In February, the LCSB has been involved in two scientific delegations abroad: 25 February-1 March to Québec , Canada and 26 February – 2 March to Omsk, Russia.
Mission to Québec
Between 25 February and 1 March, a scientific delegation from the University of Luxembourg, the country’s public research centres and the Luxembourg National Research Fund, went on a mission to Québec. The aim of the visit was to strengthen the cooperation and expand research collaborations between the universities from Luxembourg and the French-speaking Canadian province in the fields of health, life sciences and biomedicine; data science and artificial intelligence; law, modern history and education sciences.
The delegation from the University was led by rector Prof Stephane Pallage and included representatives from its three faculties as well as its interdisciplinary research centres. Representing the LCSB, was Paul Wilmes, PI of the Eco-Systems Biology group.
Québec is host to excellent research universities and research institutes. This visit was a great opportunity to get an insight into their research priorities on big data and AI. Importantly, the visit provided a stepping stone for the LCSB to explore future collaborations”, said Paul Wilmes. As part of the delegation, he visited several universities and research centers in Quebec, and gave a talk at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital on “Systems Ecology of The Microbiome-gut-brain Axis: The Example of Parkinson’s Disease”.
Visiting the Omsk State Medical University
Between 26 February and 3 March, Rudi Balling, Rejko Krüger, Reinhard Schneider and Venkata Satagopam, were invited to take part in the “Systems Biomedicine of Parkinson’s Disease: complex analysis of fundamental and applied aspects” conference organised by the Omsk State Medical University in Russia.
Also in this Siberian mission, the researchers aimed strengthen and develop LCSB’s current collaboration ties with Omsk State Medical University, as well as possible future collaborations. During the conference, the LCSB delegation gave talks on the way the LCSB manages and analyses clinical and translational data, and about Parkinson’s disease research in Luxembourg.
“Since our first meeting in Luxembourg our partners from Omsk State Medical University substantially advanced on our collaborative project with the LCSB, particularly in the field of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease. They already recruited more than 150 Parkinson’s patients from the region according to our shared protocol, which in collaboration will allow us to validate our NCER-PD findings in PD cohorts from Russia and vice versa.”., said Rejko Krüger, coordinator of the Luxembourg Parkinson Study.