Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH)
Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH)
Core business
The Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH) is a public biomedical research organisation. Striving for excellence, its researchers, by their creativity, enthusiasm and commitment, generate knowledge on disease mechanisms and contribute to the development of new diagnostics, preventive strategies, innovative therapies and clinical applications that impact the healthcare of Luxembourgish and European citizens. The activities of the Luxembourg Institute of Health are developed within the following research areas: Oncology, Infection and Immunity, and Population Health.At the forefront of biomedical sciences, LIH is deeply involved in implementing national and international research programmes in personalised medicine. It acts as a catalyst for promoting research collaborations with healthcare providers, hospitals and other public and private biomedical organisations. To create economic and societal value, a strong focus is on scientific discoveries and technologic developments. As the prime supplier of public health information in Luxembourg, it also enables public authorities to make decisions based on scientific data and to communicate validated data to international institutions.
LIH hosts a large number of trainees, Master students and PhD candidates, affiliated to the University of Luxembourg or to foreign partner universities, as well as postdoctoral scientists specialising themselves in a given research domain. Modern infrastructures, state-of-the-art technologies, trainings and a stimulating work environment are as many elements guaranteeing quality supervision for these young scientists starting their career.
Products & services
The research departments of LIH offer expertise and capabilities from which other public research institutions or private partners (e.g. biotech SMEs and pharma companies) can take advantage in their R&D projects. Specific know-how and IPR assets, among others patents, can be made available by the research departments to address fundamental or more applied questions related to their research domains (see section on Major Projects for details). LIH also provides key customised services including:- support for conducting clinical trials and epidemiological studies in Luxembourg;
- statistical and methodological advice for the design of R&D projects and clinical studies;
- access to a specific pathogen-free animal facility for rodents and biosafety level 3 laboratory of 400 m2;
- assistance with confocal microscopy: sample preparation, labelling, microscope operation, image acquisition and analysis including 3D reconstruction and animation;
- assistance with analytical, preparative and high-throughput cytometry: experimental design, cell sorting (FACSAria and FACS-Influx), data acquisition and multiparameter analysis (FACS-Fortessa and FACSCanto-up to 18 parameters), and Mass Cytometry (CyTOF-2);
- assistance with microarrays, qPCR arrays and NGS: experimental design, extraction, quality control and processing of DNA and RNA samples, microarray development, analysis and interpretation of data;
- assistance with the identification of biomarkers of environmental exposure of humans to pollutants in biological samples, including hair: experimental design, MS/MS analyses and data interpretation;
- assistance with the identification of proteomics-based biomarkers for the diagnosis and/or prognosis of cancers: clinical sample processing, design and performance of high throughput analyses.
Major HealthTech projects
Research projects at LIH aim to decipher the mechanisms underlying the development of diseases in order to contribute to the definition of better preventive measures, diagnostic tools and therapeutic solutions. These projects cover mainly the discovery and/or evaluation of:- biomarkers for the diagnosis or prognosis of cardiovascular diseases, lung cancer and allergic diseases;
- animal allergens for the diagnosis of patient sensitisation to food and respiratory allergens;
- anti-cancer activities of medicinal plant compounds;
- therapeutic targets and strategies against cancers such as gliomas and hematological diseases; and
- molecules, including peptides, with antiviral potential.
They also encompass the development of innovative:
- conjugate vaccines against viruses;
- resistance and viral tropism tests for HIV and HCV;
- surface plasmon resonance assays for measuring receptor-ligand interactions;
- multiparameter flow cytometry assays for the phenotypic characterisation of NK or cancer cells;
- bioinformatic tools and softwares for sequence and/or pathways analyses, data processing and/or data mining, data management in public health; and
- clinically-relevant animal models for the investigation and/or evaluation of new therapies.
Main customers / collaborations
To face the challenges associated with translational research in biomedicine, LIH has developed strong collaborations with local and international leading institutions.The main Luxembourg-based partners that contribute to our impact at a local level are the Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg, the Integrated Biobank of Luxembourg, the University of Luxembourg and the Luxembourg Center for Systems Biomedicine.
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