DREAM officially opened: New hope for patients with chronic skin diseases
On Monday, February 2nd, Health celebrated the opening of the research center DREAM, which will investigate, among other things, why some skin patients develop serious complications while others do not.
The auditorium at Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies was well filled when Dean Anne-Mette Hvas welcomed attendees on Monday afternoon to the official opening of the research center DREAM.
Between 600,000 and 700,000 Danes live with chronic inflammatory diseases that can affect multiple organs. For some psoriasis patients, the disease spreads to joints and intestines – for others, it remains in the skin. But why?
This is one of the central questions that researchers at DREAM will investigate in an initial two-year pilot project funded by the Leo Foundation.
"DREAM was born from the belief that complex problems require complex solutions – solutions that cannot be found within the four walls of a single discipline, but which emerge when different disciplines connect, communicate, and create together," said Anne-Mette Hvas during her opening speech.
Focused collaboration
The center brings together researchers in dermatology, rheumatology, gastroenterology, molecular biology, and biomedicine in a collaboration between Health, Faculty of Natural Sciences, and Aarhus University Hospital.
At the symposium, researchers from DREAM had the opportunity to present their projects, and Lars Fogt Werner, director of the Danish Psoriasis Association, explained how the project offers new hope for better treatment and improved quality of life for the many patients.
Professor Christian Vestergaard from the Department of Clinical Medicine, who together with Associate Professor Søren Egedal Degn will lead DREAM, emphasized that the purpose of the center is to break research out of silos – collaboration is the key to progress.
"We need a sharp focus. If you try to investigate everything at once, you end up understanding nothing. The key is the depth of collaboration, not just the breadth," he said.
A dream team with ambitious goals
Anne-Mette Hvas fremhævede Søren Egedal Degn og Christian Vestergaard i sin tale før symposiet.
”Jeres energi og engagement har været afgørende for at bringe dette center til live. Sammen med de andre fremragende forskere fra både Health og Natural Sciences udgør i et drømmehold.”
DREAMs pilotfase løber til september 2027. De første resultater forventes om halvandet år.