(obsolete) pulsating synergy

P u l s at i n g synergyThe Novo Nordisk FouNdaTioN research ceNTre clusTer

“ The aim of creating a cluster of research centres is to attract and retain the world’s best researchers, thereby creating the basis for an internationally oriented and innovative research environment of the highest qualitytobenefitsociety.”

The Novo Nordisk FouNdaTioN

centre cluster research

Sten Scheibye, Chair of the Board, Novo Nordisk Foundation

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Since 2007, the Novo Nordisk Foundation has awarded close to DKK 3.3 billion (€448 million) for establishing the centre cluster.

The Foundation awards DKK 600 million (€80.7 million) to the University of Copenhagen to establish the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research.

2007

The Foundation awards DKK 118 million (€15.9 million) to Statens Serum Institut to establish the Dan-ish National Biobank

2009The Foundation awards DKK 885 million (€119 million) to the University of Copenhagen to establish the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research.

2010

INTerNaTIONaLhUBFOr BIOSCIENCE

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The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research is awarded additional funding of DKK 180 million (€24 million) to extend and further strengthen the activities of the Center.

Employing exceptional researchers with the am-bition to achieve world-class scientific break-throughs, the Novo Nordisk Foundation research centre cluster in Greater Copenhagen comprises four large research centres and a national bio-bank.

The centres’ respective fields of research are pro-teins, stem cells, metabolism, and biosustainabil-ity, with each centre having 140–235 employees.

LONG-TERM FUNDING PERSPECTIVE The centre grants extend over a period of at least 10 years and therefore provide a long-term per-

spective allowing researchers to work on ambi-tious projects and conduct high-risk research.

FREE AND INDEPENDENT RESEARCHThe centres have been established in partnership with public research institutions that confirmed in their applications to the Foundation that they would house and operate the respective centres.

The Foundation protects free and independent re-search. Researchers can decide their own research priorities and have full publishing freedom. Any research results belong to the researchers and the public research institutions.

The Foundation awards DKK 700 million (€93.4 million) to theTechnical University ofDenmark to establish the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability.

The Foundation awards DKK 350 million (€47 million) to theUniversity of Copenhagen to establish the NovoNordisk Foundation Section for Basic Stem Cell Biology.

2010

2010

The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability is awarded additional funding of DKK 411 million (€54.9 million) for strengthening and expand-ing the activities of the Center.

2012

2014

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C O P E N H A G E N

H Ø R S H O L M

INNOVATIONThrOUGhcOLLaBOraTIONaNDsYNerGY

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1 NOVO NORDISK FOUNDATION CENTER FOR PROTEIN RESEARCH 2 NOVO NORDISK FOUNDATION CENTER FOR BASIC METABOLIC RESEARCH

3 DANISH NATIONAL BIOBANK

4 NOVO NORDISK FOUNDATION SECTION FOR BASIC STEM CELL BIOLOGY

5 NOVO NORDISK FOUNDATION CENTER FOR BIOSUSTAINABILITY

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Staff/Publications Staff Publications

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

At the end of 2014, the total staff in the center cluster was 713 with a combined 969 publications published.

Located in Greater Copenhagen, the multi-tech-nique and multi-expertise environment of the cen-ter cluster provides a platform for cross-pollination of ideas, leading to innovative interdisciplinary collaboration based on the centres’ closely related scientific fields.

The cluster enables researchers to benefit from the sharing of knowledge and infrastructure, includ-ing specialised equipment and administration, al-lowing them more time to focus on scientific dis-covery, as well as benefitting from synergy and collaboration.

ATTRACTING AND RETAINING EXCEPTIONAL RESEARCHERS

The centres strive to be among the best in their field, thus attracting and retaining leading re-searchers, and establishing international collabor-ations to further raise the level of research, as well as educating the next generation of talented researchers.

THE COPENHAGEN BIOSCIENCE ENVIRONMENTThe Greater Copenhagen area provides multiple opportunities for interaction and collaboration, representing:

• 33 hospitals, of which 11 are university hospitals

• 11 universities, of which 5 have separate life- science departments

• 44,000 life-science staff in the private sector

• 45,000 life-science students

In addition, the Novo Nordisk Foundation has initi-ated a range of scientific activities to further sup-port the cluster and make Greater Copenhagen a hub for research within the biosciences, including the establishment of the Copenhagen Bioscience Conferences – a series of first-class international conferences within biomedicine and biotech no-logy, as well as Cluster Days – seminars where researchers from the centres meet for scientific de-bate and networking to strengthen their research.

