Dermatology Research Across Multiple Disciplines (DREAM)
Grantee: Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital
Amount: DKK 11,989,450
Grant category: Standalone grants
Year: 2025
Geography: Denmark
The goal of DREAM (Dermatology Research Across Multiple Disciplines) is to unravel the complex mechanisms linking chronic inflammatory and autoimmune skin diseases to systemic complications. By identifying key factors that predict disease progression and multi-organ involvement, the aim is to enhance our ability to forecast individual disease trajectories.
The overall vision of DREAM is to uncover and solve leading research questions in dermatological and associated diseases using a systems medicine approach.
From Flexibility to Dysfunction: The Impact of Oxidative Stress on the Structural Integrity of Skin Elastin
Grantee: Andrea Heinz, Associate Professor, LEO Foundation Center for Cutaneous Drug Delivery, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Amount: DKK 3,987,617
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. This 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. Our goal is to understand how these alterations contribute to elastic fiber breakdown and tissue dysfunction. Ultimately, this knowledge will help us understand how elastin damage drives disease and tissue degeneration, which could lead to better treatments that protect tissue elasticity and improve overall health.
SERS-Enabled Wound-Sampling Patches for Rapid Infection Monitoring
Grantee: Gohar Soufi, Postdoc, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
Amount: DKK 3,999,657
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. Our 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.
50 NEW Wild Scientific Experiments (50 NYE vilde videnskabelige forsøg)
Grantee: Kristoffer Frøkjær, Science Media Company
Amount: DKK 127,000
Grant category: Education and Awareness Grants
Year: 2025
Geography: Denmark
The children’s book ’50 NYE vilde videnskabelige forsøg’ (Eng.: 50 NEW Wild Scientific Experiments) is a follow-up to the book ‘Manden der fik skåret sin hjerne i skiver og 49 andre vilde videnskabelige forsøg’. This publication will present exciting scientific discoveries and experiments, aiming to increase curiosity about science among the target group of 9-14-years-olds. The book will be published by Gads Forlag and will be accompanied by a related podcast series featuring some of the stories and content from its pages.
Scientific Studies – Didactic, Student Motivation and Everyday Realism (Naturvidenskabelige undersøgelser – didaktik, elevmotivation og hverdagsrealisme)
Grantee: Kristoffer Brink Ladefoged, Danmarks Naturfagslærerforening
Amount: DKK 900,000
Grant category: Education and Awareness Grants
Year: 2025
Geography: Denmark
Danmarks Naturfagslærerforening (Eng.: The Danish Association of Science Teachers) is publishing an anthology on didactic models and methods facilitating an experimental and investigative approach to natural science teaching in Danish schools – with a main focus on motivating students and offering solutions suited for direct implementation in the everyday teaching effort. The book called ‘Naturvidenskabelige undersøgelser – didaktik, elevmotivation og hverdagsrealisme’ (Eng.: Scientific Studies – Didactic, Student Motivation and Everyday Realism) will be distributed by the teachers’ association to its members and will be available for ordering or downloading for others, for free.
Novel methods and technologies: Spatial transcriptomics, wildlings and 3D skin models
Grantee: University of Copenhagen
Amount: DKK 18,908,400
Grant category: Standalone grants
Year: 2025
Geography: Denmark
Through this grant the LEO Foundation Skin Immunology Research Center is expanding its scientific and technological capabilities by incorporating three new areas of expertise:
- Spatial transcriptomics (in collaboration with the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research (CBMR))
- Establishment of an animal facility for “wildlings” – a special type of laboratory mice that contain a – controlled – level of microorganisms which make them more akin to real-world animals and provides a more natural model, in particular for interactions with and responses from the immune system.
- Establishment of advanced 3D skin models for experiments building on genetic manipulation of specific cell types from the skin.
Each area is carefully selected to strengthen the center’s focus on performing frontier research within barrier immunology.
The voices of STEM women (Stemmerne fra STEM-kvinder)
Grantee: Anéh Christina Hajdu, Foreningen Science City Lyngby
Amount: DKK 971,000
Grant category: Education and Awareness Grants
Year: 2024
Geography: Denmark
Science City Lyngby will produce 18 videos of female STEM role models to create awareness and interest among girls in STEM activities and education. The videos consist of three series, one focusing on personal stories of women working in STEM jobs, and another on interviews with well-known female science profiles of influence. The final series features girls attending Science Club, an after-school program offered by Science City Lyngby. The Science Club girls will also be actively involved together with a professional journalist in the planning and execution of the video series, creating identification and ensuring relevance for the main target group. The videos will be disseminated through 10 roadshows in other Danish municipalities, presentations at lower secondary schools, and a social media campaign also targeting parents and teachers.
PARK
Grantee: Joakim Quorp Matthiesen, Folkeuniversitetet in Aarhus
Amount: DKK 996,500
Grant category: Education and Awareness Grants
Year: 2024
Geography: Denmark
Folkeuniversitetet in Aarhus will establish a free annual science festival, PARK, for the public to take place at Aarhus University Park. Leading scientists will give talks about the latest research results, with the aim of promoting curiosity and contributing actively to democracy. The program will also feature events within music, literature, and art.
Through the researchers’ eyes (Med forskernes øjne)
Grantee: Karsten Elmose Vad, University of Copenhagen, GLOBE Institute
Amount: DKK 993,090
Grant category: Education and Awareness Grants
Year: 2024
Geography: Denmark
The project Through the researchers’ eyes aims to improve natural science education in the lower secondary school by applying a teaching method known from the arts, Visual Thinking Strategies, which focuses on strengthening students’ skills within observation, description, and discussion – key elements also of the natural science disciplines – to stimulate students’ curiosity and active participation. The project is a collaboration between both education experts and university researchers from Copenhagen University, experts from VTSdanmark and chosen teachers.
Exploring Autoimmune Skin Diseases with Immune-Integrated 3D Skin Models
Grantee: Jonathan Brewer, Professor, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
Amount: DKK 3,992,375
Grant category: Research Grants in open competition
Year: 2024
Geography: Denmark
Jonathan Brewer’s project, conducted in collaboration with Dr. Mike Barnkob, aims to advance skin biology by developing a much-needed human skin model with immune components, enabling detailed study of skin responses to stress and disease. By creating both normal and diseased skin models, with a focus on Cutaneous Lupus Erythematosus (CLE), Jonathan Brewer and his team will investigate the immune processes underlying CLE skin manifestations and provide a platform for developing targeted treatments. These models will also allow Jonathan and the team to study how skin and immune cells respond to UV radiation and mechanical forces, both of which play a significant role in CLE, where such stimuli can exacerbate skin lesions. A key innovation is the use of MERFISH technology, which maps gene activity within individual cells. This will reveal how specific genes are activated or suppressed in response to stimuli, providing insights into how skin adapts over time at the single-cell level. By comparing normal and CLE skin models, they will identify unique pathways involved in disease progression in CLE, offering potential targets for new therapeutic strategies.
The results of the project will be 3D skin models that mimic the structure and environment of human skin, enabling a wide range of experimental applications, including more rapid and ethical drug discovery. The project will also deliver the identification of pathways and molecular regulators involved in CLE and skin responses to UV and mechanical stimuli, supporting targeted treatment development and improved patient outcomes.