Explore our grantees and awardees

Grant category: Research Grants in open competition

Year: 2019

Geography: Denmark

Long-term topical application of steroids such as hydrocortisone have severe skin side effects. Here treatments lead to thinning of the outer layer of the skin, reduced production of natural moisturisers and an increased risk of skin ulceration.

We hypothesise that an increased understanding of how hydrocortisone exerts its effect on skin cells will help us understand why hydrocortisone treatment causes these adverse effects and also aid the development of treatments that can bypass these.

Here we propose to take advantage of exciting new methods we have developed, where we can measure how cells behave within the skin and thereby quantify exactly how hydrocortisone affects cell turnover. This analysis will be combined with detailed studies for how hydrocortisone function at the mechanistic level in order to identify potential new therapeutic targets. Such therapies could be used to help patients receiving long-term hydrocortisone treatment.

Grant category: Research Grants in open competition

Year: 2019

Geography: Denmark

This project focuses on development of 3D bio-printed physiologically accurate human skin, which has important applications both clinically and for research.

3D printed human skin can be used in pharmacological and cosmetic testing, disease modelling, basic skin biology research, but also it can potentially save lives by providing skin grafts for burn or accident victims.

However, the current 3D printed skin is frail and prone to rupturing and does not recapitulate the native tissue. By combining quantitative imaging of intracellular junctions and cytoskeletal components at the sub-cellular, cellular and tissue levels in a rapid in vivo model and human 3D skin cell culture with direct measurements of tissue stiffness, we will deliver the most detailed description yet of the mechanical regulation and barrier properties of the skin.

Next, we will determine how the mechanical properties of skin change upon application of physical stimuli and if we could imitate the mechanical response by molecular perturbations.

Finally, we will identify and verify novel molecular players that set the mechanical properties of skin by unbiased single-cell sequencing of fragile and elastic tissues.

These results will be used to develop artificial 3D skin which more accurately represent human skin than current models. This interdisciplinary proposal is a crucial step forward in entering an era where animal experiments and transplants are replaced by synthetic organs printed for patients on demand.

Grant category: Education and Awareness Grants

Year: 2019

Geography: Denmark

Bloom – at the core:

Bloom is an innovative festival about science and nature, which enlighten us on the Universe, the World and Ourselves. Framed in the lush Søndermarken at Frederiksberg in the heart of the capital city of Denmark, where some of the World’s greatest scientists, poets and philosophers have found inspiration through history, Bloom emerges each Spring as a sensual, experimental and thought-provoking festival version of natural sciences.

By uniting the best from the world of festivals with the best from the scientific world, Bloom arm wrestles with Life’s greatest questions and over two days invite the audience to debates, talks, laboratories, conversations and nature walks under open skies.

Grant category: Education and Awareness Grants

Year: 2019

Geography: Denmark

Denmark’s largest science conference, the Big Bang Conference, has received DKK 2,000,000 for the period 2020-2021 from the LEO Foundation.

Big Bang is the largest Danish science conference and exhibition targeted all who teaches, facilitates or researches in the science and science fields – in primary and secondary schools and higher education.

The conference, held once a year, gathers more than 1,000 people for two involving and inspiring days with relevant keynote speakers, a humming exhibition atmosphere, involving workshops and novel ideas for the continued renewal of science education.

www.bigbangkonferencen.dk

Grant category: Research Grants in open competition

Year: 2018

Geography: Denmark

In this study, the group led by Professor Gregor Jemec of Roskilde Hospital has set out to identify new genes for the development of a long line of common dermatological conditions, including deep skin infections, warts, fungal infections, and eczema.

Many of these common skin diseases are still poorly understood and the treatments often insufficient. A study of the genetics of these disorders will help increase the understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms. The study will have its origin in Denmark and be based on unique national biobanks, national registries, and with extensive genetic analyses done in collaboration with deCODE Genetics, Iceland.

This is possible due to the growing number of Danish large-scale biobanks as well as biobank based scientific studies suited for further genetic studies. The largest genetic study in Denmark is the Danish Blood Donor Study (DBDS) in which the genome wide association (GWA) arrays have been analysed on 110,000 research participants.

In addition to this cohort, Jemec’s group is currently pursuing genetic testing on the Copenhagen Hospital Biobank (CHB) that includes samples from around 350,000 patients. Both of these biobanks have established a collaboration with deCODE Genetics, Iceland – one of the leading genetic research centers in the world.

Project Group

Henrik Ullum, Professor, Department of Clinical Immunology, Rigshospitalet

Søren Brunak, Professor, Center for Protein Research (CPR), Copenhagen University

Simon Francis Thomsen, Professor, Department of Dermatology, Bispebjerg Hospital

Claus Zachariae, Professor, Department of Dermatology, Gentofte Hospital

International affiliations

Ingileif Jonsdottir, Professor, deCODE Genetics, Iceland

Errol Prens, Professor, Department of Dermatology, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, Netherlands

Christos Zouboulis, Professor, Department of Dermatology, Brandenburg Medical School Theodor Fontane, Dessau, Germany

Grant category: Research Grants in open competition

Year: 2018

Geography: Denmark

Proper wound healing is a fundamental survival mechanism and dysfunctions cause significant disease, such as seen in infections after burns, trauma and surgery, as well as in non-healing ulcers.

Currently, the prevalence of non-healing wounds is estimated to be over 40 million worldwide, a number projected to rise with 6-9% annually, due to aging of the population and the increasing incidence of diseases that contribute to nonhealing ulcer development, such as obesity and diabetes.

There is a great and unmet need for novel treatments for improved healing, and thus better predictors for wound healing outcomes are essential. Given the importance of innate immunity and microbial interactions for development of impaired wound healing, the aim of this project is to define novel prognostic and diagnostic biomarkers for assessment of wound healing and infection risk.

