St Hilda's College
St Hilda’s College is proud to share the news that our Professorial Fellow in Neuroscience, Professor Naomi Wray, will be leading an exciting new initiative in medical data research. Professor Wray has been appointed as the Director of the newly established Pioneer Centre for SMARTbiomed (Statistical and Computational Methods for Advanced Research to Transform Biomedicine), a collaborative effort between Aarhus University, the University of Copenhagen, and the University of Oxford.
The SMARTbiomed Pioneer Centre aims to revolutionise the field of biomedical research by bringing together multidisciplinary teams to develop innovative methods for analysing large-scale health data. The Centre will focus on diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular conditions, psychiatric disorders, and endometriosis, leveraging data from both Danish and international registers and biobanks.
With a significant grant of DKK 250 million, the Centre will be based at Aarhus University, with hubs at the University of Oxford and the University of Copenhagen. The initiative, supported by leading Danish foundations, represents a major step forward in international health research, combining medical, statistical, and computational expertise to improve disease management and treatment.
Professor Wray will also take up a position at Aarhus University as part of this collaboration. She expressed her enthusiasm for the project, stating, “SMARTbiomed will bring together a group of international researchers who know how to ask the right questions, who understand the complexity of data, and who can translate it all into advanced treatment of diseases and disorders common in society.”
This ambitious project reflects the strength of collaborative efforts across disciplines and borders, aiming to establish an internationally leading environment for health data research. We congratulate Professor Wray on her leadership role in this groundbreaking initiative and look forward to the advancements that SMARTbiomed will bring to the field of biomedicine.