University of Copenhagen Wins Novo Nordisk Grant to Build Proteomics Center

With a donation of DKK 600 million from the Novo Nordisk Foundation it will be possible to build a new centre for protein research at the University of Copenhagen, making Denmark’s capital a global hotbed for health science research, the University says.

The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research will be located at the Faculty of Health Sciences. After its opening in 2008, it will house 5 research groups consisting of leading Danish and international protein researchers and experts.

The researchers will have access to the most advanced laboratory facilities to study human proteins and their significance for health and disease.

“Thanks to this exceptional donation, we can boost research into what proteins look like and how they behave and interact in cells and tissues in healthy and sick people. This insight will provide entirely new opportunities to discover and develop new medicines, explains Professor Ulla Wewer, dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences.”

Wewer continued, “By mapping the structure and function of proteins in the healthy human body, we can gain a much better understanding of what goes wrong when you get a disorder and how diseases can be treated more effectively, for instance with tailored proteins as drugs.”