Work on the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine’s (LCSB) new building, which is custom-designed to the needs of the most modern biomedicinal research, is steadily progressing.

On July 23rd 2010 at the campus in Esch-Belval, after a record time of only five months, the structural work was completed.

This achievement was hence celebrated with a traditional topping out ceremony. In addition to the architects, members of the construction companies, University representatives and LCSB members, the head of the ‘Life Science and Technologies Department’ of the Luxembourg Ministry of Economics, Patrizia Luchetta, was also present. “We are happy that the first building of the new ‘cité des sciences’ lies so perfectly within our time frame and can become by 2011 already, an outstanding centre for science in Luxembourg”, Luchetta said at the celebration. “In a few years, 80 biomedical scientists will do research on new strategies designed to defeat Parkinson’s disease. Being the first centre of the University at the new campus is a privilege to us. The LCSB feels very comfortable about leading the way”, Rudi Balling, director of the LCSB, explains. “The building, laying in the shadows of the historic hearth furnaces of Belval, will feature the most modern conditions for scientific work. We believe that the first scientists will be able to take up work here by the late summer of 2011 already”, Zino-Michael Hemgesberg, project manager at the LCSB, elucidates. Hemgesberg is perfectly familiar with the biomedical scientists’ needs and is responsible for coordinating the equipment in the laboratories.

After having completed the structural work, the large window areas are now being installed. The building will be closed before the cold season hits and afterwards the extensive interior works will be carried out. Setting up the rooms with the necessary laboratory equipment is scheduled for spring and summer 2011. In a few years, the campus in Esch-Belval will be the new central area of the expanding University of Luxembourg. The formation of an area that had been affected by the coal, iron and steel industry into a centre for science and culture, is one of the largest current structural development projects of the Luxembourg Government. The LCSB will be the first academic centre to move out of Luxembourg City and in to Esch-Belval, located in the south of the Grand Duchy.