The LNS Technical Platform for Analytical Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, together with the Abrigado (the drug consumption room in Luxembourg City), investigated the chemical reactions taking place when heating heroin without the use of water prior to injection, commonly known as the “Turkish Method”.

Publication of a study, carried out by Dr. Catherine Ragimbeau of the Microbiology Department within the framework of the Campylomics project, consisting of characterising the recurrent lineages of Campylobacter jejuni in Luxembourg.

France Debaugnies has published part of her work in Journal of Clinical Immunology; Debaugnies F, Mahadeb B, Nagant C, Meuleman N, De Bels D, Wolff F, Gottignies P, Salaroli A, Borde P, Voué M, Corazza F. “Biomarkers for Early Diagnosis of Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis in Critically Ill Patients”. J Clin Immunol. 2021;41:658-665.

Second round table on the impact of COVID-19 on access to emotional and sexual health services and care in the sectors of disability, violence and childhood and youth with Martine Schaul, forensic medical specialist from our Medico-legal Service.

The LNS Microbiology Department, represented by Tamir Abdelrahman and Anke Wieneke-Baldacchino, is involved in a publication in Eurosurveillance journal characterizing the Sars-CoV-2 Variants circulating in Europe during the winter 2020-2021.

Monique Perrin and her team of the LNS Bacteriology-Mycology Service have published the results of their work on development and validation of a new diagnostic molecular method for dermatophytes, with Alexandre Mzabi, as corresponding author.

Joint publication of our Microbiology Department with CHL of a case series dedicated to four re-infections with a SARS-CoV-2 B.1.351 variant in Luxembourg.

LuxMicroBiobank has exceeded the 15,000 mark for positive SARS-CoV-2 samples.

The 28th annual meeting of the French-speaking group of the ISFG took place, organised by the motivated team, Anne Debast and Moïse Menevret, of the Forensic Genetics service of our Department of Forensic Medicine. A meeting that normally takes place in person, though this new edition had to take place virtually. This did not scare our valiant in-house organisers! For the organisation of the 2021 edition, the organising committee searched support of Yannick Kirschhoffer from our IT service and Frédérique Theisen from Communication service.

Oral presentation by Emilie Simon at the annual meeting of the ISFG-gf with the title: “Case report – When “WHO?” becomes “HOW?” – Interpretation at the activity level.”

Oral presentation by Moïse Menevret at the annual meeting of the ISFG-gf with the title: “The three lives of Aladin – impact of chimeras on interpretation of results.”

Monique Perrin and Alexandre Mzabi from our Department of Microbiology participated in an international study, which suggests COVID-19 lockdowns reduced the spread of deadly invasive bacterial diseases – potentially saving thousands of lives. The study was led by Angela Brueggemann, Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the University of Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Population Health.

Trung Nguyen and Guillaume Fournier from the LNS Microbiology Department participated in a large-scale epidemiologic and evolutionary study describing the molecular evolution of Emerging Echovirus 30 strains collected in 22 countries in Europe.

Andreas Schuff and his team members, Martine Schaul and Thorsten Schwark, have published an article in Rechtsmedizin on an extraordinary case encountered by the LNS Legal Medicine Department.

The LNS Microbiology Department launched COVVAC Sero, a national program exploring COVID19 serology induced by natural infection or vaccination in nursing home patients.

Serge Schneider, Claude Marson and Adèle Bournaud were invited to University of Strasbourg to teach the Drug analysis, Chemical threat analysis and Medicines control.

Members of the NCG participated in the international e-congress of the European Society of Human Genetics and Dominique Bourgeois and Christian Müller gave an oral presentation, presenting our single-center experience of the national prenatal screening program, entitled “A single center’s experience with genome-wide non-invasive prenatal screening: Results of a large unselected consecutive series of cases in Luxembourg”.

10 years of LNS Forensic genetics service.

Oral presentation by Stefania Oliverio at the meeting “Europäisches Expertentreffen Drogenerkennung/ Suchtprävention in Saarbrücken” with the title: “Arzneimittelmissbrauch auf großherzoglichen Straßen”.

Oral presentation by Michel Yegles at the annual meeting of the Society of hair Testing in Santiago de Compostella with the title: “Impact after thermal straightening on opiate and methadone concentrations in hair.”

Guest lecture by Stefania Oliverio at the Doctoral Programme in Biomedical Sciences – Legal Medicine of the University of Geneva (Switzerland) with the title: “Alcohol, drugs & medicines: the toxicologist’s trifecta”.

Oral presentation by Stefania Oliverio at the Belgian and Luxembourg Toxicology group (BLT) meeting in Echternach with the title: ““The Silent Killer” – Total Blood Carbon Monoxide (TBCO) as alternative biomarker for CO poisoning diagnosis: application in clinical and forensic settings.“

Researchers from the University of Antwerp and the Luxembourgish Police meet at the Analytical toxicology – pharmaceutical chemistry service to test a new devise to detect illicit drugs. About 50 different drugs previously analyzed at the LNS are checked with the new device.

Publication of a study led by Dr Catherine Ragimbeau from the LNS Microbiology Department, characterising the molecular diversity of Campylobacter jejuni by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry as an alternative to sequencing.

5th CANBIO retreat was organized with the support of Fonds National de la Recherche (FNR). More than 50 participants from Luxembourg Institute of Health, University of Luxembourg and Laboratoire national de santé joined to discuss current insights and novel cancer research results from Luxembourg-based research teams. Lejla-Nur Smajovic, along with her supervisor Prof Dr.Barbara Klink, actively participated with the poster presentation about NCG’s latest research project “Tumor mutational burden for personalized therapeutic decision making in cancer patients”.

The LNS Microbiology Department is involved in a joint publication with LIST, UL and LCSB, demonstrating the value of monitoring SARS-CoV-2 variants by sequencing in wastewater.

Oral presentation by Cyrielle Nicolaizeau and Samuel Stouvenaker at the annual meeting of the European Forensic DNA working group with the title: “Hands-free from stain to DNA”.

ISNS digital conference 2021 hosted from Luxembourg. France Debaugnies, Dominique Bourgeois and Patricia Borde were members of the local organizing committee.

Contribution of the LNS Microbiology Department to the publication of the clinical performance evaluation of SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid and antibody tests available on the market.

Signature of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) followed by a visit of the infrastructures and equipment of the Laboratory of Veterinary Medicine (LMVE) and of our Food Monitoring Service of the Department of Health Protection both located on the same site in Dudelange.

CHEM, in collaboration with the LNS Department of Health Protection and the University of Luxembourg, invited all Luxembourg players active in the field of Environmental Medicine, as well as many international experts to the first international workshop in Luxembourg dedicated to this topic.

Signature of the SMTA between the LNS and the WHO formalising the role of LNS in the pilot phase of the “WHO-Biohub”, the platform for the exchange of SARS-COV-2 data and samples between reference laboratories and WHO.

Impfo’Day organized by the Ministry of Health with the participation of Daniel Alvarez and Jean-Paul Mundama, both epidemiologist at the Microbiology Department of the LNS, to raise the awareness on the importance of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccination.