Hypoxia, a decrease in the oxygen pressure, is a major factor developed in the microenvironment of all solid tumors. Tumor cells are able to adapt to hypoxic stress by activating multiple resistance mechanisms, which collectively contribute to the failure of conventional cancer treatments, such as chemo and radiation therapy. However, data underlining the tangible impact of hypoxia on the efficacy of immunotherapy are still missing.

On Monday, September 14th, the Minister of Higher Education and Research, Claude Meisch, the Minister of Health, Paulette Lenert, and the Research Luxembourg (RL) COVID-19 Task Force held a press conference in Dudelange to officially conclude the first phase of the large-scale testing, led by the Luxembourg Institute of Health together with the Research Luxembourg community. The operations of the second phase have been handed over to the Health Directorate of the Ministry of Health and will start mid-September.

Dr Guy Fagherazzi from the LIH Department of Population Health (DoPH) contributed to an international cohort study aiming to investigate the link between plasma vitamin C and carotenoids with the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

On Friday July 31st, the Luxembourg Tech School (LTS) granted the sum of EUR 1,000 to Prof Markus Ollert’s team at the Luxemburg Institute of Health (LIH), in support of the its COVID-19 vaccine development activities. The donation was made by two young students, who had been awarded the sum as the second prize of the LTS ‘GameDev Challenge 2020’.

The first phase of the COVID-19 large-scale testing campaign ended on Monday, July 27. By the end of the first phase, an almost full use of the testing capacity has been observed, with up to 16,000 tests performed per day.

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 4 Rotary Clubs of the Grand Duchy joined forces in support of Luxembourg’s research on the novel coronavirus, raising a special fund. The selected project is NEUTRACOV, led by Dr. Danielle Perez Bercoff at the LIH Department of Infection and Immunity (DII), which received a generous donation of EUR 30,000 from the Rotary Clubs on June 19th.

The Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH) and its Integrated Biobank of Luxembourg (IBBL) collaborated with the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) of the University of Luxembourg on the elucidation of the functional implications of gut microbiome alterations associated with Parkinson’s disease (PD).

Dr Ala’a Alkerwi from the LIH Department of Population Health contributed to a global public health study on cholesterol, which was published in Nature in June 2020. The paper brings forward a major global repositioning of lipid-related risk over the past four decades. Specifically, non-optimal cholesterol trends shifted from being a distinct feature of high-income western countries to being a significant burden in low- and middle-income nations. The study, led by Imperial College London, was conducted in the framework of the international Non-Communicable Diseases Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC). Luxembourg contributed with data generated from the national population-based study “ORISCAV-LUX” (Observation des Risques et de la Santé Cardiovasculaire au Luxembourg), which had been conducted in 2007-2008 on more than 1,400 residents with the aim of assessing cardiovascular health and risk factors in Luxembourg.

The NORLUX Neuro-Oncology Laboratory at the LIH Department of Oncology (DONC) recently contributed to PDXFinder, a global database of patient-derived tumour xenograft (PDX) mouse models. NORLUX’s collection of 40 models and associated data is now available to the international scientific community, further supporting the worldwide use of these key tools for translational oncology research.