On Thursday 16 and Friday 17 October 2025, the National Centre of Excellence in Research on Parkinson’s Disease (NCER-PD) marked its ten-year anniversary with a conference at the Maison du Savoir in Esch-Belval.

According to the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH), the event brought together international researchers under the theme “Advancing from Precision-Medicine towards Prevention in Parkinson’s disease,” highlighting a decade of progress in research, clinical practice and community engagement.

Luxembourg’s Minister for Research and Higher Education Dr Stéphanie Obertin opened the meeting on Thursday, and Luxembourg’s Minister of Health and Social Security Martine Deprez is scheduled to address participants on Friday, underlining NCER-PD’s role in national efforts on care, prevention and research.

The programme featured talks by Prof Nobutaka Hattori (Juntendo University/RIKEN, Japan) on biomarkers and early diagnosis, Prof Roger Barker (University of Cambridge, UK) on the outlook for cell-based therapies and Prof Andrew Singleton (Global Parkinson’s Genetics Program, US) on global genetic findings; a session showcasing young researchers was dedicated to Prof Rudi Balling, NCER-PD’s founding coordinator.

Backed by the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR), NCER-PD pools the LIH and its Integrated BioBank of Luxembourg (IBBL), the University of Luxembourg’s Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB), the Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg (CHL) and the Laboratoire National de Santé (LNS), which together have built international cohorts of people with Parkinson’s, at-risk groups and volunteers to advance biomarker discovery and understanding of neurodegenerative mechanisms, LIH noted.

“NCER-PD has grown into a strong and exemplary alliance of translational research and clinical care for Luxembourg and beyond. Looking ahead, we will continue to develop disease-modifying therapeutics and focus on personalised prevention, putting people with Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative diseases at the centre of our work,” said Prof Rejko Krüger, Coordinator of NCER-PD. 

The conference also acknowledged the contribution of more than 20,000 study participants over the past decade.