1 NOVO NORDISK FOUNDATION CENTER FOR PROTEIN RESEARCH 2 NOVO NORDISK FOUNDATION CENTER FOR BASIC METABOLIC RESEARCH

3 DANISH NATIONAL BIOBANK

4 NOVO NORDISK FOUNDATION SECTION FOR BASIC STEM CELL BIOLOGY

5 NOVO NORDISK FOUNDATION CENTER FOR BIOSUSTAINABILITY

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taking proteinresearchTO ThE NExT lEVEl

The Novo Nordisk FouNdaTioN CeNTer For ProTeiN researCh

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Staff

“ The Centre has huge potential and provides fantastic opportunities for protein researchers at all levels of career development.” Jiri Lukas, Professor, executive director of the Center.

NNF funding DKK 780 million (€104.7 million) Current funding period 2007-2019Host institution University of CopenhagenExecutive Director Jiri LukasProgramme directors Jiri Lukas, Søren Brunak, Matthias Mann, Guillermo Montoya Areas of research Disease systems biology, protein signaling, proteomics, protein structure

Protein-related technologies can potentially be even more revolutionary than genomic approaches for understanding the complex wiring of biologi-cal systems and disease processes. However, con-certed efforts are required to realize this potential.

The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research aims to assemble all of the required tech-nologies under the same roof.

The vision of the Center is to be the world’s lead-ing center in integrative protein technologies and their application to accelerate understand-ing of the biological processes underlying health and disease.

This is achieved by developing integrated protein technology platforms and management sys-tems for large heterogeneous data to advance the understanding of complex protein networks in funda mental biology and disease, educating the

next generation of top-tier protein scientists and becoming an unmatched global partner in protein research.

The Center focuses on four major and comple-mentary research programmes: proteomics, pro-tein structure, protein signalling and disease systems biology, each of which is supported by state- of- the-art protein technology platforms (mass spectrometry, protein production and char-acterization, protein imaging and big data mana-gement).

The advantage of assembling this knowledge and technology under one roof is the possibility of creating synergy through collaboration across research groups and programmes. Researchers at the Center also collaborate with many partners in Denmark and some of the best laboratories world-wide in both the public and private sectors.

Total 140Men 69Women 71 Research staff recruited abroad 51

ASSOCIATE PROFESSORS

PROFESSORS ASSISTANT PROFESSORS:

POST.DOCS PhD STUDENTS

ADMIN.STAFF

TECH. STAFF

OTHER

10 8 1 38 39 10 20 14

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understanding

DIaBeTesaNDOBesITY

Novo Nordisk FouNdaTioN CeNTer For BasiC MeTaBoLiC researCh

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Staff

NNF funding DKK 885 million (€119 million)Current funding period 2010-2020Host institution University of CopenhagenManaging Director Torben KleinScientific directors Oluf B. Pedersen, Juleen Zierath, Thue W. Schwartz, Jens J. Holst, Gerald ShulmanAreas of research Metabolic genetics, metabolic receptology, translational metabolic physiology, integrative physiology, metabolic imaging and liver metabolism

“Wedonotdelivertheordinaryorconfirmthefamiliar. We strive to be innovative and create the unexpected – preferably knowledge that can revolutionize the battles against such global threats as obesity and diabetes” Torben klein, Managing director of the Center.

The overarching research goal of the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research is to understand the causes of diabetes and obesity by studying the molecular mechanisms underlying the development of these metabolic conditions. The Center’s researchers investigate how the interaction between genes and environment affects the human metabolism. The aim is to create a basis for developing new ways of prevent-ing and treating diabetes and obesity.

The Center focuses on the following aspects of how human genes and the environment influence metabolism:

• discovering and validating potential novel meth-ods of treatment and prevention based on human genes and gut bacteria;

• using epigenetics and nutrient signalling to develop the molecular and cellular understanding of how changing people’s diet, weight and level of physical activity can prevent and treat type 2 diabetes;

• studying hormones in the human gut and how they sense nutrients and metabolites as a basis for developing better ways to treat people with type2 diabetes and obesity; and

• developing new and innovative methods for im-aging the regulation of glucose and fat metabo-lism by the human liver and muscles to study how this changes among people with insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.

The Center has established research alliances with leading research groups at universities world-wide to optimize international knowledge sharing and generate synergy.



