DiaUnion

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Denmark and Sweden are among the countries with the highest incidence of type 1 diabetes. Every day, two children in Sweden are diagnosed and more than 50,000 citizens live with the disease. The figures are not very different in Denmark. In the Øresund region there are strong research skills in the area, and the project DiaUnion brings together these forces. The DiaUnion project is in line with the programme’s innovation strand. The project’s primary objective is to establish a strong and well-functioning research collaboration between the Öresund region’s best researchers in the field of autoimmune diabetes. Research can predict diabetes. The research collaboration will primarily be between Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen and Lund University, which will study changes in plasma metabolites and lipids in children with an increased genetic risk of type 1 diabetes and some children will be followed up to possible diagnosis of diabetes. Being able to predict the incidence of diabetes using metabolites is a major step forward in research in the field. However, the project’s priority is to develop a treatment that can slow down or keep the disease at rest. DiaUnion may be the basis for the creation of a future powerhouse in the field of research, prevention and treatment of autoimmune diabetes in the Medicon Valley based on cross-border collaborative efforts in the following (preliminary) areas: — Research and development (joint research projects, cooperation/access to research infrastructures, biobanks, registers and health data). — Cooperation between educational institutions (joint doctoral courses, research seminars, summer school for PhD students, career network for young researchers). — Development of new treatments (highly specialised treatments, possibility of patient mobility agreements between SE & DK). — Private-public partnership (cooperation between regions and industry, initiation of industrial PhD programme, establishment of Danish-Swedish industrial network, etc. Talent attraction campaigns and international investment promotion, etc.).

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