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PULSATING SYNERGY THE NOVO NORDISK FOUNDATION RESEARCH CENTRE CLUSTER
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P u l s at i n g synergyThe Novo Nordisk FouNdaTioN research ceNTre clusTer
The Novo Nordisk Foundation research centre cluster within biomedicine and biotechnology comprises four large research centres and a national biobank.
Located in Greater Copenhagen, the multi-technique and multi-expertise environment of the centre 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, including specialised equip-ment and administration, allowing them more time to focus on scientific discovery, as well as benefitting from synergy and collaboration.
INTERNATIONALHUBFORbioscience
DEnMaRK
The Greater Copenhagen area provides multiple opportunities for interaction and collaboration, representing:
• 33 hospitals, of which 11 are university hospitals
• 11 universities, of which 4 have research within the biosciences
• More than 250 life-science companies
• 45,000 students within the biosciences.
25 Km.
tHe CoPenHaGen BioSCienCe enVironMent
lunD
MalMÖ
COPEnHagEn
HØRsHOlM
Universities
University hospitals
larGest r&D baseD life-science companies
SWEDEN
NOVO NORDISK FOUNDATION CENTER FOR BIOSUSTAINABILITY
NOVO NORDISK FOUNDATION CENTER FOR PROTEIN RESEARCH
NOVO NORDISK FOUNDATION CENTER FOR BASIC METABOLIC RESEARCH
NOVO NORDISK FOUNDATION SECTION FOR BASIC STEM CELL BIOLOGY
DANISH NATIONAL BIOBANK
The Novo Nordisk FouNdaTioN research ceNTre clusTer
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LONG-TERMfuNdiNGperspectiveSince 2007, the Novo Nordisk Foundation has awarded close to DKK 3.5 billion (€466 million)for establishing the centre cluster.
2007The Foundation awards
DKK 600 million (€80.7 million) to the
University of Copenhagen to establish the
Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research. 2009
The Foundation awards DKK 118 million (€15.9 million) to
Statens Serum Institut to establish the
Danish National Biobank.
2010The Foundation awards
DKK 885 million (€119 million) to the
University of Copenhagen to establish the
Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic
Metabolic Research.
2010The Foundation awards
DKK 350 million (€47 million) to the
University of Copenhagen to establish the
Novo Nordisk Foundation Section for Basic Stem
Cell Biology.
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The centre grants extend over a period of at least 10 years and therefore provide a long-term perspective allowing researchers to work on ambi-tious projects and conduct high-risk research.
The 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.
FREE AND INDEPENDENT RESEARCHThe Foundation protects free and independent research. Researchers receiving funding from the Foundation can decide their own research priorities and have full publishing freedom. Any research results belong to the researchers and the public research institutions.
2010The Foundation awards
DKK 700 million (€93.4 million) to the Technical University
of Denmark to establish the Novo Nordisk Foundation
Center for Biosustainability.
2012The Foundation awards additional funding of
DKK 411 million (€54.9 million)
to the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for
Biosustainability to strengthen and expand
the Center’s activities.
2014The Foundation awards additional funding of
DKK 180 million (€24 million) to the Novo Nordisk Foundation
Center for Protein Research to extend and further strengthen
the Center’s activities.
2015The Foundation awards additional funding of
DKK 235 million (€31.4 million) to the
Novo Nordisk Foundation Section for Basic Stem Cell
Biology to strengthen and expand the Section’s
activities.
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excellenceaNdiNNOvaTiON
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0
200
400
600
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1000
2008
Staff/Publications Staff Publications
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
At the end of 2014, the total staff in the centre cluster was 713 with a combined 977 publications published.
The centres’ respective fields of research are proteins, stem cells, meta-bolism, and biosustainability, with each centre having 140–235 employees.
The centres strive to be among the best in their field, thus attracting and retaining leading researchers, establishing international collabor-ations and educating the next generation of talented researchers to further raise the level of research.
The vision is that the centres can contribute to solving major global challenges such as diabetes and the depletion of natural resources.
COLLABORATION AND NETWORKING ACTIVITIESTo further support the centre cluster and make Greater Copenhagena hub for research within the biosciences, the Novo Nordisk Foundation has initiated a range of associated scientific activities.
This includes the establishment of the Copenhagen Bioscience Conferen ces – a series of first-class international conferences within biomedicine and biotechnology, as well as Cluster Days – seminars where researchers from the centres meet for scientific debate and net-working to strengthen their research.
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Taking proTeinREsEaRchto the next level
The Novo Nordisk FouNdaTioN CeNTer For ProTeiN researCh
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staff
“ The Center 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 fields 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 understanding of the biological processes underlying health and disease.
