The LEO Foundation’s latest round of research grants provides DKK 44 million ($6,593,607.24 USD) to 12 international skin research projects.
“We are very pleased to award funding for these 12 pioneering research projects from across the world. The funded projects are highly diverse and vary from exploring the mechanisms of skin aging and immunity dysfunction to new treatment of psoriasis and determining the genetic basis of rosacea. Each research project will create new dermatological knowledge that will benefit the many people globally who live skin diseases,” says Anne-Marie Engel, Chief Scientific Officer at the LEO Foundation, in a news release.
Projects At A Glance
Understanding the genetic pathways of rosacea
Professor Ole Birger Pedersen, PhD, from Zealand University Hospital in Køge, Denmark received a grant for research that aims to identify the genetic pathways of rosacea and determine the causal connection and modifiable risk factors associated with previously reported systemic comorbidities.
Exploring the potential of new treatment of psoriasis
Professor Rebecca Deprez-Poulain, PharmD, PhD, from Institut Pasteur de Lille in France received a grant for her research project focused on the therapeutic potential of the so-called ERAP1 and ERAP2 inhibitors for the treatment of psoriasis. She has identified selective inhibitors of ERAP1 and ERAP2, which decrease antigen presentation and T-cell activation, showing preliminary positive results in vivo. The research will combine both structural biology, medical chemistry, biochemistry, and cellular biology to optimize currently known compounds into potent and selective inhibitors targeting ERAP. This project may define the optimal profile of an ERAP inhibitor as a pharmacological tool, providing a foundation for the exploration of ERAP’s role and eventually the development of an ERAP-based oral treatment for psoriasis.
Mimicking the scarless fetal wound healing process
Wei Tao, PhD, the Farokhzad Family Distinguished Chair for Innovation at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA, received a grant to explore biological mechanisms that may improve wound healing in adults by mimicking the processes involved in connective tissue rearrangement during fetal development. He aims to use sophisticated mRNA delivery techniques to produce specific proteins that replicate the generation of the fetal extracellular matrix while simultaneously keeping the immune system in check, thereby inhibiting the biological processes that lead to scar formation. This research may also have clinical applications in wound care and other dermatological diseases using mRNA medicine.
Learn about the other grant winners here.
