Monday, May 27, was a day for celebration at SDU. Auditorium O100 was the site of the official inauguration and opening Symposium for ADIPOSIGN.
The center is funded with 60 million DKK from Novo Nordisk Foundation over the next six years. It is shared between The University of Southern Denmark (SDU), MRC LMB Cambridge University, UK and The University of Copenhagen (KU).
ADIPOSIGN is among others anchored at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Faculty of Natural Science, SDU.
The Inauguration opened with a short welcome by the head of ADIPOSIGN, Prof. Susanne Mandrup. After that, The Dean of the Faculty of Science, Marianne Holmer emphasized the importance for the faculty with a center like ADIPOSIGN - that brings together talented researchers from different universities and from abroad.
Head of the department, Jakob Møller-Jensen also said a few words. In his speech he told a nice story about the joy prof. Mandrup shared, the day she realized she received the founding for the center.
The 3 Co-founders also talked about their research. Besides the Director, prof. Mandrup, the 3 PIs are Prof. Jan-Wilhelm Kornfeld from the department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology - SDU, Prof. M. Madan Babu, program leader, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge University and Associate Professor, Zach Gerhart-Hines from Center for Basic Metabolic Research, University of Copenhagen.
One of the goals for the center is to understand how the signaling states of adipocytes depend on depot, gender and genetic variation, and how changes in these signaling states during development of obesity contribute to the pathophysiological consequences of obesity.
The inauguration was followed by a well-attended reception and a Symposium.
