Lifestyle related diseases threaten globally
Over the last 10-20 years, the number of cases of obesity and diabetes-2 has risen dramatically. The WHO considers obesity-related illnesses to be one of the world's biggest health problems. Obesity and diabetes-2 do not just reduce the quality of life but also dramatically increase the risk of serious health problems, such as cardiovascular diseases. The social and economic consequences of the obesity epidemic are therefore enormous.
Several researchers at the University of Copenhagen are now cooperating on a large-scale, cross-disciplinary research initiative called Food, Fitness and Farma in order to collect new information about the causes of lifestyle related diseases and to develop new methods of treating and preventing these illnesses.
Groundbreaking cooperation
Food, Fitness and Farma is being funded by a 5-year UNIK grant of 120 million kroner from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. UNIK grants were created in 2008 as a new instrument offered to Danish universities made available through open competition.
- "We're talking about a groundbreaking new form of cooperation where scientists from 17 departments and faculties work together in completely new synergy-promoting constellations and with cross-disciplinary angles of attack," said Thue W. Schwartz, professor of molecular pharmacology.
- "With this new cooperation, we can for instance focus on getting data from the socio-economic and food industry technology areas to interact with data from the biomedical areas, such as genetics, epidemiology, muscle physiology, pharmacology and liposuction," said Schwartz, who will lead the new research initiative.
The fruits of a successful merger