Explore our grantees and awardees

Grant category: LEO Foundation Visiting Researchers

Year: 2025

Geography: Denmark

Grant category: LEO Foundation Visiting Researchers

Year: 2025

Geography: Peru

When skin becomes chronically inflamed, the immune system can form specialized deposits of immune cells called tertiary lymphoid structures to produce defenses and activate immune cells. However, the characteristics and function of these structures remain poorly understood in chronic skin infections caused by viruses, such as Hydroa Vacciniforme (by Epstein-Barr virus) and Infective Dermatitis (by Human T-cell Leukemia virus type I). Moreover, these structures may paradoxically worsen inflammation over time or contribute to cancer transformation. During my visit to the LEO Foundation Skin Immunology Research Center at the University of Copenhagen, I will leverage advanced lab methods and imaging techniques to understand these structures in collaboration with Peruvian institutions. This visit aims to characterize these structures, ultimately leading to the discovery of new ways to predict cancer transformation and new treatments to control their function during viral infection (Fig-1).

Grant category: LEO Foundation Visiting Researchers

Year: 2025

Geography: Germany

Chronic and infected wounds remain a major challenge, often leading to delayed healing and extensive antibiotic use. The purpose of this project is to develop smart wound dressings made of nanofibers that mimic the skin’s natural extracellular matrix and contain thermotropic liquid crystals. When the wound temperature rises due to infection, these materials respond by changing color and releasing antibiotics. During a six-month research stay at the University of Copenhagen’s LEO Foundation Center for Cutaneous Drug Delivery, Dr. Mariia Nesterkina will combine expertise in liquid crystals and nanofiber technology to design, fabricate and test these infection-sensitive scaffolds. The expected output is a proof-of-concept wound dressing that both promotes healing and visibly indicates infection, offering a patient-friendly approach to reduce unnecessary antibiotic use and improve wound care.

Grant category: LEO Foundation Dr Abildgaard Fellowships

Year: 2025

Geography: Denmark

The LEO Foundation Dr Abildgaard Fellows received a two-year leadership coaching program as an add-on grant to their existing fellowship.

The LEO Foundation Fellows Leadership Coaching Program (LCP) will help identifying the fellow’s key strengths as well as their potential key leadership obstacles and situations they find most challenging within leadership – and how to handle these situations. During the coaching sessions they will identify and train new leadership skills going forward which can help them perform even better.

Potential themes for the leadership coaching sessions could be elements from the following sections:

• Learn more about your leadership style and get the best out of it
• Setting up – and leading the team
• Stakeholder Management
• Mentoring

Grant category: Research Networking

Year: 2025

Geography: Germany

The Eczema and Psoriasis Research Incubator will be held on September 16, 2026, adjacent to the ESDR annual meeting in Heidelberg, Germany. This workshop is designed to accelerate progress in the understanding and treatment of psoriasis and eczema by fostering cross-disease and cross-disciplinary collaboration with patients, doctors, and researchers. Through interactive small-group challenge labs, participants will co-develop innovative research ideas with the potential to inform future multicenter studies, biomarker discovery, and precision medicine approaches. Dedicated opportunities for early-career researchers to showcase their work and facilitate their involvement in collaborations will ensure equitable participation and strengthen the global research pipeline. Open to international attendees, this incubator is intended as a launchpad for collaborative science, generating new ideas, networks, and frameworks to advance patient-centered skin research.

Grant category: Research Networking

Year: 2025

Geography: USA

The Vulvar Dermatology Research Consortium (VDRC) will host a special two-hour Young Investigators Symposium as part of its Annual Meeting on Thursday, March 26th, 2026, in Denver, Colorado. This event is designed for medical students, residents, dermatologists, and other physicians, patients, industry partners, and scientists interested in vulvar skin problems. Participants will share research, gain insights from vulvar skin experts, and connect with others in the field. Ultimately, this event will facilitate collaboration on vulvar skin health research, to promote improved outcomes for people living with vulvar skin conditions.

Grant category: Research Networking

Year: 2025

Geography: USA

The 2026 Epithelial Stem Cells and Niches Gordon Research Conference and Seminar will be held August 22–28, 2026, in Spain. It will bring skin researchers together with leading stem cell biologists working on other organ systems to cross-pollinate ideas and technologies. Interactions and collaborations that emerge from this conference will accelerate discovery in the skin and support the development of new cures for skin diseases. The meeting includes a dedicated session for trainees and will support early-career researchers through travel grants, mentoring, and short talk opportunities.

Grant category: Research Networking

Year: 2025

Geography: Switzerland

The SKINTEGRITY 2027 conference will take place from January 28-30, 2027, in Davos, Switzerland, to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the collaborative research consortium SKINTEGRITY.CH. It brings together basic scientists, clinicians and engineers from academia or industry, whose work helps to understand, diagnose and treat poorly healing wounds, inflammatory skin diseases and skin cancer. It will feature presentations from world leaders in these fields as well as shorter presentations, which will mainly be given by early career researchers. Additional research highlights will be presented in the form of a poster. This international and interdisciplinary conference will promote collaborations across disciplines, educate the next generation of skin researchers and clinical dermatologists, rheumatologists and surgeons, and will help to turn new scientific discoveries into better diagnostic approaches and treatments for patients.

Grant category: Research Networking

Year: 2025

Geography: United Kingdom

Body-focused repetitive behaviours (BFRBs), such as hair-pulling, skin-picking and nail-biting are common. Around 5% of people experience repeated urges that can cause serious physical and emotional distress. Despite this, BFRBs are poorly understood, often dismissed, and rarely recognised in healthcare, leaving many without support. New research shows that BFRBs may be driven by interactions between the skin, brain and immune system, linking them to conditions like chronic itch. To address this gap, we will hold an international conference in 2026, bringing together scientists, clinicians and people with lived experience. The event will explore why these behaviours develop, how they are best managed, and how policy and practice can be improved. Alongside the scientific programme, a community day run by BFRB UK & Ireland will provide education and safe spaces for sharing experiences. The conference will raise awareness, spark collaborations and strengthen support for those affected.

Grant category: Research Networking

Year: 2025

Geography: United Kingdom

The skin is our largest organ, and it is susceptible to a wide range of diseases. While we know that our genes play a crucial role in determining our risk for these diseases, we still have much to learn about which specific genes are involved and how they contribute to disease development. In recent years, there have been groundbreaking developments in skin research that have expanded the possibilities to investigate skin cells and changes in genes and proteins. This event will bring together the world’s leading experts in skin genetics with scientists who are experts in understanding how genes work in the skin by pioneering new technologies.

The goal of this meeting, to be held in conjunction with the ESDR 2026 conference, is to spark new collaborations and share knowledge of datasets and methodologies, which will help us translate genetic discoveries into a better understanding of skin diseases and, ultimately, into new and more effective treatments.