Metabolismecentret > About
About the Research Center
The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research will be established at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen and will employ between 150-200 scientists and technical staff.
Leading researchers on the international stage will be employed at the Center or will receive funding for their projects through the center's 885 million kroner donation.
With Copenhagen as its epicenter, The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research will work in close collaboration with research groups in the region as well as leading research groups from top-ranking universities in the USA, Europe, China and from around the world.
Scale of the Problem
We are in the midst of a World-wide epidemic of type 2 diabetes.
Globally, the increase in type 2 diabetes amounts to a growth from 246 million people in 2006 to over 380 million by 2025.
In a small country like Denmark, one out of 20 people suffer from diabetes, thereby imposing a tremendous human burden and a cost to the Danish society in the range of 20 billions of Danish kroner per year. The epidemic increase in type 2 diabetes is partly driven by sedentary lifestyles, which lead to a greater propensity for obesity that in predisposed individuals results in pre-diabetes, and ultimately type 2 diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes is manifested by insulin resistance in liver and skeletal muscle which leads to a progressive decline in insulin secretion from pancreatic beta-cells. Importantly, the strong heritability of type 2 diabetes makes it a most complex disease. Type 2 diabetes affects all organs of the body.
The disease is associated with microangiopathy making it the leading cause of blindness in working adults, the leading cause of end stage renal disease and the leading cause of non traumatic loss of limb. In addition it is associated with a 2-6-fold increased risk of myocardial infarction, stroke, and peripheral artery disease, as well as premature mortality.
Thus, on top of the individual sufferings, the socioeconomic impact of diabetes to society is enormous.
Effective methods to prevent or cure type 2 diabetes are unavailable. Also, current modalities have limited efficacy and have not been developed to target the individual patient. Therefore, future research at the genetic, molecular, and physiological levels is essential to dissect the complex causes and phenotypes associated with altered glucose metabolism and energy homeostasis in type 2 diabetes and obesity, as well as the accompanying severely increased risk of early-onset organ damage.
Research along these lines is projected to provide new opportunities for individualized prevention and treatment of these two common metabolic disorders, encompassing both tailored pharmacology and lifestyle modifications that have increased efficacy and with fewer side effects.