PROFESSORS ASSISTANT RESEARCHERS


ADMIN.STAFF

TECH. STAFF

OTHER

12 12 11 28 46 17 31 42

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Home to tHe eNTIreDaNIshpopulaTioN

The daNish NaTioNaL BioBaNk

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“ The Danish National Biobank will lay the foundation for many important future research results related to preventing and treating disease.” Mads Melbye, Professor, director of the danish National Biobank.

eNTIreDaNIsh

The Danish National Biobank gives scientists a com-prehensive overview of and access to millions of biological samples in Denmark’s health care sys-tem for the first time. In addition, the samples can be linked with information from the unique Danish nationwide registries which contain detailed infor-mation about all residents.

For example, a researcher can find blood sam-ples from people with cancer – taken before they developed the disease – and can use the samples to study markers for the later development of the disease.

This gives researchers new opportunities for inves-tigating why disease occurs and how to prevent and treat it.

The Danish National Biobank is a project with three strands: the Biobank Registry, a large phy-sical Biobank, and a coordinating centre.

• The Biobank Registry contains detailed informa-tion on samples consisting of blood, tissue and DNA.

• The ultramodern 2400-m² physical Biobank is one of the world’s largest and includes a gigantic freezer room in which robots store, retrieve and deliver the biological samples. It will have capacity to store up to 30 million biological samples.

• The coordinating centre staff are experts at managing and processing the biological material and will advise and assist researchers on issues arising from the use of the Biobank Registry and the physical Biobank.

Denmark’s system of committees on health research ethics will assess all research projects before they permit the biological material from an individual to be linked with information from the nationwide registries.

The Biobank Registry is available online for researchers worldwide. Dispensing of biologi-cal samples from the physical Biobank requires collaboration with a Danish research institution.

Other contributors to establishing the Biobank include Denmark’s Ministry of Science, Innovation and Higher Education and the Lundbeck Founda-tion.

NNF funding DKK 118 million (€15.9 million)Current funding period 2009-2020Host institution Statens Serum InstitutBiobank Director Mads MelbyeTypes of samples Serum, plasma, buffy coat, DNA, whole blood, spinal fluids, filter paper, urineCurrent number of samples 7.2 million

Total 21Men 8Women 13

Staff

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taming

sTeM ceLLs

The Novo Nordisk FouNdaTioN seCTioN For BasiC sTeM CeLL BioLogy

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Staff

NNF funding DKK 350 million (€47 million)Current funding period 2011-2020Host institution University of CopenhagenExecutive Director Henrik SembGroup leaders Henrik Semb, Joshua Brickman, Elisabetta Ferretti, Anne Grapin-Botton, Kristian Helin, Elke Ober, Ole William Petersen, Bo Porse, Palle SerupAreas of research Pancreas and beta cell development, endodermal organogenesis and regeneration, pluripotent stem cell biology, cancer stem cell biology

The Novo Nordisk Foundation Section for Basic Stem Cell Biology (BasicStem) is one of two sec-tions of the Danish Stem Cell Center (DanStem). The Section conducts basic research within devel-opmental, stem cell and molecular biology. Re-search topics include how to induce stem cells to differentiate into certain types of cells and the specific role of cancer stem cells in developing different types of cancer.

Because many serious diseases result from condi-tions in which cells are absent or malfunctioning, considerable therapeutic potential can be harvest-ed if researchers can understand and mimic the devel opment from stem cells into specialized cells.

The ambition is to generate knowledge that will form the basis for developing more targeted and efficient therapies for diabetes and cancer.

The Section comprises nine internationally re-nowned research groups, including five recruited from Sweden, Switzerland, Scotland, England and the United States. All groups have well-established global networks and participate actively in numer-ous international research projects.

DanStem’s other section, the Section for Strate-gic Translational Stem Cell Research and Therapy (TransStem), is supported by the Danish Council for Stra tegic Research and industry partners. Trans-Stem’s overall aim is to translate promising new re-search results into the active development of new therapies.

The Center is also active in educating the next gene ration of stem cell scientists working both in basic and clinical research.



PROFESSORS ASSISTANT RESEARCHERS


ADMIN.STAFF

TECH. STAFF

OTHER

8 8 3 38 21 3 25 12

“ What attracts me is the enormous challenge involved in developing a stem cell centre that has a real potential to compete with the rest of the world.” henrik semb, Professor, executive director of the Center.

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Novo Nordisk FouNdaTioN CeNTer For BiosusTaiNaBiLiTy

a biobased

perspecTIveON ThE wOrld

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The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Bio-sustainability is the world’s first interdisciplinary research centre within biosustainability. The Cen-ter’s ambition is to develop new knowledge and technology that can support the transformation from an oil-based chemical industry to a more sus-tainable biobased industry producing chemicals using highly specialized cell cultures: cell factories.

