Grant category: Research Grants in open competition

Grant category: Research Grants in open competition

Year: 2025

Geography: USA

Skin pathology in Scleroderma (SSc) involves activated and senescent myofibroblast accumulation, yet their mechanistic role remains unclear, and effective treatments are lacking. Intestinal microorganisms influence SSc pathogenesis, with altered homeostasis and function in patients. These microorganisms produce the pungent trimethylamine (TMA), which is then converted to trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) via an enzymatic reaction catalyzed by hepatic flavin-like monooxygenase (FMO3). Together, these observations implicate FMO3 and the gut-TMA-TMAO axis in both fibrotic and vascular pathology in SSc; however, the pathogenic roles of FMO3 in SSc and its mechanism have never been investigated. Here Priyanka Verma will use human samples, cell cultures and animal models to test the hypothesis that FMO3 is an important player in SSc. Better understanding of the role of FMO3, and its regulation of the gut microbiome-TMAO axis in the pathogenesis of SSc could lead to innovative treatment strategies.

Grant category: Research Grants in open competition

Year: 2025

Geography: USA

Millions of people suffer from chronic skin diseases like psoriasis, vitiligo, and alopecia areata, which follow frustrating cycles of treatment, improvement, and relapse. These relapses occur because certain immune cells, called tissue-resident memory T cells, remain hidden in the skin even after symptoms disappear, ready to trigger inflammation again. Christoph Ellebrecht has discovered that these immune cells depend on highly efficient protein production to survive in the challenging, resource-limited skin environment. Christoph Ellebrecht and his team will investigate when and where this protein production efficiency becomes essential for these cells, how it helps them adapt to the skin, and test whether targeting this process can selectively eliminate these cells while preserving normal immune function outside of the skin. This research could lead to new treatments that provide long-lasting remission for chronic inflammatory skin diseases, significantly improving quality of life for millions of patients worldwide.

Grant category: Research Grants in open competition

Year: 2025

Geography: Denmark

Multiple common skin diseases, like psoriasis, are characterized by excessive inflammation of the affected skin. This causes itching and pain and makes wound healing difficult. Thus, skin inflammation is of general discomfort for the affected patients. Anti-inflammatory drugs, for example inhibitors of the TNF signaling pathway, are highly successful in the clinic for some but not all types of skin inflammation. Rune Hartmann’s project aims at a better understanding of the underlying causes of skin inflammation and how to develop better drugs in the future. Furthermore, Rune Hartmann and his team are investigating how the same signaling pathway can drive skin inflammation and thus cause pathology, while being a critical part of healthy skin development. This is critical to understand how to target future drugs specifically towards the pathological inflammation and avoid unwanted side effects.

Grant category: Research Grants in open competition

Year: 2025

Geography: USA

Valerie Horsley’s project will investigate how lipids and adipocyte-derived molecules suppress fibroblast production of proteins that cause fibrosis. Valerie and her team found that adipocytes release lipids during fibrosis and that this prevents fibrosis development. Their work will identify functional mechanisms that can be targeted for future therapies for skin fibrosis, a debilitating and deadly disorder that lacks any current therapies.

Grant category: Research Grants in open competition

Year: 2025

Geography: Denmark

Elastin is a structural protein essential for human life. It provides the elasticity needed for organs like skin, lungs, and blood vessels, allowing your skin to stretch, your lungs to expand for breathing and your blood to flow smoothly. As we age, factors like oxidative stress can make elastin stiffer, reducing the skin’s elasticity and accelerating the aging process. This can lead to skin conditions, such as thickening and furrowing or increased fragility. Andrea Heinz’ project uses advanced analytical techniques to investigate how oxidative damage affect elastin’s structure and stability, starting with its building block, tropoelastin, and extending to skin elastin. The goal is to understand how these alterations contribute to elastic fiber breakdown and tissue dysfunction. Ultimately, this knowledge will help them understand how elastin damage drives disease and tissue degeneration, which could lead to better treatments that protect tissue elasticity and improve overall health.

Grant category: Research Grants in open competition

Year: 2025

Geography: Australia

Imagine living with a condition where your skin is as fragile as a butterfly’s wings, constantly blistering and tearing. This is what people with Epidermolysis Bullosa experience. Existing treatments only provide temporary relief and do not address the root causes of the condition. Wojciech Chrzanowski and his team have created tiny multifunctional robots that are solution for this debilitating disease. These robots carry simultaneously healing substances and bacteria-fighting agents. The healing substances activate different cells in the body to address the genetic issues of EB. The bacteria-fighting agents help the immune system, speed up healing, and fight infections. They also restore the skin’s natural balance, which helps prevent new blisters. These robots are delivered precisely to the damaged skin using advanced materials. This new method targets multiple aspects of the disease and offers a complete solution that is superior to current treatments, providing hope for those with EB.

Grant category: Research Grants in open competition

Year: 2025

Geography: Denmark

Millions of people suffer from infected wounds each year, which can lead to serious complications or even death if untreated. Current methods for diagnosing wound infections are slow and require specialized laboratories. Gohar Soufi’s project aims to create a simple, portable device that uses advanced materials to detect infections quickly and accurately right at the patient’s bedside. This technology could revolutionize how infections are diagnosed, helping doctors start treatments sooner and improving patient outcomes.

Grant category: Research Grants in open competition

Year: 2025

Geography: Australia

Using advances in stem cell and tissue engineering technologies, Kate Firipis will develop lab-grown skin tissue with 3D printed blood vessels derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (stem cells that can be created from a single blood draw) as a personalised treatment for repairing large complex wounds. Improving skin reconstruction outcomes, including, aesthetics, function, blood vessel connection and removing the need to harvest healthy patient tissue that creates a secondary wound.

Grant category: Research Grants in open competition

Year: 2025

Geography: France

The main goal of Brigitte Dréno’s project is to determine how the beneficial bacterium, Cutibacterium acnes (C. acnes), that naturally lives on human skin causes acne. Brigitte and her team hypothesize that changes in amount and types of oils (called sebum) secreted by skin oil glands may play a part in turning the beneficial C. acnes to disease-causing bacteria. Sebum profile changes may make C. acnes grow and behave differently, and cause skin inflammation. One way that sebum changes make C. acnes cause inflammation may be by extracellular vesicles, which are very small sacs released by the bacteria. Since androgen, a type of sex hormone, is known to increase sebum, medications that block androgens are currently used to treat acne. Thus, another aim of this project is to see if blocking androgens can manage acne by targeting sebum profile changes that affect inflammation caused by C. acnes. The project will allow Brigitte and the team to gain more knowledge on how acne develops and justify the use of androgen blockers as treatment.

Grant category: Research Grants in open competition

Year: 2025

Geography: United Kingdom

Skin innervation is our sensory interface with the ever-changing environment undergoing fluctuations in temperature and humidity. Sensation needs to account for these fluctuations to regulate sense of touch, pain, movement, learning and memory, sexual and social conduct. More than 100 million bacteria that reside on the human skin are the first line of response to environmental perturbations. Variable humidity, salinity, temperature, and oxygen affect bacteria metabolism and diversity. Simone Di Giovanni therefore hypothesise that bacteria are required for sensory function affecting complex behaviours in response to perturbations in temperature and humidity. This bears implications for human physiology, health and resilience on earth.