The LEO Foundation Award 2020 – Region EMEA

Grantee: Dr. Ning Xu Landén

Amount: USD 100,000

Grant category: LEO Foundation Awards

Year: 2020

Geography: Sweden

Ning Xu Landén is an Associate Professor in experimental dermatology and venereology at the Department of Medicine, Solna at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden where she leads a successful research group. She is the author of around 50 scientific articles with more than 3000 citations.

Ning Xu Landén receives the award in recognition of her high impact research in wound healing.

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The LEO Foundation Award 2020 – Region Americas

Grantee: Dr. Ya-Chieh Hsu

Amount: USD 100,000

Grant category: LEO Foundation Awards

Year: 2020

Geography: USA

Ya-Chieh Hsu is the Alvin and Esta Star Associate Professor at the Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University, Cambridge, USA.

Ya-Chieh Hsu receives the award in recognition of her research achievements in studying cell-cell interactions and how systemic changes in the body influence these interactions in the skin.

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The LEO Foundation Award 2019 – Region Asia Pacific

Grantee: Dr. Tetsuro Kobayashi

Amount: USD 100,000

Grant category: LEO Foundation Awards

Year: 2019

Geography: Japan

Dr. Tetsuro Kobayashi is a Research Scientist at the Laboratory for Innate Immune Systems, RIKEN, Center for Integrative Medical Sciences (IMS), Yokohama, Japan.

Dr. Tetsuro Kobayashi receives the award for his research in understanding the interaction between microbes and the immune system in skin.

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The LEO Foundation Award 2019 – Region EMEA

Grantee: Dr. Shoba Amarnath

Amount: USD 100,000

Grant category: LEO Foundation Awards

Year: 2019

Geography: United Kingdom

Shoba Amarnath is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Cellular Medicine at Newcastle University, UK

She receives 100,000 USD for her research in the field of immune tolerance in cutaneous inflammation.

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The LEO Foundation Award 2019 – Region Americas

Grantee: Maksim Plikus

Amount: USD 100,000

Grant category: LEO Foundation Awards

Year: 2019

Geography: USA

Maksim Plikus is Associate Professor at the Department of Developmental and Cell Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of California, Irvine, USA

He receives 100,000 USD for his research in skin stem cells and regeneration.

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The LEO Foundation Award 2018 – Silver Award

Grantee: Dr. Tiffany Scharschmidt

Amount: DKK 500,000

Grant category: LEO Foundation Awards

Year: 2018

Geography: USA

The Silver Award went to Dr. Tiffany Scharschmidt from University of California San Francisco, USA, for her work on the skin microbiome and its interplay with the adaptie immune system.

Have a sneak peek into her research Video about Dr. Tiffany Scharschmidt

The LEO Foundation Award 2018 – Gold Award

Grantee: Dr. Hayato Takahashi

Amount: DKK 1,000,000

Grant category: LEO Foundation Awards

Year: 2018

Geography: Japan

The Gold Award went to Dr. Hayato Takahashi from Keio Unversity School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan, to pursue his work on T cell-mediated autoimmune skin diseases.

Have a sneak peek into his research Video about Dr. Hayato Takahashi

The LEO Foundation Award 2017 – Silver Award

Grantee: Dr. Christoph Schlapbach

Amount: DKK 500,000

Grant category: LEO Foundation Awards

Year: 2017

Geography: Switzerland

The Silver Award went to Dr. Christoph Schlapbach, dermatology resident at the University of Bern in Switzerland.

“It is a great honour for me to receive the LEO Foundation 2017 Silver Award on behalf of my emerging research team. Together with the generous financial support, this prize motivates and supports our journey towards a better understanding of how the human skin functions,” said Christoph Schlapbach.

The LEO Foundation Award 2017 – Gold Award

Grantee: Dr. Maria Kasper

Amount: DKK 1,000,000

Grant category: LEO Foundation Awards

Year: 2017

Geography: Sweden

The Gold Award went to Dr. Maria Kasper, presently leading a research group at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.

“Receiving the phone call with the news of the LEO Foundation 2017 Gold award is one of these few unforgettable moments. My friends often call me “skin nerd” since I love everything about skin.  Thus, it’s such a happiness and great honour for me to receive this prestigious prize. I would like to express my deepest thank you to the LEO Foundation, the ESDR, and my lab members who make everyday’s work fun and colorful,” said Maria Kasper.

The LEO Foundation Award 2016 – Silver Award

Grantee: Dr. Thomas Wiesner

Amount: DKK 500,000

Grant category: LEO Foundation Awards

Year: 2016

Geography: Austria

Presented to Dr. Thomas Wiesner. Dr. Wiesner is breaking new ground to find new mechanism-based cancer therapies. Following medical school, Dr. Wiesner wrote his thesis on the genomic aberrations of cutaneous lymphoma and completed his residency in dermatology at the Medical University of Graz in Austria. Dr. Wiesner spent five years conducting basic and translational research using cutting-edge techniques within high-throughput sequencing techniques in particular. His work within skin cancer research resulted in key discoveries, in particular concerning the genomic landscape of skin tumours.

Based on his experience as a physician-scientist and his access to high-quality clinical samples, Dr. Wiesner plans to combine high-throughput sequencing technologies, computational approaches and functional assays in order to define the relevant genomic and epigenomic aberrations in skin cancer and pave the way for new mechanism-based cancer therapies.