Super-krop!
Grantee: Experimentarium Science Center, Kim Gladstone Herlev, CEO of Experimentarium
Amount: DKK 9,000,000
Grant category: Standalone grants
Year: 2024
Geography: Denmark
The science center Experimentarium in Copenhagen will open a major exhibition about the human body in 2026. The exhibition is called Super-krop!, which means Super body, and aims to illustrate the interaction between the body and behavior, targeting a younger audience.
Super-krop! is supported by the LEO Foundation alongside the Novo Nordisk Foundation, the Lundbeck Foundation, and Ole Kirk’s Foundation with a total of DKK 30 million.
Hand Eczema in the Fishing Industry in Greenland
Grantee: Kristina Ibler, Bispebjerg Hospital, Dronning Ingrid’s Health Center, the Greenland Fishing Industry, Greenland University, and University of Copenhagen
Amount: DKK 3,437,000
Grant category: Standalone grants
Year: 2024
Geography: Denmark
The overall vision with this research project is to improve skin health and the quality of prevention and treatment of skin diseases in Greenland and the Arctic societies in general. Around 25% of all inquiries to the health care system in Greenland relate to skin diseases. Arctic indigenous peoples have their own genetic variation and have for centuries adapted to their unique geographical environments and culture. Consequently, medical treatment regimens from other countries most often cannot be directly transferred and used in the Greenlandic health care setting. New knowledge, competences and technologies are warranted for utilization across both prevention, translational and clinical research, and practice.
20% of the Greenlandic population is employed in the fishing industry which stands for 90% of Greenland’s export, making it a critical element in a sustainable community. It is expected that around 30-50% of the employees suffer from hand eczema, often with complicating secondary bacterial infection. As such, contact dermatitis has a significant negative impact on both quality of life and productivity in Greenland. The research project aims to provide some of the missing research data on skin diseases in Greenland. It will investigate the prevalence of contact dermatitis, risk factors, biomarkers, and genetic factors associated with contact dermatitis in the seafood-processing fishing industry, as well as explore the presence of bacterial strains and how they relate to dermatitis.
The LEO Foundation 40th Anniversary Prize
Grantee: Gregor Jemec, Professor of Dermatology and Head of Research at Zealand University Hospital
Amount: DKK 5,000,000
Grant category: Standalone grants
Year: 2024
Geography: Denmark
Gregor Jemec is Professor of Dermatology and Head of Research at Zealand University Hospital.
He receives the LEO Foundation 40th Anniversary Prize for his extraordinary contribution to skin research – especially for his pioneering and persistent work with the chronic skin disease hidradenitis suppurativa (HS).
Gregor Jemec has been researching the skin and its diseases for the past 30 years and is one of Denmark’s most cited skin researchers. He is the author of over 800 publications and one of the world’s leading experts on HS, a skin condition that causes painful boils. Research estimates that one to four percent of the world’s population suffers from HS.
Center for Pharmaceutical Data Science Education
Grantee: The University of Copenhagen and the University of Southern Denmark
Amount: DKK 30,000,000
Grant category: Standalone grants
Year: 2024
Geography: Denmark
Center for Pharmaceutical Data Science Education is funded by the LEO Foundation, the Novo Nordisk Foundation and the Lundbeck Foundation with a total of DKK 123 million over a six-year period.
The new center merges two fields of study – the pharmaceutical sciences and data science – and will ensure the students’ qualifications in data science by upgrading relevant compulsory bachelor’s and master’s courses. Artificial intelligence, machine learning and the use of big data open a huge area of knowledge, new data sources and methods, which should be integrated in the best possible way in the pharmaceutical sciences education.
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.
New equipment for Flow Cytometry and Single Cell Sequencing
Grantee: University of Copenhagen
Amount: DKK 10,755,847
Grant category: Standalone grants
Year: 2022
Geography: Denmark
The Institute for Immunology and Microbiology is the host of the LEO Foundation’s major strategic initiative, the LEO Foundation Skin Immunology Center (SIC). ISIM has been established with flow cytometry and single cell sequencing as main areas of expertise and serves as a platform for integrative cell analysis.
ISIM provides local and external research groups and biotech companies with access to highly specialized equipment for analysis using flow cytometry and state-of-the-art single cell sequencing, as well as highly specialized staff who are experts at analyzing samples in complex projects.
In support of ISIM the LEO Foundation provides new equipment to the organization to upgrade technological options for cell and single cell analysis, to make it possible to implement new methods using new and existing equipment together, and to help ensure that the core facility can support experiments in the entirety of their pipeline – from initial idea formation to full-scale experiments.
The SIC Springtime School 2023-2028
Grantee: University of Copenhagen
Amount: DKK 4,300,000
Grant category: Standalone grants
Year: 2022
Geography: Denmark
SIC Springtime School is hosted annually by the LEO Foundation Skim Immunology Research Center (SIC) and has shown to be a great success over the two previous years. The international school is held at Hornbækhus on the North Coast of Zealand and forms part of SIC’s educational and career development activities – in 2022 representing 86 speakers, international students, and postdoc participants.
The SIC Springtime School offers participants the opportunity to interact with leading scientists, providing for rich and positive learning experiences.
SIC PhD Program 2023-2027
Grantee: University of Copenhagen
Amount: DKK 13,387,500
Grant category: Standalone grants
Year: 2022
Geography: Denmark
The SIC PhD Program aims to nurture the development of upcoming skin immunologists and to further tap into the collaborative possibilities of the research groups within the by the LEO Foundation Skim Immunology Research Center (SIC).
The program features a 1+3-year structure for five PhD studies at the center. In their first year, students are onboarded into the program as Research Assistants, before eventually enrolling as full-time PhD students in their year two.
The program sets to strengthen not only the collaborative nature of the center, but also allows for potentially high-gain projects to be set into motion.
The Copenhagen Translational Skin Immunology Biobank and Research Program (BIOSKIN)
Grantee: University of Copenhagen
Amount: DKK 40,000,000
Grant category: Standalone grants
Year: 2021
Geography: Denmark
Add-on Grant for the Leo Foundation Skin Immunology Research Center. Herlev and Gentofte Hospital together with LEO Foundation Skin Immunology Research Center at the University of Copenhagen establish a new research program and biobank with skin tissue and blood samples from 3,000 patients with illnesses such as psoriasis and eczema. The biobank is the first of its kind and will help shed light on some of the most common skin diseases. The goal is to collect data from 3,000 patients with skin diseases and in the long term also making data and knowledge available for researchers around the world.
The research program is established by the LEO Foundation Skin Immunology Research Center at the University of Copenhagen and the Department of Dermatology and Allergy at Herlev and Gentofte Hospital.
The program is supported with DKK 40 million from the LEO Foundation and co-financed with DKK 20 million from Herlev and Gentofte Hospital and LEO Foundation Skin Immunology Research Center.
Add-on grant for the LEO Foundation Center for Cutaneous Drug Delivery
Grantee: University of Copenhagen
Amount: DKK 15,099,443
Grant category: Standalone grants
Year: 2021
Geography: Denmark
A new grant of DKK 15 million will enable the LEO Foundation Center for Cutaneous Drug Delivery (LFCCDD) at the Department of Pharmacy, University of Copenhagen to further strengthen its research on how drug permeation into and through the skin can be enhanced for improved treatment outcome.
The LEO Foundation Center for Cutaneous Drug Delivery was established in 2017 based on a 10-year grant of DKK 40 million from the LEO Foundation. The new DKK 15 million grant adds to the previous grant.
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