Novo Nordisk Foundation Center For Genomic Mechanisms of Disease at Broad Institute
The Novo Nordisk Foundation and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard launch of the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Genomic Mechanisms of Disease, an initiative that will accelerate efforts to mine genetic data for insights into disease mechanisms—and eventually rationally designed treatments.
Based at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, MA, and supported by a grant of up to $47.5 million from the Foundation, the Center will generate systematic datasets that will help researchers around the world understand how human genetic variants affect risk for common complex diseases. All datasets will be shared freely with the research community. A key activity of the Center is to launch and facilitate close collaborations between the Broad Institute and researchers at Danish universities, with initial focus on understanding type 2 diabetes and obesity and mapping human gene regulation. The Center will align with existing international efforts, sharing data, methodology, and tools to contribute to the roadmap of the International Common Disease Alliance, and working in common cause with investigators from other large-scale efforts such as the Accelerating Medicines Partnership in Common Metabolic Diseases and the Impact of Genomic Variation on Function consortia.
The research collaboration of the Center aims to advance patient-centered research and precision medicine. The Center will establish an exchange program to provide opportunities for Danish scientists to study genomic technologies at the Broad Institute. In turn, these collaborations will catalyze and contribute to expanding biomedical research in Denmark.
The new center will be directed by Broad Institute associate member Kasper Lage, who is also an associate professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School; director of bioinformatics of the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Surgery; and lead scientist at the Institute for Biological Psychiatry, Mental Health Services, Capital Region of Denmark.
Research will be carried out at the Broad Institute and at Danish institutions, with exchange of scientists and dedicated training programmes for Danish researchers.
The Center will also help nourish and develop the next generation of talented researchers.
Initially, the Novo Nordisk Foundation has committed itself for a five-year period (2021-2026), with the possibility of extending its support of the centre.
For more information about contact or involved principal investigators from Broad Institute and Danish research Institutions, please visit the center website (external): Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Genomic Mechanisms of Disease | Broad Institute.
Danish popular science medium Videnskab.dk has published an article about the center and its basic challenge (external link in Danish): https://videnskab.dk/forskerzonen/krop-sundhed/problemer-med-at-taende-og-slukke-for-gener-er-kilden-til-mange-arvelige-sygdomme.