Explore our grantees and awardees

Grant category: Education and Awareness Grants

Year: 2025

Geography: Denmark

The project is a nation-wide public science engagement initiative in relation to the solar eclipse on 12 August 2026. Through live TV broadcasting, public events, and collaborations with primary and lower secondary schools on educational material, it will engage all of Denmark in the wonders of astronomy and astrophysics and expose them to relevant scientists and hands-on experiments.

Grant category: Education and Awareness Grants

Year: 2025

Geography: Denmark

Danmarks Naturfagslærerforening will create Build-a-baby, an interactive 90-minute classroom game on genetics, in partnership with Copenhagen Game Lab. Target group is lower secondary school. Students will “build babies” by combining genes, environmental factors, and life events affecting health and pass traits on to the next generation. Focus is on stimulating knowledge and reflection on health, risk factors, inheritance, and lifestyle. The game includes teacher guides, supports biology curriculum milestones, and will be free for educators nationwide with potential for expansion to other Nordic countries.

Grant category: Research Grants

Year: 2025

Geography: Denmark

Patients with atopic dermatitis (AD) are much more likely to develop other environmental (pollen, dust mites) or food allergies, but we do not understand why. Our immune system usually ignores most proteins in contact with the skin, yet some people, have a strong reaction. With this project we aim to determine whether human and microbe enzymes on AD-affected skin can turn harmless proteins into allergens by cutting them or chemically modifying them. We will use lab-grown human skin models and cutting-edge tools to see how bacteria and damaged skin cells alter proteins like those from pollen, dust mites, of peanut and whether these changes make them more likely to trigger allergic reactions. We will also study how these modified proteins are recognised by the immune system. The results could lead to better ways to prevent allergies in people with AD, such as treatments that block harmful enzymes, protect the skin barrier, or train the immune system to tolerate allergens.

Grant category: Research Grants

Year: 2025

Geography: Denmark

Chronic urticaria, also known as chronic hives, is a common skin condition causing itchy rashes and swelling, considerably impacting the quality of life. Although common, the exact cause remains unknown. We will study the proteins involved in chronic urticaria to better understand the underlying disease mechanisms and hopefully find new treatment options. We will use a specialized technique called mass spectrometry to measure the proteins in skin samples from patients with hives and healthy controls. With this approach we can determine which proteins are altered in affected skin, offering new insights into the underlying causes of the condition. Additionally, we will study how immune cells and nerve signals affect the disease by conducting laboratory experiments. By understanding the biology of chronic urticaria better, we hope to contribute to the development of more effective and targeted treatments that could help people suffering from this challenging condition.

Grant category: Research Grants

Year: 2025

Geography: Denmark

Pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa are commonly associated with non-healing and aggravated wounds, since they can colonize and invade host tissues, and many times cause life threatening conditions such as sepsis. Resistance to the available antibiotic therapies has been reported for both bacteria, and serious S. aureus skin infections are noted in both humans and animals. This project will investigate the ability of proteasome-derived defence peptides (PDDPs) – which can be naturally produced by our body – to protect against infection whilst promoting wound healing. It will also analyse the mechanisms by which PDDPs exert their effects. For this, different techniques (in vitro, ex vivo and molecular biology) will be used. For the ex vivo experiments, a wound dressing containing PDDPs will be developed with specific characteristics to allow PDDPs to target the pathogens whilst promoting wound healing.

Grant category: LEO Foundation Dr Abildgaard Fellowships

Year: 2025

Geography: Denmark

Project: Leveraging Real-World Data for Dermato-Epidemiological Research of Bullous Pemphigoid and Lichen Planus in Denmark

Bullous pemphigoid and lichen planus are inflammatory diseases of the skin and mucosa causing significant discomfort and reduced quality of life. Still, their causes, treatments, and long-term effects are poorly understood. The project will use Denmark’s unique health registries to explore how common these diseases are, what triggers them, how they are managed, and their broader health impact. Findings will support data-driven healthcare, ensuring better resource allocation and equitable access to specialized care. Improved understanding of the diseases and their complications will also highlight gaps in care, improve disease awareness, and empower shared decision-making for patients and doctors. The project will be conducted within ARISE (the Aarhus University Research group for Investigating Skin disease Epidemiology), a new research initiative aimed at establishing a lasting foundation for this novel type of skin disease research and better patient care.

Grant category: LEO Foundation Dr Abildgaard Fellowships

Year: 2025

Geography: Denmark

Project: The unraveling of the cutaneous microbiome in the pathogenesis of Hidradenitis Suppurativa: A potential treatment option

Millions of humans worldwide suffer from Hidradenitis Suppurativa (HS), a chronic, auto-inflammatory skin disease, causing recurrent and painful boils in sweaty places. The foul-smelling nodules are often infected by anaerobic bacteria, but it is not yet known what role bacteria play in the development and worsening of the disease. With the often-used antibiotic treatment comes antibiotic resistance, a serious threat to the individual and global health. This project aims to decipher the functionality of the skin bacteria in HS and reveal their dynamics during antibiotic treatment by using advanced molecular methods. The final goal is to develop and test a non-antibiotic treatment based on bacteria from healthy skin. The outcome is an insight into the interplay between the bacteria and human cells and a step towards a better treatment strategy in HS.

Grant category: LEO Foundation Dr Abildgaard Fellowships

Year: 2025

Geography: Denmark

Project title: Multiplexed Imaging-Powered Deep Visual Proteomics for Precision Dermatology

Skin diseases like mycosis fungoides (a type of skin cancer), psoriasis and eczema, are often hard to diagnose and treat, leading to years of suffering for patients. This project uses cutting-edge technology to map the proteins and immune cells in skin samples at a microscopic level. By combining this with artificial intelligence, the goal is to develop tools for earlier and more accurate diagnosis. The project also explores how the skin’s microbiome (the community of microbes living on the skin) influences these diseases, paving the way for new treatments. This research will enable faster personalized diagnoses, facilitate targeted treatments, and enhance patients’ quality of life.

Grant category: LEO Foundation Dr Abildgaard Fellowships

Year: 2025

Geography: Denmark

Project title: Unraveling the Gut-Skin-Epigenome Axis: A Multi-Omics Approach to Early-Life Atopic Dermatitis

This project aims to uncover how gut health, immune responses, and environmental factors contribute to the development of atopic dermatitis (AD) in early life. By integrating data from the microbiome, proteins, and epigenetic changes, we will investigate how gut bacteria and their metabolites influence skin inflammation and immune regulation. We will also study how environmental exposures, like diet, stress, and pollution, leave lasting molecular “imprints” that may increase AD risk. Using data from the extensive COPSAC2010 birth cohort, we will track children from infancy to uncover early signs of AD and explore new targets for prevention and treatment. This research could pave the way for personalized, microbiome-based therapies to stop AD before it starts — shifting from managing symptoms to preventing the disease altogether.

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