Search Results for The Science Olympiads

Grant category: LEO Foundation Awards

Year: 2010

Geography: Denmark

Presented to young Danish dermatology researcher and MD Jacob Pontoppidan Thyssen for his important contributions to the field of skin disease and contact allergy science.

Dr. Thyssen’s research provides conclusive evidence that the Danish initiative to regulate nickel exposure, started in 1990, has succeeded in decreasing the prevalence of nickel allergy in Danish women. His findings, published in The New England Journal of Medicine last year, hold global relevance and may contribute to interventions in other nations, including the US.

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: 2018

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.

Prepared and communicated by some of the brightest scientists, thinkers, and artists of our time from here and abroad. 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: Research Grants in open competition

Year: 2017

Geography: Canada

A number of chronic skin conditions have peeling of the skin as the dominant expression; akin to skin peeling following severe sunburns. In the chronic conditions, peeling is cyclical or continuous, often affecting hands, feet, or the body. Today, there is no effective treatment for these conditions, leaving patients subjected to trial and error with a variety of non-effective and often also expensive therapies.

A number of abnormal gene variants have been found to disrupt the normal maturation of the skin. Using a gene manipulation tool known as CRISPR, the team led by Dr Hull will build understanding of the role of four known genes causing skin peeling syndromes. This will be done by replicating the diseases in cell cultures grown into full thickness skin and studying the cellular and biochemical changes caused by the induced gene modifications.

Of particular interest is cathepsin B, an enzyme that has been found to play an important role in peeling associated with the skin disorder, keratolytic winter erythema.

The team’s hypothesis is that there is an important and dynamic interplay and balance between a number of enzymes in the outer layers of the skin and that if this balance favours the activity of cathepsin B, peeling results.

If this is shown, it may be clinically very relevant as there are a number of known compounds that inhibits cathepsin B and which then could be used to treat patients with chronic peeling as a consequence of their skin disorder.

Grant category: Research Grants in open competition

Year: 2016

Geography: Japan

Release of double-stranded (ds)DNA from keratinocytes has been linked to the initiation of psoriasis via induction of an immune response. Furthermore, vitamin D has been reported to interfere with this mechanism. Vitamin D analogues are widely used for treatment of psoriasis and have a well-known effect on keratinocyte proliferation and differentiation.

Dr Koichi Suzuki and his Japanese-Chinese team hypothesise that the release of dsDNA may more directly induce the characteristic hyper-proliferation and abnormal differentiation of keratinocytes seen in psoriasis by a TNFα-mediated inflammatory process in keratinocytes.

The team will investigate this hypothesis and the impact of vitamin D by the use of keratinocyte cultures and psoriasis skin samples from patients treated with a vitamin D analogue.

The project may further enhance our understanding of the complex molecular events underlying psoriasis and how vitamin D treatment may intervene in the pathogenic process, potentially revealing new aspects of the mode of action of vitamin D.

Grant category: Research Grants in open competition

Year: 2016

Geography: USA

Bridging the gap between early research and clinical development is a challenging endeavour. There is an inherent risk that early-stage programs will fail during development, no matter how promising the science is.

Such nascent programs are unlikely to attract interest from industry until they have reached significant milestones, and very little funding is available from the NIH, foundations, or private enterprise for this critical transition.

The LEO Foundation SPARK donations at Stanford will help incubate and accelerate dermatology projects. SPARK is a unique partnership between university and industry targeted advancement of Stanford research towards development of new breakthrough therapies. SPARK provides access to specialised knowledge and technical expertise regarding drug and diagnostic development, dedicated core laboratory facilities, and sources of funding to support translational efforts.

The donations will be awarded as a supplement to the existing suite of support and funding from Stanford and will ensure that as many as 15 Stanford dermatology projects will be progressed towards human proof of concept.

It is expected that the grant will foster a renewed and unique focus on dermatology at Stanford University and enable a larger number of orphan drug research projects to reach actual clinical development.

The grant from the LEO Foundation is paid out in three equal portions in 2016, 2017 and 2018.

Learn more about the SPARK Program at Stanford University here.