Over the last five years, researchers in Denmark and at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Boston, USA, have been working together to investigate the genetic mechanisms behind obesity and type 2 diabetes, both major and growing health challenges worldwide.
The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Genomic Mechanisms of Disease at the Broad Institute was established with a grant from the Novo Nordisk Foundation in 2021 – and the Foundation is now granting a further USD 53 million for the next five years.
In this interview, the Foundation’s head of Biomedical Research, Tanja Xenia Pedersen, reflects on the centre’s achievements so far and the opportunities ahead.
The centre was established to better understand the biology behind obesity and type 2 diabetes. Why is that such an important scientific challenge?
Obesity and type 2 diabetes are part of a group of conditions called cardiometabolic diseases, which account for one in three deaths globally. They are also incredibly complex diseases. We know that genetics plays an important role, but we don’t fully understand how the different genetic variants that increase someone’s risk of developing obesity or diabetes actually influence what happens in our cells. The centre is helping to bridge that gap.
The ultimate goal is to turn genetic discoveries into a better understanding of disease biology. That knowledge can help pave the way for more precise prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.
The centre is built around a partnership between Danish researchers and researchers at the Broad Institute in the US. What makes this collaboration so valuable?
Each side brings something different to the table. The Broad Institute is a world leader in genomics and technology development, with unique capabilities for analysing large amounts of data. Denmark, meanwhile, has world-class expertise in cardiometabolic disease research, as well as strong clinical data and patient cohorts. By bringing those strengths together, researchers can tackle questions that neither side could answer alone.
There’s also huge value in the broader exchange of knowledge and ideas facilitated by this partnership. The centre has created a scientific community that stretches across the Atlantic, enabling collaborations and connections that continue to generate new opportunities for research and innovation.
What has the centre demonstrated over its first five years?
It has demonstrated the power of collaboration across geographies and disciplines to tackle complex diseases.
One exciting example is a recent study that identified eight distinct genetic subtypes of obesity. Findings like these bring us closer to understanding why people experience disease differently and how treatments might one day be tailored more precisely to individual patients.
Researchers at the centre have also developed powerful new tools in genetics, cell biology, imaging, and AI that allow researchers to see how genetic changes affect real human cells and pinpoint the genes and cell types involved in obesity and diabetes.
How has the centre created value for the wider research and innovation ecosystem?
One of the things I’m most pleased about is that the benefits extend far beyond the researchers directly involved. New technologies and methods developed at the Broad Institute have been transferred to institutions in Denmark, helping to strengthen their research capabilities.
The partnership has also helped build connections between researchers, institutions, and innovation environments on both sides of the Atlantic. Through exchanges, training programmes, and collaborative projects, knowledge doesn’t stay in one place – it spreads through the broader ecosystem.
What’s particularly valuable is that the centre’s findings are shared openly. New knowledge, datasets, and methods are published and made available to the wider scientific community, meaning researchers everywhere can use and build on them.
And we’re now seeing some of the new knowledge translate into innovation. Two companies have been established based on research published by the centre, showing how long-term investment in research and collaboration can help create new opportunities for translating science into real-world impact.
What will be different in this next phase?
During the first phase, we saw that the Danish side of the collaboration was somewhat fragmented. We’re therefore creating a stronger anchor in Denmark in phase two, with benefits for the scientific community here and for the entire partnership.
Researchers in Denmark will take on co-leadership of the centre’s major research programmes and a new office in Denmark will strengthen coordination across the country’s partners.
We’re also strengthening the infrastructure and innovation side of the partnership. The centre plans to use Denmark’s Gefion supercomputer to support large-scale data analysis, while deeper collaboration with the BioInnovation Institute will create stronger pathways for translating promising research into real-world applications.
Another shift is that the scientific programme will become more focused. Building on the knowledge and tools developed during the first phase, researchers will home in on two cell types that play key roles in obesity and type 2 diabetes: fat cells and hypothalamic neurons in the brain.
They aim to generate hundreds of millions of detailed cell profiles and use AI to better understand how genetic variants influence the behaviour of cells and tissues. This could lead to new opportunities for more precise and more effective treatments.
What does success look like five to ten years from now?
I hope we will look back and see that the centre helped unlock new understanding of the biological mechanisms behind obesity and type 2 diabetes, and that those insights opened up new possibilities for prevention and treatment.
I also hope we will see that the centre’s impact extended beyond the science itself. One of its greatest strengths is the way it connects people and ideas across institutions and continents. If, ten years from now, that exchange continues to generate new discoveries, new collaborations, and new opportunities for researchers on both sides of the Atlantic, then I would consider that a major success.
