The Pioneer Centre for SMARTbiomed aims to revolutionize biomedical data analysis

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Aarhus UniversityAug 20 2024

Can research on diseases as diverse as, for example, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, psychiatric disorders and endometriosis be linked? The answer is yes if the research focuses on collecting and analysing large amounts of data from both Danish and international registers and biobanks to learn more about, among other things, risk factors, relationships, patterns, treatment and consequences.

And this is exactly what a new international Pioneer Centre, The Pioneer Centre for SMARTbiomed (Statistical and Computational Methods for Advanced Research to Transform Biomedicine), will do. The Pioneer Centre has three main objectives:

To bring together multidisciplinary research teams to develop new methods for analyzing biomedical data.

To develop data platforms and software for biomedical research that are based on real medical issues and that are easily applicable.

To establish an internationally leading learning and career environment in health data research.

Professor Naomi Wray, University of Oxford, will be head of the SMARTbiomed Pioneer Centre. Professor Wray will also take up a position at Aarhus University.

Collecting large amounts of biomedical data and using them to improve disease management requires both medical, statistical and computational approaches. SMARTbiomed will bring together a group of international researchers who know how to ask the right questions, who understand the complexity of data and who can translate it all into advanced treatment of diseases and disorders common in society."

Professor Naomi Wray, University of Oxford

SMARTbiomed is anchored at Aarhus University, and Rector Brian Bech Nielsen is pleased that the collaboration has been successfully established.

"Collecting and analysing health data at this scale is important for our understanding and treatment of diseases. This is why this new pioneering centre is a big step forward for international health research. I'm both happy and proud that Aarhus University is hosting this unique collaboration between three strong international universities," says Brian Bech Nielsen.

SMARTbiomed has become a reality on the initiative of the Ministry of Higher Education and Science and thanks to a total donation of DKK 250 million from the Lundbeck Foundation, the Novo Nordisk Foundation, the Villum Foundation, the Carlsberg Foundation, and the Danish National Research Foundation.

SMARTbiomed is another strong example of how a joint effort between public and private foundations can boost a basic research field, in this case benefiting a number of biomedical research areas. And we believe that we need to work across disciplines and national borders if we are to strengthen Danish research so we can solve complex global health problems."

Jan Egebjerg, Senior Vice President, Lundbeck Foundation

Facts:

Name of centre: The Pioneer Centre for Statistical and Computational Methods for Advanced Research to Transform Biomedicine (SMARTbiomed).

Collaboration between University of Oxford (OU), University of Copenhagen (KU) and Aarhus University (AU).

Based at: Aarhus University (National Centre for Register-based Research, School of Business and Social Sciences)

Management: Naomi Wray (centre director), University of Oxford and Aarhus University; Erin Gabriel, University of Copenhagen; Chris Holmes, University of Oxford; Peter Visscher, University of Oxford; Cecilia Lindgren, University of Oxford; Preben Bo Mortensen, Aarhus University; Bjarni Vilhjálmsson, Aarhus University.

Pioneer Centres are an ambitious national initiative initiated by the Ministry of Higher Education and Science. The centre is the result of close cooperation (and co-financing) between the Minister of Higher Education and Science, the Danish National Research Foundation, the Carlsberg Foundation, the Lundbeck Foundation, the Novo Nordisk Foundation, the Villum Foundation and universities in Denmark.