This is achieved by developing integrated protein technology platforms and management systems 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
postDocs 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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9
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 Shulmanfields 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 worldwide to optimize international knowledge sharing and generate synergy.
total 199men 82Women 117 research staff recruited abroad 31
associate professors
professors assistant professors
postDocs phD stUDents
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 comprehensive overview of and access to millions of biological samples in Denmark’s health care system. In addition, the samples can be linked with information from the unique Danish nation-wide regis tries which contain detailed information about all residents.
For example, a researcher can find blood samples from people with cancer – taken before they de-veloped the disease – and can use the samples to study markers for the later development of the dis-ease. This gives researchers new opportunities for investigating why disease occurs and how to pre-vent and treat it.
The Danish National Biobank is a project with three strands: a biobank register, a large physical bio-bank, and a coordinating centre.
The Danish Biobank Register contains detailed in-formation on more than 16 million samples con-sisting of blood, tissue and dNa.
The ultramodern 2400-m² physical Biobank is one of the world’s largest and includes two fully auto-
mated storage units in which robots store, retrieve and deliver the biological samples. The Biobank has capacity to store more than 30 million bio-logical samples.
The Coordinating Centre staff are experts at man-aging and processing the biological material and advise and assist researchers on issues arising from the use of the Danish Biobank Register and the physical Biobank.
Denmark’s system of committees on health re-search ethics will assess all research projects be-fore they permit the biological material from an individual to be retrieved from a Danish biobank.
The Danish Biobank Register is available online for researchers worldwide. Dispensing of biological samples from the physical Biobank requires collab-oration with a Danish research institution.
Other contributors to establishing the Biobank include Denmark’s Ministry of Higher Education and Science and the Lundbeck Foundation.
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
persons 21men 8Women 13
robots 11
staff
12
Taming
sTEM cELLs
The Novo Nordisk FouNdaTioN seCTioN For BasiC sTeM CeLL BioLogy
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13
staff
nnf funding DKK 585 million (€78.4 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 serupfields of research pancreas and beta cell development, endodermal organogenesis and regeneration, pluripotent stem cell biology, pancreatic cancer, 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.
total 118men 48Women 70 research staff recruited abroad 51
associate professors
professors assistant professors
postDocs phD stUDents
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 Biosus-tainability is the world’s first interdisciplinary re-search centre within biosustainability.
The Center’s ambition is to develop knowledge and technologies promoting the transformation from oil-based chemical industry into more sustainable biobased industry that meets the needs of soci-ety for chemicals and pharmaceuticals manufac-tured using specifically designed cell cultures: cell factories.
The Center’s research focuses on obtaining the knowledge and technologies required to design and construct advanced cell factories capable of converting low-value carbon sources to high-value chemical compounds and proteins in a more sust-
ainable, cost-effective manner than today and thus improve the competitiveness of biobased produc-tion.
The Center collaborates with the world’s leading researchers within this field and has established strategic alliances with universities in the United States, Sweden, South Korea and Denmark.
Innovation is a high priority at the Center, and it therefore collaborates with biotechnology compa-nies and the chemical industry to enhance knowl-edge sharing and the application of the Center’s results. To emphasize educating and developing talent within biosustainability, the Center has im-plemented a PhD programme to train future re-searchers 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
total 235men 143Women 92 research staff recruited abroad 82
assistant professors
professors senior professors
postDocs phD stUDents
aDmin.staff
tech. staff
other
11 1 20 71 53 19 32 28
nnf funding DKK 1.11 billion (€148.3 million)current funding period 2011-2020host institution Technical University of Denmarkceo Bernhard Palssonscientific directors Bernhard Palsson, Jens Nielsen, Henrik Clausen, Jay Keasling, Søren Molin, Mathias Uhlén, Sang Yup Leefields of research Cell factory design, metabolic engineering, genome scale modelling, synthetic biology, biochemicals, therapeutic proteins
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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.
In addition to the centre cluster, the Foundation has given priority to awarding grants to a number of ambitious projects with a specific theme. The broad range of fields covers research, educational and communication projects with each project receiv-ing funding for up to 5 years.
The Foundation also annually awards numerous grants for research projects, scholarships and investigator programmes, including the Novo Nordisk Foundation Laureate Research Grants of DKK 40 million over 7 years.
Grants for research are awarded based on expert assessment of the applications received. The Board of the Foundation sets the rules of procedure and the annual framework for each grant category.
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 generat-ing 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
sWEDEn
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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
