24 January 2012 - Danish Novo Nordisk A/S (CPH:NOVO B) said on Monday it plans to open a Type 1 diabetes R&D centre in Seattle, Washington.

Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen, Novo Nordisk executive vice president and chief science officer, said that with the new facility, the company hopes to speed up the process of finding new, innovative ways of treating diabetes.

The Novo Nordisk Type 1 Diabetes R&D Center will employ a translational research approach, combining basic research and early proof-of-concept trials. This will give the facility the necessary scientific foundation to move early-stage discovery projects rapidly from animal models into small clinical exploratory trials in Type 1 diabetes.

Matthias von Herrath, MD, has been appointed as head of the new research center. Dr von Herrath, an internationally-recognised researcher in autoimmune diseases, received the American Diabetes Association Outstanding Achievement Award in 2008. He is currently director of the Center for Type 1 Diabetes Research at La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology.

The new centre, scheduled to open during the summer, will have some 20 researchers. The facility will be located on the same premises as the Novo Nordisk Inflammation Research Center in order to promote research synergies between the two sites.