The Center’s research focuses on obtaining the knowledge required to design and construct cell factories for biobased production.

In applied and engineering science, the Center will carry out research into new innovative tech-nologies that can significantly reduce the costs of developing cell factories, thereby improving the competitiveness of biobased production. At a more basic science level, the Center investigates which chemicals can be produced biologically.

The Center also investigates how to develop robust cell factories for efficiently producing pharmaceuticals.

The Center collaborates with the world’s leading researchers in this field and has entered into strate-gic alliances with universities in the United States, Sweden, South Korea and Denmark.

The Center gives high priority to innovation and therefore also collaborates with biotechnol-ogy companies and the chemical industry to pro-mote knowledge exchange and application of the Center’s results.

Further, the Center emphasizes educating and developing talent within this field. One initiative is a new PhD programme that will train future researchers to become leaders and pioneers within sustainable industry.

“Humanityneedstofindwaysoflivingmore sustainably to slow the depletion of natural resources. Using cell factories is a fundamental aspect of this process.” Bernhard Palsson, Professor, Ceo of the Center.

Staff


ASSISTANT PROFESSORS

PROFESSORS SENIOR RESEARCHERS


ADMIN.STAFF

TECH. STAFF

OTHER

11 1 20 71 53 19 32 28

NNF funding DKK 1.1 billion (€148.3 million)Current funding period 2011-2020Host institution Technical University of DenmarkCEO Bernhard PalssonScientific directors Bernhard Palsson, Henrik Clausen, Jay Keasling, Søren Molin, Jens Nielsen, Mathias Uhlén, Sang Yup LeeAreas of research Cell factory design, metabolic engineering, genome scale modelling, therapeutic proteins, synthetic biology

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OUR OBJECTIVESThe Novo Nordisk Foundation is an independent Danish foundation with corporate interests. Its his-tory goes back more than 90 years.

The objectives of the Foundation are:

1 to provide a stable basis for the commercial and research activities of the companies in the Novo Group; and

2 to support scientific, humanitarian and social purposes.

The vision of the Foundation is to contribute signifi-cantly to research and development that improves the health and welfare of people.

OUR GRANTSSince 2007, the Foundation has donated more than DKK 6 billion, primarily for research within biomedicine and biotechnology at universities and hospitals in Denmark and the other Nordic coun-tries. The Foundation supports the entire research chain – from education to innovation.

Grants are awarded in two ways:• grants awarded in open competition based on the applications received and assessed by the Foun-dation’s scientific committees; and

• thematic grants, in which the Board of the Foun-dation decides the overall theme and international experts assess the research by peer review.

Grants in open competitionToday, the Foundation has 13 committees engag-ing 49 experts, who are specialists in their fields

and therefore very qualified to assess the quality, originality and feasibility of projects. The Board of the Foundation sets the annual framework for the work of the committees. In 2014, the Foundation received about 1,300 applications for grants, in-cluding research projects, scholarships and research leader programmes.

Thematic grantsIn addition to the centre cluster, the Foundation has given priority to awarding grants to numerous ambitious projects with a specific theme. The broad range of fields covers research, educational and communication projects. Grants are awarded based on applications received.

OUR STRUCTUREOur structure reflects the two-pronged nature of our objectives: commercial and societal.

The Novo Nordisk Foundation awards grants, whereas the Foundation’s wholly owned subsidiary, Novo A/S, manages the Foundation’s commercial activities. The objective of Novo A/S is to manage the Foundation’s endowment and its controlling interests in Novo Nordisk A/S and Novozymes A/S.

Together, Novo A/S, Novo Nordisk A/S and Novo-zymes A/S and their subsidiaries are known as the Novo Group. The Foundation’s ambition is that, by generating research-based products and services, Novo Group companies will position themselves as internationally recognized and significant actors in improving how disease is combated and natural resources are used.

The Novo Nordisk

FOUNDaTION

More information

The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center forBasic Metabolic Research

www.metabol.ku.dk

The Danish National Biobank

www.nationalbiobank.dk

The Novo Nordisk Foundation Section for Basic Stem Cell Biology

www.danstem.ku.dk

The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research

www.cpr.ku.dk

Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability

www.biosustain.dtu.dk

NOVO NORDISK FOUNDATIONTuborg Havnevej 19DK-2900 HellerupDenmarkTelephone: +45 3527 6600

[email protected]

(obsolete) pulsating synergy

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