For this purpose, we will use state-of-the-art techniques for peptidomics mass spectrometry. This unique approach, without the classical trypsin digestion of the samples, will give actual insight in processes occurring in the wound bed, e.g. enzymatic activity, infection, inflammation, and angiogenesis, instead of just reporting the presence of a protein, independent of the state it is in.

Furthermore, we will set up biological models for validation of biomarkers, as well as novel treatments. Together, the outcomes of these studies have the potential to improve diagnostic evaluations of wounds, and will enable us to develop novel treatment concepts for early prevention of infection, leading to improved healing results for large and significant patient groups.

Grant category: Research Grants in open competition

Year: 2018

Geography: Denmark

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic disorder caused by the improper function of the skins barrier layer, the stratum corneum (SC). It is thought to affect between 15 and 30% of children and up to 10% of adults.

The need to develop drugs and drug delivery vehicles which effectively, and possibly specifically, interact with the compromised skin of AD patients is of great importance.

However, to date most pre-clinical trials utilise healthy skin, excised from surgical procedures, to investigate the penetration and interactions of drugs targeted to skin disease. This approach does not accurately represent lesional or diseased stratum corneum.

This project aims to develop models of the stratum corneum to compare the lipid multilayer structure and interactions of healthy and atopic dermatitis (AD) lesional stratum corneum. Key to the success of these models is access to a wide variety of skin lipids not commercially available and crucial to the realistic self-assembly of the lipid multilayers observed in SC.

An example of a currently unavailable lipid is the long chain esterified ceramides, Ceramide[EOS], which has been linked to the formation of long periodicity phases and lower permeability in SC and is often deficient in AD patients.2-4 These lipids will be obtained by extraction, separation and purification of ceramides from pig skin SC. Lipid mixtures of ratios found in healthy and AD lesional skin will then be self-assembled on a solid support and investigated for interactions with drugs and drug delivery vehicles using neutron reflection, which offers unique opportunities for angstrom level structural resolution and, through selective deuteration, the ability to highlight specific components of the system to improve contrast.

Grant category: Research Grants in open competition

Year: 2018

Geography: Denmark

Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) together with basal cell carcinoma comprises the absolute majority of non-melanoma skin cancers, affecting 150,000 persons in Denmark, equivalent to 3% of the population.

SCC’s cost is consequently substantial, reflected by notable patient morbidity, heavy socioeconomic burdens and significant mortality in immunosuppressed populations.

In oncology, systemic immunotherapies with PD1 and CTLA4 antibodies have had revolutionizing impact on clinical cancer treatment. Recognizing the immense potential of these strategies also for SCC, our vision is to pioneer a new local treatment approach by harnessing the immune system to combat SCC, while at the same time avoiding side effects associated with systemic treatment.

In a three-tiered translational project, we thus aim to deliver PD1 and CTLA4 antibodies through the skin using ablative fractional laser (AFL), effectively opening the door to implementation of topical SCC immunotherapy. The project is executed in collaboration with the Wellman Center at Harvard Medical School and Center for Cancer Immune Therapy at Herlev Hospital. The 3-year research plan comprises preclinical studies on biodistribution and pharmacokinetics in healthy skin, a proof-of-concept study in a well-established murine model for human SCC, and an explorative clinical study in SCC patients from the skin cancer clinic at Bispebjerg Hospital. For patients, topical immunotherapy may constitute a safe treatment with decreased morbidity and the prospect of potentially reduced risk of future SCC occurrence. This in turn will lower the socioeconomic burden of repeated treatments for a large cancer patient group, including high-risk immunosuppressed patients such as organ transplant recipients.

Grant category: Research Grants in open competition

Year: 2018

Geography: Denmark

Severe eczema, also known as atopic dermatitis (AD) is the most common inflammatory skin disease resulting in itchy, inflamed, and swollen skin that is very susceptible to infection. It is estimated that 15-20% of all children and 2-10% of adults are affected, without effective treatment.

Because of this, significant public health burden and the lack of safe and effective treatments, there is a need for novel targeted therapeutics that can help manage symptoms and improve the quality of life for the patients.

The protein periostin is expressed in the skin and is implicated in AD. Significantly, studies have shown that the elimination of periostin in an AD mouse model reduces or completely removes the symptoms making periostin an apparent therapeutic target. However, the physiological functions of periostin remains unclear and a reduction or elimination of the protein in the skin could have severe side effects.

Therefore, a deeper understanding of the physiological role in healthy and diseased skin must be established. The interdisciplinary research team behind this project propose to address these issues and establish the function of periostin using in vitro and in vivo experimental setups including primary cell cultures, zebrafish, mouse models and human specimens combined with advanced biochemical methods. Novel therapeutics are urgently needed, and this project aim is to establish a strategy for the development of new treatment paradigms for AD, leading towards novel, innovative therapeutic strategies.

Grant category: Education and Awareness Grants

Year: 2018

Geography: Denmark

The skin is an amazing and complex organ that comprises multiple layers and cell types that are functionally distinct.

The aim of this study is to characterize the molecular composition of the healthy human skin by creating an atlas of all the proteins expressed in healthy skin as a function of their spatial location as well as its major cell types.

This atlas, comprising the identification of a global proteomic composition of human skin, will provide an important resource to the community studying the physiology and cell biology of the skin and serve as a basis for future studies comparing the proteomes of inflammatory and oncologic skin diseases.

Publication of the skin atlas will be accompanied by a freely accessible and well-advertised web page portal where information on proteins of interest and their protein profiles in the layers of the skin will be easily available.