The Novo Nordisk Foundation and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have launched the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Genomic Mechanisms of Disease, an initiative that aims to 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 goal 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 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.”
 
Initially, the Novo Nordisk Foundation has committed itself for a five-year period (2021-2026), with the possibility of extending its support of the center.