis backed by extensive preliminary data but instead encourages bold exploration that could open entirely new directions within the life sciences.
“These projects highlight the power of curiosity-driven science and the importance of supporting ideas that lie outside traditional pathways,” Anne-Marie Engel, Chief Scientific Officer at the LEO Foundation, says.
The LEO Foundation Serendipity grants program is announced once a year in open competition. Read more here.