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.

The LIH Department of Oncology (DONC), in collaboration with several internal, national and international partners, discovered a set of six proteins circulating in the blood stream which can successfully act as biomarkers for the diagnosis of lung cancer at different stages of the disease, including early-stage tumours.

Lyon, France, and Luxembourg, July 1, 2020 – Advanced BioDesign, a French biotechnology company specializing in the development of innovative therapies for resistant forms of cancer, and the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH), a public biomedical research institute, announce today a partnership to embark on a collaborative research program.

The Large Scale Testing COVID-19, developed by Research Luxembourg’s COVID-19 Task Force and led by the Luxembourg Institute of Health is ongoing and will continue until 28 July 2020.. Residents and cross-border workers are still encouraged to participate voluntarily and Say #AAAH.

Researchers at the Department of Infection and Immunity of the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH) developed LIH383, a novel molecule that binds to and blocks a previously unknown opioid receptor in the brain, thereby modulating the levels of opioid peptides produced in the central nervous system (CNS) and potentiating their natural painkilling and antidepressant properties. Opioid peptides are small proteins that act as neuromodulators by interacting with four ‘classical’ opioid receptors on the surface of CNS cells, playing a key role in mediating pain relief but also emotions such as euphoria, anxiety, stress and depression.

Starting on 15 June, Prof. Dirk Brenner is appointed as joint Professor in Immunology & Genetics at both the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) of the University of Luxembourg and the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH). This new position will reinforce the already very dynamic immunology research in Luxembourg and develop synergies between the two institutions.

As the first pandemic in the digital era, COVID-19 has created an urgent need for coordinated mechanisms to respond to the outbreak across health sectors.

Dr. Torsten Bohn, leader of the Nutrition and Health Research Group at the LIH Department of Population Health (DoPH), together with co-first authors Mohammed Iddir (PhD Student) and Dr. Alex Brito, recently published an article reviewing the importance of an optimal status of specific nutrients and additional dietary constituents to effectively aid in controlling inflammation and oxidative stress, thereby strengthening the immune system during the COVID-19 crisis.