On Thursday 15 May 2014, a Luxembourg delegation led by HRH Crown Prince Guillaume and Etienne Schneider, Minister of the Economy, visited the J. David Gladstone Institute located in the Mission Bay district of San Francisco.

The occasion for this visit was a recently established partnership between the Gladstone Institutes and the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB), as part of which two LCSB researchers, Dr Gabriela Novak and Dr Siddharth Samsi, joined in early 2014 the Gladstone Institutes for a two-year fellowship. The two and their Gladstone colleagues will focus on the development of new research platforms, approaches and tools.

Dr Novak’s main goal consists in developing an iPSC platform using cell reprogramming techniques developed at the Gladstone, and for which its investigator Shinya Yamanaka won the ‘2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine’. Using complementary microscopy tools, Novak also aims to develop novel approaches for the identification of treatment targets for Parkinson’s disease.

Dr Samsi’s main challenge while at the Gladstone consists in the setup of a highly automated microscopy platform for cellular imaging and in the development of new image analysis tools for Parkinson’s disease.

Dr Finkbeiner expressed his hopes for an expansion of the strategic alliance between the two institutes, be it through the pursuit of joint Academia/Industry partnerships that span Europe and the US, or through a truly transformative joint research programme using iPSC technologies and a systems biology approach.

“I am aware that among all the sectors that the Luxembourg Government promotes, Biomedicine is the one that will require the most time and financial support before it can flourish.  However, I very much appreciate how partnerships between groups that have complimentary areas of expertise in one field of research, will be instrumental in accelerating biomedical findings.

I therefore fully support the collaboration between the Gladstone Institutes and Luxembourg’s LCSB and encourage them to further expand their relationship going forward”, concluded Etienne Schneider.

Photo from left: Dr Siddharth Samsi, Crown Prince Guillaume, Dr Gabriela Novak and Etienne Schneider, © LCSB