Novo Nordisk Foundation

Next week, the Novo Nordisk Foundation will participate in the World Health Summit Regional Meeting 2026 in Nairobi, Kenya, centred on the theme “Reimagining Africa’s Health Systems: Innovation, Integration and Interdependence.”   As we expand our engagement in health across East Africa, this meeting is an important opportunity to connect with leaders, experts and strategic partners - and to consider how our philanthropic priorities can contribute meaningfully amid shifts in the global health architecture.   The Foundation will be well represented across the programme, with contributions on integrating cardiometabolic prevention and care into primary health care, health professionals’ education as well as health financing and systems strengthening.   Our health directors will speak at eight sessions, including two health workforce events co-hosted with WHO Kenya and Amref Health Africa.   Looking forward to three days of constructive dialogue, collaboration and knowledge exchange in Nairobi.   See the full programme on WHS’s website: https://lnkd.in/eeedu9m7

Last chance to sign up for the Novonesis Biotechnology Prize Lecture on 23 April 2026.

PCOS raises the risk of heart disease by 30%, even in women of normal weight. A large Nordic study of more than 127,000 women shows that polycystic ovary syndrome is linked to significantly higher rates of heart attacks, strokes and blood clots, regardless of obesity or type 2 diabetes. PCOS is often treated as a reproductive condition. This research shows it is also a long‑term cardiometabolic risk that can build quietly, even when BMI looks reassuring. The research was supported in part by the Novo Nordisk Foundation. #CardiometabolicDisease #WomensHealth #PCOS #CardiovascularRisk https://lnkd.in/eMhxB5G3

Why do most people regain weight after losing it? The answer may lie in the memory of their fat cells. New research published in Nature suggests that adipocytes, the cells that store fat, may retain an epigenetic memory of obesity even after significant weight loss. In experiments with mice, animals that had previously been obese regained weight far more quickly than those that had never been obese, once placed back on a high-calorie diet. Despite losing weight, the fat cells continued to behave as if they were still in an obese state, absorbing fat and glucose more readily than cells with no prior history of obesity. The researchers also examined fat tissue from people who had undergone bariatric surgery twice, two years apart. This rare opportunity to study the same tissue before and after substantial weight loss showed that many genes dysregulated by obesity remained dysregulated even after the weight had gone. The findings point toward prevention as a priority, but also open a new line of inquiry: whether weight-loss medications affect the epigenetics of fat cells, and whether the cellular memory might eventually be reversed. As Ferdinand von Meyenn of ETH Zürich, who led the research, explains: "The findings indicate that combatting obesity globally may require focusing on prevention, ensuring that individuals never have obesity in the first place." The research was supported in part by the Novo Nordisk Foundation and published in Nature, "Adipose tissue retains an epigenetic memory of obesity after weight loss". #CardiometabolicDiseases #Obesity #Metabolism #PublicHealth Note: This video is AI-generated.

Your waist could warn about liver disease long before the scales do. New research published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society found that the ratio of waist circumference to height, a simple measurement requiring nothing more than a tape measure, is between three and six times more sensitive at detecting fatty liver disease than the body mass index. In a study of around 6,500 ethnically diverse people in the United States, people with signs of liver steatosis detected by ultrasound were far more likely to be flagged using the waist-to-height ratio than using BMI alone. More than one in three adults already has early liver disease, and most of them do not know it. Fatty liver disease often causes no symptoms until it has progressed to serious liver damage, so early detection matters. Unlike expensive imaging equipment, a tape measure is available in every clinic. As Andrew Agbaje of the University of Eastern Finland, who led the research, puts it: "People can stand on the scale and their weight appears to be normal. But their liver is already being damaged." The research was supported in part by the Novo Nordisk Foundation and published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society, "Novel Pediatric Waist-to-height Ratio Fat Mass Cutoff Predicts Liver Steatosis and Fibrosis Better than Body Mass Index: The NHANES". #CardiometabolicDiseases #LiverHealth #PublicHealth #Nutrition Note: This video is AI-generated.

