Search Results for The Science Olympiads

Grant category: Education and Awareness Grants

Year: 2022

Geography: Denmark

The Bloom Festival is celebrated annually and places a focus on acknowledging the wonders of nature and science – the festival is held each year in Søndermarken on Frederiksberg. The festival has existed since 2017, with the LEO Foundation offering funding support since 2019.  

The festival is organized by ADBC, which has success in running other alike initiatives, such as the annual Golden Days festival. The annual Bloom Festival is a contribution to strengthening the landscape of STEM-initiatives in Denmark, and functions as an innovative event which aims to enlighten us on the universe, the world, and ourselves. 

By uniting the best from the worlds of festivals and science, Bloom aims to tackle Life’s greatest questions through debates, talks, laboratories, conversations, and nature walks. 

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Grant category: Research Networking

Year: 2023

Geography: USA

The Montagna Symposia on the Biology of Skin are a very well-established conference, similar to a Gorden Conference, bridging the gap between basic research and dermatology. The meeting brings together scientists and physicians from academics to industry to foster interdisciplinary communication and collaboration in basic, translational and clinical research and practice, facilitating development of new collaborations, research and therapies for cancer, inflammatory diseases and other skin conditions. It provides a venue for the participation of high-profile, established speakers and up-and-coming stars in skin disease research and dermatology practice from around the world. The meeting facilitates the coming together of established researchers and clinicians with residents, fellows, and students; and representatives from government, foundations, and industry in a variety of fields and specialties, fostering the cross-pollination of ideas that is at the heart of breakthroughs in translational dermatology. 

Grant category: Research Grants in open competition

Year: 2023

Geography: USA

Joshua Moreau’s project investigates the potential role of B cells (antibody-producing immune cells) in the inflammatory skin disease, hidradenitis suppurativa to create a foundation for future therapeutic approaches.

Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a painful skin disease characterized by highly inflamed lesions. While the causes of lesion progression are not well understood, this inflammation is often marked by accumulation of an immune cell subset called B cells. In certain contexts, B cells cause damage to the body and perpetuate inflammatory responses, however, for this to happen these cells need to undergo a process of maturation to become antibody-producing plasma cells. In this project, Joshua Moreau aims to understand if B cells accumulating in HS affected skin mature into disease perpetuating plasma cells.

To do this, Joshua Moreau and his team will utilize a technique called spatial transcriptomics technology that allows them to track B cell maturation across a skin sample. This, in turn, will allow them to determine if plasma cells originate at the site of inflammation in the skin.

Additionally, the team will explore avenues for blocking B cell maturation specifically within the skin using advanced human skin tissue culturing approaches.

Collectively, these experiments may provide currently missing insight into the disease-causing potential of B cells in HS and form a foundation for targeting them therapeutically.

Grant category: Education and Awareness Grants

Year: 2023

Geography: Denmark

“Danske Stjerner” (translated to Danish stars) is a series of children’s books about important Danish scientists. The series is for kids of aged 4-8 years. The books’ stories are illustrated, and their tales begin  when the scientists are the same age as their young readers. They then follow the scientists into adulthood, exploring their lives and discoveries. The aim of the series is to increase children’s interest for science, and to inspire them through role models. So far, the series consists of eight published books, illustrating the lives of, amongst others, physicist Niels Bohr, seismologist Inge Lehmann, and astronaut Andreas Mogensen.

The grant is for DKK 380,000 and supports the publishing of four additional books to the series, including one about Morten Peter Meldal, who won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2022 for the development of “click chemistry”, and one about Elise Sørensen, creator of the colostomy bag, which today is used globally.

Visit The Children’s Book Publisher’s webpage