Thanks to a generous donation from the André et Henriette Losch Foundation, in future it will be easier for Parkinson’s patients to participate in the Luxembourg Parkinson’s study. The study is part of the NCER programme, launched by the FNR in 2015.
André Losch, Chairman of the foundation, handed the keys of the new “NCER-PD Flying Team” van to the clinical research team of the National Centre of Excellence in Research on Parkinson’s Disease (NCER-PD). The research team received its own vehicle, specially equipped with a complete study centre.
Bringing Luxembourg Parkinson’s research to the patients
“We highly appreciate the generous support”, said Prof. Dr. Rudi Balling, Director of the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) of the University of Luxembourg and coordinator of the NCER-PD research programme, during his acceptance speech. He added: “This new vehicle enables us to bring Luxembourg Parkinson’s research directly to the patients.”
The NCER-PD research programme, which was launched by the FNR in 2015, set itself the task of developing new ways of early diagnosis and better treatment methods for Parkinson’s disease.
Patients and healthy control subjects from Luxembourg and the Greater Region are invited to take part in the study.
“A high level of patient participation is key for the success of the study. But we don’t want our patients to have to make a long journey to the Parkinson’s research clinic, which is why we wanted to offer participation closer to home”, explained Prof. Dr. Rejko Krüger, who leads the clinical part of the study as neurologist at the Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg and is a researcher at the University of Luxembourg. Thanks to the André et Henriette Losch Foundation, this hurdle can be overcome.
Special design to store samples during transport
In the future, patients can be examined closer to home, for example, in cooperation with various hospitals and nursing homes in Luxembourg and in the Greater Region or at the premises of patient associations. Here, a neurologist and a neuropsychologist of the NCER-PD Flying Team carry out the examinations and collect blood, urine, and saliva samples, which are then prepared and stored at the Integrated Biobank of Luxembourg (IBBL) for the research programme.
It is particularly important that the samples are correctly stored during transport. The special design of the donated vehicle helps with this. “With the specially designed mobile study centre in a Volkswagen Caravelle, we can contribute to quality assurance. We are delighted to be able to support clinical research in Luxembourg,” concluded André Losch.
More information
Visit the www.parkinson.lu website