Developing type 2 diabetes before the age of 50 can accelerate cardiovascular risk by a decade or more. A study of more than 530,000 people in Denmark has found that the age at which someone is diagnosed with type 2 diabetes matters significantly for their cardiovascular outlook. People diagnosed under 50 face a considerably higher relative risk of heart attack, stroke or cardiovascular death in the following 10 years than those diagnosed later in life, for whom the additional risk is much smaller. The finding has direct implications for how doctors treat younger patients. Current guidelines are hesitant on preventive drug treatment for this group, yet the data suggest they stand to gain the most from early intervention, given their higher relative risk and longer life expectancy. The study found that only one in five men with type 2 diabetes under 40 received statins. As Christine Gyldenkerne of Aarhus University, who led the research, puts it: "The youngest people have the highest relative risk and the longest life expectancy and therefore benefit the most in the long term from well-documented preventive measures such as drugs that lower cholesterol and blood pressure." The research was supported in part by the Novo Nordisk Foundation and published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, "10-year cardiovascular risk in patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus". #CardiovascularHealth #Diabetes #PublicHealth Note: This video is AI-generated.

People with mental disorders die, on average, 5 to 15 years earlier than the rest of the population. That gap has been known for some time. What has been less clear is why. A new study involving 17 million individuals in Denmark and Sweden has now begun to answer that question by quantifying how much of the link between mental and cardiometabolic disorders is driven by genetics, and how much by the environment. The findings are not uniform, and that is precisely the point. For ADHD, genetics accounts for up to half of the increased risk of developing conditions such as type 2 diabetes or heart disease. For autism, the same associations appear to be driven almost entirely by environmental factors. Schizophrenia, despite being the mental disorder most associated with cardiometabolic comorbidity and reduced life expectancy, showed almost no genetic overlap with those conditions, a result the researchers describe as surprising. The distinction matters clinically. A patient with a mental disorder and elevated cardiometabolic risk may need genetic counselling, a different medication, support with lifestyle, or some combination. Knowing which factors are at work changes what a doctor can usefully do. The research was supported in part by a Laureate Grant Award from the Novo Nordisk Foundation and published in Nature Communications, "Quantifying the relative importance of genetics and environment on the comorbidity between mental and cardiometabolic disorders using 17 million Scandinavians". #CardiometabolicDiseases #MentalHealth #Genetics #GlobalHealth Note: This video is AI-generated.

A school lunch could save more than a million lives a year. That is the estimate from a global modelling study involving more than 1,400 researchers and doctors from 130 countries, supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation. If every child received at least one healthy, sustainable school meal per day by 2030, more than 1 million deaths from noncommunicable diseases such as heart disease and diabetes could be avoided annually in the current generation of children alone. The habits we form around food in childhood tend to stay with us. Children who grow up eating unhealthily are more likely to develop cardiometabolic diseases later in life: heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity. Conditions that are now among the leading causes of early death worldwide. As Professor Donald Bundy of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine puts it: "What we do in our early years at school stays with us for the rest of our lives. What we eat affects our health throughout life and it also affects the health of the planet." It is not the most obvious place to look for a public health breakthrough. But the evidence points there. "The health, environmental, and cost implications of providing healthy and sustainable school meals for every child by 2030: a global modelling study" has been published in The Lancet Planetary Health. #GlobalHealth #PublicHealth #Nutrition #SchoolMeals Note: This video is AI-generated.

What if your body could signal the risk of disease decades before symptoms appear? Researchers have identified specific molecules in the blood that can reveal a person’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes - up to 26 years before diagnosis. The findings suggest that long before blood sugar levels become abnormal, subtle metabolic changes are already unfolding in the body. These early signals are invisible in standard tests, but detectable when looking at the right molecular patterns. This opens a new window into disease development - and potentially into prevention. If risk can be identified decades in advance, it raises the possibility of intervening much earlier, when the disease process may still be reversible. The study also underscores a broader shift in medicine: moving from detecting disease to detecting risk. Read the full article on ScienceNews - a platform providing articles, videos, and podcasts from the world of research. All content is based on research or researchers supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation. #ScienceNewsdk #Diabetes #Metabolism #PreventiveMedicine #PublicHealth

New companies are often a good indication of research and innovation coming to fruition. Explore more outcomes from our work in our 2025 Year in Review: https://lnkd.in/e9kaNj3Z