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

WEBINAR: Lecture series Infection & Immunity: "Ageing immunity may exacerbate COVID-19"- Prof Arne Akbar

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.

Max Meyrath, Dr Andy Chevigné and Dr Martyna Szpakowska from the Immuno-Pharmacology and Interactomics research group of the Department of Infection and Immunity (DII) published a book chapter on cancer signalling, in collaboration with international partners. The scientific publication, which was released in February 2020 in Advances in Cancer Research, reviews the roles of atypical chemokine receptors (ACKRs) in the different phases of cancer development, progression and metastasis, their clinical relevance, as well as their implications for cancer therapy.