BIO-researcher part of new international NNF bridgehead center
Launching today, the new Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Genomic Mechanisms of Disease at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard aims at being a world-leading hub of biomedical research and innovation. With the ambitious goal of unlocking genomic data to discover molecular pathways and mechanisms that underlie human health and disease, the Center will lay the foundation for patient-centered research and personalised medicine.
The initial scientific directions of the Center will focus on (i) the Genetic Basis of Human Disease, and (2) creating a comprehensive Human Gene Regulation Map. The Center’s work will be foundational, focusing on the consequences of genetic variation and gene regulation on the cellular level.
Associate Professor Robin Andersson at the Department of Biology at the University of Copenhagen is one of the four initial Danish partners of the Human Gene Regulation Map project within the Center. Robin Andersson envisions that the bridge established with the Broad Institute through the Center will greatly benefit his lab. It will enable important scientific discoveries, interactions and training activities for trainees with research teams in the forefront of genomics research. He further foresees that technologies learned and networks formed as part of these activities will in the longer run be beneficial for a larger Danish scientific community.
Funding
Supported by a $47.5 million commitment from the Novo Nordisk Foundation, the Center will facilitate close collaborations between the Broad Institute and Danish researchers investigating the genetics and gene regulation of common complex disease, with an initial focus on type 2 diabetes and obesity.
