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 Science Office (SO) represents the central unit in themanagement of the LIH research projects. The Administrative Project Coordinator(APC) will be key in the coordination of the workloads/tasks between theGroup leaders (GLs), project managers and various administrative services. He/shewill organize the flow of information between GLs, Scientific SteeringCommittee (SSC) members, Departmental Project Managers and administrativeservices to ensure smooth progression of research projects within the PLCManagement processes of the LIH.

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.

We are looking for a talented candidate to apply for a MarieSkłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Individual postdoctoral fellowship 2020. The interested candidate willsubmit an MSCA fellowship jointly with the‘Ecoimmunology & Microbiome Group’ headed by Prof. Mahesh S. Desai. Theresearch project will focus on the interactions between diet, the gutmicrobiome and colonic mucus in a neurodegenerative disease multiple sclerosis(MS). The project is based on the published work (Desai et al., Cell, 2016;Martens…Desai, Nature Reviews Microbiology, 2018) on the same topic andinvolves gnotobiotic mouse models, synthetic microbial communities, MS patientcohorts and key international collaborations in Europe, USA and Japan. Thepostdoc will participate in an exciting research program in an internationalresearch team with prior success with the MSCA applications. Scientific andprofessional guidance will be provided to submit the application for apostdoctoral fellowship that, if successful, could be initiated between spring2021 to early 2022. A 'bridge funding’ option may be available to start earlierin 2020 before the outcome of the fellowship application.

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.

National PhD Welcome Day 2020