The Novo Nordisk Foundation and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard announced the 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.
"With its leading universities and hospitals, Boston is renowned as an international epicenter for biomedical research and innovation—and the Broad Institute has earned a reputation of being a key nexus in this rich ecosystem," said Niels-Henrik von-Holstein-Rathlou, senior vice president, biomedicine and health sciences, the Novo Nordisk Foundation. "By establishing this new center with the Broad Institute, we seek to help drive global research in health for the benefit of many."
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